Thread: Binocular recommendations

Everyone's got their opinions on binos and it's hard to keep up

My views are based on buying over a dozen pairs to compare side by side, looking into shadows and along ridgelines, along with absolute last light.
Brands include Zeiss, Nikon, Vortex, Bushnell, Leupold etc. in the range $500 - $2,000. I haven't tried Swarovski as I'm not interested in that kind of money.
The best pair I have are Zeiss. They're very nice in the hand and to the eye but heavy - 800 grams in 42mm objectives
But once you're paying over $300 the differences drop away quite quickly.
A $1,200 pair of Zeiss might show up a $400 pair of Leupolds at last light but in the middle of the day they're going to look near identical for practical hunting purposes
And $800 is an awful lot of diesel

Based on this testing my own personal sweet spot is the 30mm objective.
There's little difference in practical use but half the weight of the 42mm class.
Once you get down to the 20-25mm objective, the resolution (ability to distinguish fine details) is reducing noticeably.

Comparing the same models in 42mm vs 30mm there's 30 seconds difference in useful light at dusk, at least to my eyes.
Perhaps young bucks with more flexible 7mm pupils would notice more but I suspect less than a minute.
And then it's too dark for my scope anyway.

My two suggestions are the Vortex Diamondback 8x32, good value at about $400
Or for more money, the very good Nikon Monarch 7 8x30 at about $700
Both of these weigh 440 grams, slightly over half the weight of my Zeiss

These Nikons have a really wide field of view (145m at 1,000) which means it's less like looking through a toilet roll tube
Compared with the Monarch 5 8x42s at 110m and it's super obvious how 'relaxed' these 7's are. I really rate them.

My 2c
Cheers