Hunting Binoculars

[zerohour714]

Here ya go ;-)

http://www.eurooptic.com/swarovski-el-10x42-binoculars-used-not-swarovision-in-great-condition-some-signs-of-use-ua1025.aspx

Buy once, cry once. I made the leap 2 years ago and haven't looked back since.

[bigbossman]

Here ya go ;-)

http://www.eurooptic.com/swarovski-el-10x42-binoculars-used-not-swarovision-in-great-condition-some-signs-of-use-ua1025.aspx

Buy once, cry once. I made the leap 2 years ago and haven't looked back since.

^^^ DO NOT LISTEN to this man! He is the devil - or at the very least one of his agents. He is directly responsible for me spending a butt-load of money on binoculars I didn't know I needed.

I was quite happy with what I had, until he came a long and nonchalantly showed me his Swarovski's. He put a worm in my brain, he did.

DO NOT LISTEN to him!!!

[Sleighter]

Do yourself a favor and look up the reviews on the Sightron Sii blue sky binoculars.

You'll quickly see reading through the reviews (especially if you look at the glass forums or bird watching forums that for the money they are an amazing quality. Oddly enough I found that bird watching forums provide some of the best advice for optics. Those guys are serious about their glass!

[sonofeugene]

As someone who's looked at at fair amount of glass, it's very hard to beat Pentax for the money. Even twice the money. I have an old pair of 8x40's that I really like and have been super reliable. And people who look thru them always comment on the quality.

[19hugeracks57]

wife bought me a pair of VORTEX VIPERS.....had redfeild for the last 20 years am so happy i changed ....try the DIAMONDBACKS....you will not be disapointed

[fixitquick79]

Another vote for Alpen Optics. I went to Sportsman's warehouse and looked through every set of sub $200 10x42s they had including Vortex and Nikons. The Alpen Shasta Ridge were noticeably the best and clearest they had. If they don't have them on sale etc check amazon. They have them for well under $200.

Oh and if you wear glasses as I do, they have excellent eye relief. I always had to take my glasses off with previous binos. Not the case with the Alpens.

[ptgarcia]

I bough a pair of Vanguard Endeavor ED 8x42 last year and they are very good at their price point. You can usually find them for about $225. Lifetime warranty, also.

[tankarian]

I picked up some Canon 10x30 IS Ultra-Compact Binoculars that are IMAGE STABALIZED. I paid just under $400 and I will never go back to regular binoculars. The difference is amazing. You can see so much more detail without the objects you are looking at bouncing around. I know its pricey, but if you're going to throw more money at binocs, consider it.

+1, they are amazing. Probably the most underrated binoculars on the market.
The glass quality isn't on par with Swaro or Leica, but the image stabilization makes the picture so much clearer, just like you are looking at a high definition TV in 4K. Also looking through these binocs for long periods of time is a lot less less tiring on the eyes because there is no image shaking that makes the object contours unclear and fuzzy.
The AA batteries last a really long time.
The only negative is they are not waterproofed but with the pitiful amount of rain we have here in CA that's not an issue.

If you want to get a quick idea why image stabilization (IS) is the next revolution in binoculars, that's easy: take any binoculars that you can get and look through them at some object (a printed page of paper with several font sizes is ideal). Then look again at the same object from the same distance, but this time with the binoculars moudnted on a steady support (don't touch em!). You will notice that the actual resolution increases by a factor of at least 2 or 3 when mounted. That is, you can discern details that are at least two or three times smaller, because mounting eliminates the smear caused by the shaking of your hands. IS is like having this support available any time and anywhere you need it by a push of a button! In most conditions, the practical resolutions I can get with my Canon IS cannot be matched by any hand-held, unstabilized binoculars in the market, including those fancy Nikons, Swarovskis, Leicas and Zeiss that cost three or four times as much. No matter how good (and how expensive) is the optics of these top-of-the-line binoculars, their limiting factor in the field is the shaking of your hands. You may have heard that IS is important because it eliminates eyestrain and headaches, or because you can use the binoculars from a boat or a moving car. While these are good reasons to buy the Canon, the best reason is that they let you see much more detail in any given distance. And this is the reason why you buy binoculars in the first place.