Thread: What Binoculars are you using?

@Beetroot here's my take on Binos: I was very lucky to be blessed with great eyesight and natural spotting ability. Very ordinary binos did fine for me, I could out-spot anyone. Over time like I found, your eyesight too will deteriorate and you will be forced to buy better binos to compensate, so you might as well buy them now and shoot more game each year than you would with the poorer ones - meaning that they more than pay you back for the extra outlay.
Regarding magnification I have used 16 power Nikons (which I bought for reading eartags) for hunting with great success, a mates 15 power rangefinder leicas (impressive), 8 x 50 or60 east german jobs for hunting at night and now 10 power Swaro EL's. I wouldn't go below 10 power and in fact 12 would be fine. I don't need a big field of view because I am looking in the right place where I expect to see game, that is a big part of spotting game - looking at the country before you start glassing and saying to yourself 'where are the places that will hold game' and looking there.
What the Swaro EL and top leicas give you is colour definition and image sharpness, like R93 said the ability to see and identify a small piece of an animal like and ear or hoof.
They are expensive, so if at this point you can't justify that investment buy a pair of the top grade Deltas off Sarvo - I think around $400. They are not as good as the Leicas and the Swaros but they are better than all the in between binos that cost a lot more.

I've gone through about 6 pairs of highend euro binos over the past 3 years @Ryan_Songhurst lol, but I've now settled for a pair of 50 year old Zeiss 6x30 porros. At the top end, I don't think glass quality has changed much throughout the years. Coatings and waterproofing have improved substantially, but build quality has been dropping like a stone. Even in the $3k plus range - they feel cheap compared to the older stuff which were made like swiss watches.

Every model has its niggles, no matter how much you spend. And my current old farts, while offering more field of view, and a more 3 dimensional image, aren't as impervious to weather.

I've had a Zeiss Victory FL which had the plastic logo fall off. Leica Geovid HD B with a squeaky hinge. Had a Swaro EL 8.5x42 with quite a lot of ghosting (image goes hazy) in bright light conditions (whereas Leica and Zeiss have better stray light control).

Nothing's perfect.

If I was going to do it again, I'd buy a pair of brand new Swarovski Habicht 10x42's. They're freakin amazing image quality wise and the build quality is fantastic. Better than any roof prism bino I've looked through. $1500 rrp. However, they lag behind in ergonomics and won't suit people who wear glasses (not enough eye relief).

Originally Posted by xtightg

Leica 10 x 25

they are the best you will get for the bush and will still outshine some 8 or 10x42 binos

Leica Geovid HD-R 10x42 2200 version.

My best hunting purchase to date, simply outstanding piece of kit.

I really like my 10x42s EL's BUT for what they cost the lens covers are quite simply a shit design. Lost 3 sets already and given up replacing them.
If I were buying again I might consider 8x instead as 10x are quite heavy round your neck and the lens covers fall off. I don't use a bino bivy as I am carrying enough stuff.

However after suffering a cheap pair of binos for 20+ years now the animals seem to look like they are "highlighted"thru the El's.

8 x 42 Swaro SLC's - love them and a great all rounder

Originally Posted by mikee

I really like my 10x42s EL's BUT for what they cost the lens covers are quite simply a shit design. Lost 3 sets already and given up replacing them.
If I were buying again I might consider 8x instead as 10x are quite heavy round your neck and the lens covers fall off. I don't use a bino bivy as I am carrying enough stuff.

However after suffering a cheap pair of binos for 20+ years now the animals seem to look like they are "highlighted"thru the El's.

I’ve had the same problem with my Leica’s lost the end caps easily and are quite bulky, especially when I spend +80% of my time bush hunting deer. Tahr, Chamois and quad bike or big open country its a different story that’s when the Geovid’s or Swarovski equivalent rule.
If I had some spare coin a nice small CL 8x25 Swaro’s would be nice for doing the bush hobbit thing.

Originally Posted by 57jl

they are the best you will get for the bush and will still outshine some 8 or 10x42 binos

I think for bush work, 8 power is more than enough, 6x25 would be fantastic if you could find it.

I've gone for a pair of Yukon 8x56 binoculars. Somewhat cheaper than most pairs mentioned by others, but hunting is one of a number of cash draining hobbies.

Heavy glasses, but great in the low light on early morning hunts. I need to get a bino bivvy bag for them but good things take time.

I haven't compared them to the top of the line glasses, but they do compare favorably to the $6-800 10x40 ish ranges. Just much heavier

Swarovski 7x42 slc since 1987. Been serviced twice by agents and replaced one rubber eyepiece all free of charge.

Swarovski 7x42 SLC since 1987.
Been serviced twice and replaced one rubber eyepiece all free of charge by agents.

Buy quality and you won’t regret it, your eyes will thank you

Originally Posted by Beetroot

I'm hoping for a pair that can do both.
Realistically my shooting will be a mix of bush and open country and would be shooting 0-400m. I may shoot goats or other varmint a bit longer say out too 600, but that's getting a long way out.

I'd love a good pair of rangefinder binos but don't have $1500-$2500 to spend on them at this stage.

My advice:
1. If you are not in a hurry, wait until the next Sika show. Go to the show and try every pair of bino's you can. You will be surprised at which ones you like best (I was, and it wasn't the $2k euro's)
2. Glass for glass, buy what best fits you and your face. The bino's I like and have purchased, my brother hates because they don't fit his face. The best glass in the world is of little use if its not comfortable when you are using them for hours at a time. Plus, poor fitting bino's will prevent you maximising the 'sweet spot' in the eye box, and this will result in loss of image clarity etc.
3. I find in interesting that no one here has recommended Leupold. When I did the rounds at Sika a couple of years ago, in the sub $1k glass and sub $500 glass, the best bino's for me were the Leupold's. Second best was the Nikon.


Personally I have Lecia 10x25's as my mini sized carry everywhere glass, they were $1k at the time of purchase and I haven't seen anything that will beat them in this compact size.
For my bigger glass (read more comfortable for longer viewing when sitting on a mound shooting rabbits but I wouldn't wand to carry them too far) I have a pair of Leupold 10x50HD BX-3's which cost me $656.76 landed https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....eck-out-34312/ Stunning bit of kit for the price.

Swarovski EL 10x42

They do the job.

Slightly off topic but a rep for a Euro glass company once told me they always tried to get customers to buy their binos before they a bought a scope from them. That way they could spot animals but when they looked through their scope for a shot, they would realise they also needed a better scope.
Back to bino choice. If you carry a spotting scope then lower magnification/wider FOV is probably a better choice as you can use the spotter for the finer detail. Also the distance you expect to be looking for game (whether it is 300m across to a scrubby farm face or 1200m out on the tops) can make a difference to what works best for you.

Swaro EL Range 8x42. For what hunting I do I prefer FOV over magnification.

This happened



Cost me postage postage to Swaro NZ.
Three weeks later they were back on my doorstep. Full refurbishment and test. New eyecups. Test sheet included.

No charge...zero.

And I bought them off eBay (as with a Z5 and Z6) before they were readily available here, and never had a problem with after sales service.

B