Binoculars, High End Performance

[Dogshooter]

I have been hunting many many years and have accumulated several different brands of binoculars including Leupold, Burris, Pentax, and Nikon and while they are all OK, none have been what I would call great. I am about to spend a substantial amount of funds on a pair of Swarovski EL 42 binoculars and thought I would ask what experiences, good or bad, you guys have had with high end binoculars such as Leica, Zeiss, Swarovski, and the like. It would be great if any of you have had more than one of these and have an opinion of the pros and cons of one brand versus another. I did get to look thru a pair of Swarovskis last week while hunting elk and could not beleive the difference in them compared to the Leupold binoculars I had with me. Anyway, any advice or recommmendations you all could give me would be greatly appreciated.

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive never owned a pair of really expensive binoculars but have looked through about all of them and if it were my money to be spent I would probably choose swarovskis.

[drdougrx]

Hi Dog,

I have or have had Leica New Gen 10x42,  Swaro 8x32  and Ziess Dynafuns 10x32.  I have since sold the Leica's because they were sooo heavy...great glass, but I just could not spend the day carrying them.  The Swaro and Ziess are VERY lite and I use them each about the same amount of time.  Swaro glass is the absolute nuts and the ELs are terrific...but still kinda heavy....and you'll spend your whole trip worrying about them I suspect!

I'd still buy them though...in my mind...clearly the best.

HOWEVER....I'd have a look at the Zen-Ray 10x42s...I had the opportunity to extensively test them for 10 days against all of my binos including the Liecas and a pair of nikon Monarchs 12x42s.  I have to say I saw NO discernable difference between the Zen-Rays and all of these, except they were better than the Nikons.  I let quite a few other guys try them all as well one morning at the gun club and hands down, they liked the Zen-Rays best.  I did a review that I'll try to find a link here.

Good glass is good glass...no doubt about it!

[drdougrx]

Found it: http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,168473.0.html

[charles p]

I have a compact pair of 10X25 Swaro and a 10X42 set of Minox.  My partner has a large pair of Lica that require a pack mule.

Minox is not high end but is a good quality product.

I think your binocs should always be equal to or superior to your scope. You need to find your game first.

[Reverend Recoil]

The Steiner binoculars I have viewed appear to be of high quality and of mid range price.