I’m new to outdoor activities like hiking and nature walks. Could you share your expertise on selecting the right optics for these adventures and explain why they are essential?
By optics, do you mean glasses (sun, polarized, etc), binoculars/monoculars/telescopes, or camera lenses ?
I prefer the ones which dispense the drinkies myself.
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Hello @Lindeman75 and welcome to the forum…
It would be nice if you could give us a brief introduction…
plus some info on where you’re planning these adventures… 
Equipment of any sort will depend on whether one plans to do a Tarzan through the undergrowth or scampering up rocky slopes… and everything in between
cheers
I’ve found small binoculars best for when you want a better look at something interesting when out hiking or driving around.
If you want to go super compact, a monocular might work for you, but I find binoculars much easier to hold steady.
8 x 28 is my sweet spot for binoculars. Higher magnification brings narrow field of view and the shakes. Smaller objective lenses allow smaller binoculars, but you want to capture the most light possible. Bigger lenses = more weight + more bulk.
Get a waterproof, nitrogen filled pair of waterproof binoculars with the grippy and drop cushioning rubberised coating. Get a belt pouch (can always be clipped to a pack) and ditch the cheap OEM strap for a softer neoprene quick detach one. More comfortable and very handy when you get them hooked up on a branch/child/pet.
Get a pair for your hiking partner or have them buy their own as you don’t want to spend five minutes re-adjusting your pair back to how they were set perfectly every damn time someone else wants to look through them.
For sunglasses, for me it’s polarised lenses forever.Everything else is just ‘shades’. I started using them decades ago for fishing. I now have two pairs to my scrip.
On a Nat Express coach London-Bristol, westward on the M4, the sun was very low and reflecting off the wet road. The road surface was a mirror with th sun blasting off it. The driver was squinting, blinded - very dangerous. I lent him my non-scrip polys… He could see!
By the time we got to Brsl his face was red from the sun but at least we had not piled into the back of anything.
As for cameras, unless you are a hobby photographer a good quality compact will do you nicely. The results from these small cameras is amazing now.
If you are an intrepid outdoor type, as per the recommendation for bins, get a weatherproof camera.
A friend went yomping across the rain-lashed Irish bogs, his camera in his Barbour side pocket. This filled with water … death of camera.
If your subjects tend to be distant - ie wild life - go for a zoom with good long reach. If you tend to do landscapes/street scenes/architecture go for a zoom that goes minimum 28mm [35mm equivalent] wide - 24mm is better still.
There is a bewlidering choice of these cameras. The only way to avoid camera kit overload is to write down what your priorities are. Then stick to Canon. There will be a Canon compact that is just the job. Their compacts are superb and, I have found, more user-friendly than other makes.
Top of your list is budget. Then work thru’ the options - more telephoto reach or more wide angle? 4k video? Image stabilisation? [recommended]
Whatever you buy, get at least one spare battery - O.E.M. if you can stomach the absurd cost that camera makers charge for ‘genuine’ batts.
Of 3rd party batts, I have found, after buying many small black boxes with nothing inside which hold volts, including one badged as Duracell, Patona are OK.
If you are, as I assume, talking about cameras, then the best lens is always the one you have with you.
Modern smartphones are technically fantastic and capable of excellent results. If you’re more old-school and prefer an SLR, then my suggestion would be to choose a lens that matches your interests. If you like spotting wildlife at a distance, a 400mm or 500mm lens would be great - albeit expensive and heavy.
If you’re more interested in taking in the whole view, there’s a lot to be said for a super-wide lens. For landscapes, I favour either my Pixel phone or my Canon camera with a Tokina 11mm-16mm f2.8 zoom. It’s light, compact and can be found used for less than 50€. When it’s stopped down to f5.6-f11 its sharpness is a match for most other lenses. The other advantage of wide angle lenses is that you’re much less likely to need a proper tripod…
My other suggestion would be a drone. Have you seen what the DJI Mini Pro 4 is capable of?
Is that not around €8-900.
To what are you referring?
Sorry I missed that out, the DJI Mini Pro 4.
Yes - three the of thumb is that s decent drone is always about 1000€…
What’s your take on the info you’ve been offered… ??? and where are you thinking of having your adventures??
They sound like typical hyped chinese manufactured rubbish that would be bought by someone who knows nothing about the subject.
But they sound perfect for someone looking to do a bit of free advertising 
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Is this a bot?
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Could be…
Ukranian IP address.
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Ah, excellent, so all of our email addresses got harvested, or else they are probing for weakness in the forum’s backend (pun intended).
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SF won’t even display email addresses to me so I think you are OK on that side and the linked-to web site just seems to be a dodgy online optical store - if you haven’t ordered anything you should be safe.
Odds of actually receiving product - slim, I’d say but one never knows.
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