My girlfriend has decided that she likes to use binoculars for birding. She's been using a very cheaply made set of 8x32's that I have had for years. The Image quality through them is pretty bad, and I would like to get something better for her to use. Would something like 16x50's be too much magnification for hand held viewing, or should I go with more or less magnification?

16x50s are not birding bins. The higher the magnification (first number), the worse the minimum focusing distance and the more shake there will be in the image. Most quality birding bins are either 8×40 or 10×40.

Thank you. This is good to know, and gives me a place to start looking.

Even 10X power binoculars can be difficult for some people to hand-hold steadily, unless you get an image-stabilized model. Lower power binoculars also give you a wider field-of-view (which makes finding the bird easier), more light, and a greater depth of field (which means you don't have to turn the focussing wheel as much to get the bird into focus).

This is a pretty nice site to start looking. Its main value lies in specs comparison paired with (fairly basic) real-world reviews by a single person. You can get very nicely made binoculars for fairly little money these days; you might even consider, dare I say it, a Pentax model. The DCF NV 8x36 seems to be a very nice and light all-round birding set, and the compact Papilio models have a very good rep among people who like to observe insects and other skittish small stuff rather than just birds, due to their very close minimal focusing range.

Thanks again for the information. I now have a set of 10x42's on the way. I am glad that I asked here, and thank you all for your responses. If not, I probably would have went with something that had 16x magnification and regretted it.

I missed this thread but just to add a few points here, I have 2 sets of binoculars, which I use for birding.

I have a compact set of 6x22 Pentax binoculars that are nice and small and light and can be used for moderate distances or bigger birds. But many times you need more, a lot more, because many times what you are looking at is just not approachable, winter ducks for one, can be relatively far offshore (I live close enough to Lake Ontario, which does not freeze), and Hawks, either on posts, or flying overhead can be quite far. Similarly snowy owls have a habit of roosting in the most inaccessible places, and are generally NOT approachable. not to mention little birds, where 6x is not enough.

For the long reach I have a rather old now, Minolta 7-21x35 zooms, which are quite good,

I like the reach and zoom, and while minimum focus is not as good, you generally don't need it at 22 X.