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Farmboy,,

No not a salesman, the OP mentioned the Docters, I had a pair a few years ago and wish I still had them. I just bought another set of 8x43 binos or I would buy another set of the Docters, I personally wouldnt worry about the warranty as I dought you would ever need it. They probably would have to go back to Germany for repair if ever needed.

Tough to find any Japanese made binos in this price range let alone German made. I'd take these over any of the Chinese made binos no matter the cost or warranty question

You'll never go wrong with anything from Kahles. Their service is handled by swarovski in cranston RI. I wouldn't hesitate to buy them.

castor,

Welcome.

A couple hours ago I went to Medford Sportsman Warehouse. The sky was totally overcast and duskie; close to dark. I asked the optics guy if I could take some binos out side the store to compare with a couple of my stuff. I indicated the Swarovski 8.5X42. He picked them up and walked out of the store.

I placed my new optics chart clear across the parking lot and lazered it: 82 yards. The first line uses number 80 print. The seocnd is 70 print, the third line is 60 print, the forth line is 50 print, fifth line 40 print and sixth line is 35 print.

I laid out three sand bags and asked him to put the Swaro on one. I laid the Bushnell Ultra HD Legend 8X42 on the other and the Swarovski z5 5-25X52 on the last one. After adjusting the Swaro I could read the forth line with ease and sorta make out some letters in the next line, but culd not read any words. With the Bushnell I could easily read the forth line and could not make out any of the letters of the fifth line. If I called the Swaro a 100 the Bushnell would be a 96.

Then I went to the scope. I slowly turned it up till I could read the forth line and looked at the setting: 8X; same as the bins. No suprise because it is great glass. I thne turned it up till I could see the last line clearly: 10X. I asked the store man to go through the same routine. When he finished looking through the binos he said,

"Are those Bushnells the Ledgends?" Then he picked them up and looked at them and said,
"I see. You pay ten times as much for the Swarovskis and get a little bit better binoculars. At best they are only ten to fifteen percent better."

Then he looked through the scope on 8X.
"Wow!," he exclaimed. That's nice."
"It goes up to 25X. Turn it up and take a look," I suggested.

He acted like he didn't beleive me so I turned it up and made sure it was adjusted for clearity.

He tried to look through it and mumbled something. I don't think he was looking through it correctly. Teh eyebox on 25X is pretty small. I got down and looked through it. I could see the wrinkles in the celephane tape. There's no way I can see as much detail with a bino of any quality on 8X as I can with a good scope on a higher setting.

I digress. What I wanted you to know is you are not going to get your money's worth if you spend more than $250.

ilike is talking about the new MONARCH 5 Binocular's. While I do not own a pair,yet, I have throughly looked them over and I am very impressed. Very good quality and a great value. If you have a chance to look through a pair I think you will be very pleased.

I can't tell you how the Doctor 8X42's will do compared to the ones you've already tried. But I can tell you that there are lots of things to consider when looking for binocular.
I own eight binoculars for hunting. Everything from the cheap $100 or less Leupold Yosemite to an expensive 12X50 Leica. All of them have their uses. What surprised me was how different they perform in the field. I have, for instance, two 6x's and one 6.5X. You'd think they'd be so similar, I might as well pick one and sell the rest. Not so. Same thing with the three 8X binoculars I have. None are for sale.
If you are really interested in a particular binocular, I suggest you find a dealer that will sell you one with a guarantee of a full refund if you aren't satisfied. I know Doug at Cameraland and Cabela's will do this because I've done just that.
You are the one that must weigh the pros and cons. Not me.
Unlike rifle scopes, we can do this sort of thing with binoculars and I suggest you do. E

here's a heads up. I ordered a scope from Doug. It was not up to the standard I wanted and was able to return it for a full refund.

Even better than that is Bushnell's Elite guarnentee. They give you a full year to return it. All you need is the receipt.

I have a pair of ZRS HD. It's clearly a better glass than Nikon Monarch. Just placed an order for ZEN ED3 last week after doing some research on several optics sights

The Bushnell Elites have never sold well from what I've seen. Didn't Bushnell just stop making them ? I suspect they made that offer to get people to try them. Doesn't look like it worked. That's too bad. They were very good, reliable scopes.
The only way to test a scope properly is to mount it on a rifle and try it for a while in the field. You can do that with a binocular and still return it w/o things like ring marks. You can rarely do that with a scope. E

Here is a copy and paiste from www.bushnell.com. The Elite is the first scope on the list.

Elite�
Elite� Tactical
Legend� Ultra-HD
Tactical Red Dot
Trophy XLT
Banner
Yardage Pro
DOA�
Accessories
Tech Talk
Instruction Manuals

I think Eremicus was referring to the Elite bino's (open bridge one's made in Japan) and he is, for the most part, correct that they didn't sell all that well. To bad, as they were extremely well made and had very, very good optics.

Whooops. I choked. Sorry "E".

try to find some minox hg sometimes you can find em used for that price

If anyone is interested I have a pair of 8.5x43 HG (Japan) NIB. Bought from Doug at Cameraland to compare with some of my Swaros I have. PM if interested...

If the Swaros rate a 100 out of a score of 100 what would the HG rate?

The Vortex Viper HDs seem like a good choice given his constraints and desires.