Thread: Compact binos for bush hunting

If you are on a budget I can recommend Leupold Yosemite 6X30. They are part of the BX-1 series these days. Really compact, super lightweight and perfect magnification for in the bush. Like you I used them for confirming deer when using open sights. I usually carry them bush hunting but don't tend to use them much with the scoped rifles. Handy if you have to look over a clear, river flats or if you unexpectedly hit the tops (sometimes the day just moves you...).

Great for the kids, as light weight, 6 power doesn't shake as much as say 10, and when they inevitably drop them it doesn't make you wince as much as the Leica's etc will.

Still if you can afford compact European glass, then that will always be better.

Originally Posted by Dama dama

If you are on a budget I can recommend Leupold Yosemite 6X30. They are part of the BX-1 series these days. Really compact, super lightweight and perfect magnification for in the bush. Like you I used them for confirming deer when using open sights. I usually carry them bush hunting but don't tend to use them much with the scoped rifles. Handy if you have to look over a clear, river flats or if you unexpectedly hit the tops (sometimes the day just moves you...).

Great for the kids, as light weight, 6 power doesn't shake as much as say 10, and when they inevitably drop them it doesn't make you wince as much as the Leica's etc will.

Still if you can afford compact European glass, then that will always be better.

Not much better than a porro prism binocular like the Leupold Yosemite 6x30. Porro prisms used in traditional angled binos (including the Leupold Yosemite 6x30) are born optically superior to the roof prisms used in modern straight tube designs.

Roof prisms require expensive coatings to more fully internally reflect light and so you need to go expensive to get extra bright view. Silver coatings are brighter than aluminium coatings but then require protection from corrosion and on it goes and price goes up. Porros on the other hand require no aluminium or silver coating to assist internal reflection and will transmit light as bright as the best silver-coated roof prism. Porros also allow wider separation of the objective lenses, giving you a more "3D" view of things closer up. Porro's one disadvantage is heavier weight, which in a 6x30 is cancelled out by lighter lenses elsewhere in the binoculars. Much of the weight in 10x binoculars come from needing thicker lenses to bend light more, not from their prism systems, for example those Yosemites weight about 480grams, not unusual to find 10x42 straight binos weighing 750grams. But once you go big magnification you really need to go straight tube roof prism higher price level, unless you don't mind weight.

Surprising low price label, I would get a pair but already have some Zeiss glassed 6x30s.

Leupolds it is then! Thanks for the info team.