Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Compact bino's

Hey Guys,

What is your opinion on compact bino's and what size and brand would you pick. I am getting tired of carrying my heavy ones on scouting and archery hunts, where I don't need the magnification.

thanks

I have a pair of Pentex 8-16x and a pair of 8x Leupold Windrivers and I would recommend against buying either. I'd like a good, reasonably priced set of compact binos, but I haven't stumbled across them, yet.

Jeff

I like the Eagle Optics Ranger Platinum 6X32. Look here: http://www.eagleoptics.com/ and there is a review here: http://www.betterviewdesired.com/

I have a pair or Weaver Grand Slam compacts that have amazing clarity. I believe they are 8.5X25's and armored with twist up caps. I paid less than a hundred bucks for them on Ebay. I would recommend them at twice that price. I also have a pair of IOR's that are nice but the field of view and clarity are better with the Weavers. The IOR's stay focused better though while not in use since the focus adjuster is tighter on them. I also have Bushnell Legends and Tasco EXP's. Neither come close IMHO to the Weavers or IOR's but they're great for keeping my kids fingerprints off my good glass. When in doubt you can't go wrong with Leica, Swarovski, or Zeiss if you're single or a bit better off than some of us! Good luck in finding what works for you.

I have the Zeiss 6x18 and while they're good glass, they is what they is. Meaning a small exit pupil and low magnification. They're good for close-up viewing with ample light. But they're also a tidy package which makes them handy to carry. For circumstances like you described they'd work great.

Dale

Take a look through a pair of Leica 10x25BCA. You can do that at any of the Cabela's stores (they sell them).

I have been using one of them for over 8 years. I carry it in my top shirt pocket, with the cord wrapped around the collar's button hole. As with other pocket binoculars, they are not designed for extended glassing, but they are excellent for looking at game and other things while hunting. After using pocket binoculars such as mine, I have no reasons to go back to heavy and bulky binoculars.

Swarovski makes a couple of pocket binoculars, but I imagine that Leupold, Nikon, Pentax, and Burris, etc. should have some good quality ones. A good set would cost around $500.00.

I was going to start a thread about this a few days ago. My interest is; if you had a choice would you go with a Zeiss 8 X 20, or a Leica 8 X 20. The majority of my hunting is farm/woods/timbered area, where distance is 150 yds. When I hunt the farm fields, I have a 8 x 32, & 9 X 40.

I have enough pts. from Cabela's to get either the Zeiss or Leica, but I don't know which one.

Ray, You sound happy with the 10 X 25, but since I hunt in farm / timbered area, I don't think I need the 10 power, but then again I never hunted with a 10 X 25.

I was looking at the Zeiss 8x20 for $379.99. Before I spend the money, I would like to know if they are worth it. Chestspring, I hunt in areas like you with timber and shots rarely over 150 yds. I have Bushnell legends 10x42 and they work, but are heavy as heck.

joes

joes,

For the last 30 yrs. , I have also used a pr. of Bushnell custom compacts, 7 X 26. I really like these except they are not waterproof. I like to hunt in the rain , or mist.

The 1st pr. was so bad/old from me using them, when I sent them back to Bushnell they didn't have the parts to fix. them. They offered to sell me the a new pr. for $100-shipped. Needless to say , the check was in the mail that day.

I also hunt Pa. ( I was born & raised there) & 150 yds. is a long shot in the area we hunt.

As I previously said, I would like to know if any one has used the Zeiss or Leica 8 X 20 for what hunting we are talking about.

I realize the small field of view, eye relief, but is one more rugged, or clearer - I realize that's subjective to the person, but I would like some one's opinion, that has used either.
Thanks

I have owned the 8X20 Zeiss classics for about 15 years and
have just about given up using them when hunting in the timber. They are only good when you have good light which rules out looking in the early morning or late evening. For such use the smallest that work well for me are an old pair of Leupold poro-prisms in 7X30. I have gotten so used to my Pentax 8X43 DCF SP's that I just carry them most of the time. Go to at least a 30mm objective and you will be a lot happier in my opinion.

I think you folks are overlooking a couple of the newer options such as the Burris signature 8x32 , the similar Leupold Katmais , and I also think Pentax has a comparable model now.

These little glasses are virtually as small and light as the older 8x20 or 8x25 stuff , yet retain the considerable advantage of the 32 mm objective...........

I like to have a good shirt pocket pair of binos and the 8X20-25's are that ticket. 32mm's just can't cut that job (no shirt pockets that big on my shirts) but are nice in their own right. However, if I'm going to carry something bigger than pocket size, it's going to have a 42 or even 50 mm lens. I have Swarovski 7X50's that I usually sling under one arm that ride just fine and are never too heavy, given their magnificent performance. But they usually just come out in the morning or late afternoon. If I need to pack them around for a day, I will prefer to do that to be sure I have them at those two times, but the compacts come along too. For the better part of the day good compacts work as well for me as the bigger stuff, unless it's gonna be a day of pretty constant glassing, but I seldom do that. Either way after having both, I couldn't do without a good set of big binos as well as a good set of compacts. I hope to trade up to a pair of Leica's when the Weaver's go to my son in a few years. I'm not expecting much better performance from the Leica's than I get from the Weaver's, to be honest, but I just think I should have a pair someday.

I also like to keep the power down since it enhances early/late performance and gives a bigger field of view. Good glass doesn't need high magnification as much as mid level stuff since the resolution and clarity are so much finer. An Army Captain once thought my 7 power Swarovski's were 10 or 12 power due to the image quality. Lower power (7 or 8) on good glass doesn't limit me in the bean field but high power (10+) will limit me in the timber, so lower power is my choice.

The Leica 8x20's trumped the Zeiss Compact version of same,in my opinion,so I bought them and love them.

They stomp a lotta "bigger" glass....................

Has anyone looked at the Zeiss Diafun 8or 10X30 or the leupold Katmai 8 or 10X32? What is the difference in 8 and 10 (please don't tell me 2 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />).

thanks

I bought my wife some Steiner Safari 8x22 about a couple of years ago. She has not complained. They are convenient when going on bike rides in the park to view the wildlife (birds etc). They screen the UV pretty good, glare is not bad and you can get close focus. I had to send them in to Steinet last week because the left side hinge broke. We'll see how good their service is. I had to send $10 with the order.

Greek,

I hope yu have better luck than I had with the Stiener repair. I have a pr. of 9 X 40 "Bighorn", that I bought 12 yrs. ago. 10 yrs. ago I took them to Alaska on a cruise, then used them in Pa., & Va. for deer season. They fogged up, Big time.

I sent them back to Stiener, & about 6 weeks later a pr. came back. Only they were not my pr. , as I checked the serial #. I called Stiener, was told there policy was to replace the one's sent in with a "comparable pr.", as the any repair had to be sent overseas for repair. I explained to Stiener's customer service, that the one's they sent me were physically in pretty bad shape-there was a "gouge" in the rubber coating.
That I would not accept them. Finally after much debate with the customer service manager, since they couldn't send me -mine repaired- They sent me a new pr. Took a while. That one incident confinced me not to go the Stiener route, & I have bought 2 pr. of binoculars since, but not Stiener's.

I've been looking at these Eagles too. That little 6x32 looks like a dandy. However I just checked your link to their web page and did a search for low-power compacts. They now have a 7x32 roof prism w/BAK 4 prisms, rubber armor, nitrogen-filled and a lifetime guarantee for only $89. here's the link:

http://www.eagleoptics.com/search.asp?q=Denali&pid=3358

Sounds like a lot of glass for $89. I might have to check these out.

I bought my Zeiss 8x20's for 4 trips to AZ for javelina. The idea was that there was penty of light so exit pupil wasn't a great factor and I wanted small as possible because there's a lot of walking involved. The performed admirably, I alos use them for spectator sports and such where size is an issue. At the time I tried the Leicas and felt that there wasn't much difference optically, perhaps slight edge to the Leicas but the Zeiss' worked better with my glasses.

Having said that, they are not something I would carry for hunting anywhere light might be an issue, like east of the Mississippi. Hunting here in NY I use my Zeiss 6x42's even though they are much bigger than my Nikon 8x30DIF's. They are that much better in low light and I don't need the extra magnification.

Rob