The Age of Binoculars - Winter 2005 Living Bird at Cornell - Best Binoculars
[score] - High = better; range 12.6 - 29.4

Economy:
For the first time, birders on a tight budget have some real choices for decent binoculars.
1. Nikon 7x35 Action $130 9.3° 487'@1,000 yds. [22.7]- Leads the economy group in overall quality. Exceptionally wide field of view
2. Eagle Optics 7x32 Denali - $89 [21.3] - a small, lightweight roof prism that certainly seems worth its very low price.

$200 to $500 range:
Leupold Wind River 6x32 Katmai $370 [27.7]
Nikon Monarch 8x42, $290 6.3° 330'@1,000 yds. [26.0]- clearly the top-rated of any mid-priced, full-power birding binoculars.
Several other 8x42 models present some nice choices in this very affordable price range. The Opticron BGA Imagic, Leupold Wind River Pinnacle, and Celestron Noble all offer an image comparable with the Monarchs, but their overall feel did not impress reviewers quite as much.
Pentax DCF HR II 10x42 Consumer Reports

Compact:
Nikon 8x20 Premier LX $500 [23.3]
Zeiss 8x20 Victory $429 [22.8]
Bushnell 7x26 Custom Compacts, $225 [22.5] - 6.9° 363'@1,000 yds. - Nearly comparable image and a much more user-friendly design, are still perhaps the best compact binoculars available for birding.
Canon 8x25 IS - Consumer Reports
Olympus 8x21 RC - Consumer Reports best buy

In the $500 to $1,000 category, we were hoping to see some exceptional quality at prices that a wide range of birders could still afford. In general, though, the 14 models in this group did not rate any higher than the top-ranked, less expensive models.
Zeiss 8x42 FL T $1,500 [29.4] scored the highest for overall quality of any binocular tested.
Zeiss 10x42 $1,550 [27.4] was the only 10x model in our test to receive this highest image rating.
SwarovskiÕs 8.5x42 EL $1,820 [27.9] - These ELs received the highest scores of any binocular for all three subjective categories.
Swarovski 10x42 WB was top rated by ConsumerReports

Binocular Basics for Birding from some of the sites below:

• Binoculars are labeled by size e.g. 7x35. The fist number is the magnification. The second number is the aperture-the size of a binocular's front, or objective lenses in millimeters.
• As power increases, several things happen: the field of view becomes smaller, making objects harder to find and keep centered; the brightness of an image decreases, because light is diffused over a greater area; external vibrations, body tremors and imperfections in the objective lenses and prisms are accentuated.
• A birder, will want binoculars that perform well in dim light or shade, while a boater may want binoculars with high magnification and a wide field of view.
• Song bird watchers tend to like 7-8 power while hawk watchers with steady hands will use up to 10 power or tripod mounted scopes.
• The greater the aperture, the more light will pass through the binocular, resulting in a brighter image. A large aperture is optimal for viewing wildlife at dawn or dusk when lighting is low.
• The difference with expensive binoculars is the quality of the optics resulting in a much clearer image, but they also tend to have other benefits such as sturdier construction reducing the chance of misalignment of the two sides. In Consumer Reports tests, the more expensive binoculars generally allowed users to see small print from 20 or 30 percent farther away than the lower-scoring ones.
• Your eyes will compensate for barrels that are slightly out of alignment, but you are likely to get a headache after using them for a while.

See:

Wildlife Watching at NWF Optics at Bird Watchers Digest Optics at BirdWatching.com Bird Watching Binoculars Reviews at Excelsis

Eagle Optics: Binoculars101.com     Guide to Binocular Design 1999 List from Living Bird at Cornell The Age of Binoculars Winter 2005 Living Bird Swift Ultra Lites review Spring 2005 living Bird

Dealers: B&H | Adorama | Camera World of Oregon | HotBuysElectronics | binoculars.com | EagleOptics.com