BinocularsBlog – Advice on Digital, Waterproof, & Compact Binoculars for Bird Watching, Sports, Astronomy, Night Vision, & more!

I’d love to sell everyone who already owns a binocular, astronomy binoculars, so they can do some astronomy. It would certainly get me a lot of astronomy binocular sales and make me look good, but it would also be dishonest, so not going to happen.

Truth is, anyone who already owns a binocular can get started, right now, in binocular astronomy. What you have in binoculars may or may not be the best choice for astronomy, but any binocular, even small compact binoculars, will show you more than no binocular under the night sky. If you decide you like astronomy, then it will be time to consider a binocular specifically for astronomy.

I started my astronomy observing, many, many years, ago, with my 10x40 birding binoculars and did quite well. If you already own 40mm or larger birding binoculars or hunting binoculars, it will take you quite some time to see all that can be seen in this size of binoculars, so get out there under the night sky and give it a try.

Still, the name of the game in binocular astronomy is seeing faint objects, so that usually translates into larger binoculars with larger objective lenses. How large? There’s no rule, here, but most of us die-hard binocular astronomers start at 50 mm and work our way up from there. The only fly in the ointment is that you will eventually reach a point in size where you will need to add an astronomy binocular tripod for the sake of steadiness and weight. Love those 25x100 astronomy binoculars, but without a tripod, they are little more than a door stop for someone like me.

I sometimes have so many Black-capped Chickadees at our bird feeders that I feel as if I am raising chickadees. Okay, not quite, but I do wonder where the birdwatching ends and raising chickadees begins.

Watching chickadees in the binoculars is fun, but it can also be a challenge to keep these ever moving, always hustling little songbirds in the field of view. That’s okay, because Chickadees are not hard to identify, unless you happen to be in an area where the Black-capped Chickadee overlaps its range with the Boreal Chickadee in the north or the Carolina Chickadee in the south. Then it pays to take a closer look.

I live in such an area. Here in northern Wisconsin we always have a chance of spotting Boreal Chickadees, though I have yet to see this northern chickadee in the birding binoculars. I do check, though, because that is a bird I have yet to add to my Wisconsin bird list. Apparently, the odds of seeing a Boreal Chickadee are much greater when severe winter weather up north in Canada pushes a few our way. Hasn't happened, yet, but I'll just keep watching chickadees in the binoculars in the meantime.

This has been a slow winter at the bird feeders as far as the variety of birds that have been visiting the feeders. Activity is still hot and heavy with the species that we are getting, but it’s been the same mix of species, day after day in the binoculars and spotting scope. Last winter definitely produced more birdwatching surprises.

Things do run in cycles, up here in the north country, and perhaps we are at the low point in one of those cycles. For instance, I’ve definitely seen fewer field mouse tracks and hardly any rabbit tracks in the snow, this winter, compared to last winter and, not surprisingly, fewer coyote tracks and fox tracks, too. Haven’t heard any owls since this summer, either, and have seen very few hawks in the birding binoculars, this last month. Oh, yes, it’s been a very quiet winter in our corner of the woods.

In the meantime, the regular gang at the feeders and our squirrels and deer keep eating food as fast as we can put it out. Bored, I am not.

About the pic: this doe has produced doe twins both years we have been in our north woods home. We now have those five does in our yard on an almost daily basis.

The focusing wheel on my binoculars is stiff and/or requires a lot of effort to work. Is there anything I can do to loosen it up? Will it loosen up on its own with use?

I’ve asked myself these same questions when receiving binoculars with stiff and hard to turn focusing wheels. I am very fussy about this binocular feature, especially on my birding binoculars, since you do a lot of focusing while birdwatching. On the other hand, you focus only once when using astronomy binoculars, so a stiff focuser is no big deal. Let's just say you have a binocular with a stiff, hard to turn focuser. What can you do about it?

On cheap binoculars porro prism binoculars with external focusing systems, the culprit for a hard to turn focusing wheel is sometimes a low grade of grease used to lubricate the focusing mechanism. The lubricant eventually dries up as the binoculars sit on the dealer’s shelf. The fix, here, is simple. Remove as much of the grease as possible (without taking the binoculars apart), even to the point of using some rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush and call it good at that. I do not recommend trying to re-lubricate, as pouring lubricant into a binocular is always a bad idea. Using the binocular will also help. Yes, on low-priced binoculars, the focusing wheel will often loosen up with some use.

So will the focuser on inexpensive roof prism binoculars, but on typical roof prism binoculars you cannot access the focuser to clean it, since these use an internal focusing mechanism. Just go ahead and work the focuser a bit and see if it helps.

On more expensive roof prism binoculars, you are pretty much stuck with what you get out of the box as to the focuser. It can take years for it to loosen up, if it does at all. Most of the time, you will find that you can live with a bit of stiffness in the focuser, but that's your call. If the focuser is so bad that it gets on your nerves, your only option is to exchange the binocular for another sample.

Most new binoculars come with manuals, but the manuals tend to be very generic. Binocular manufacturers tend to make a single basic manual fit all binocular models to keep costs down, but also because there is not much about a binocular that you can’t figure out on your own with a little effort. I sometimes think binocular manuals are supplied for folks who feel cheated if they don't receive a manual. I paid good money to buy binoculars, so where's my manual?

Still, I do actually read binocular manuals - I like anything about binoculars, even the manuals. It is important, though, to keep the manual tucked away in a safe place for warranty and service info. Can’t say I’ve ever had to send binoculars in for repair, but who knows? It could still happen.

You should also keep the box and whatever binocular accessories you don’t plan to use in a safe place for the sake of resale value should you ever decide to sell the binoculars or trade the binoculars. Those little things have a habit of disappearing on their own, it seems.

I do the same with my digital cameras, spotting scopes and so on. Oh, yeah, I have a closet full of empty boxes, but I feel better knowing I have all those little things safely tucked away.

If you received a binocular as a gift, over the weekend, good for you. You are now the proud owner of one of he world’s simplest optical instrument, at least as far as using it goes. Inside, though, a binocular is a bit more complicated, as many a binocular user has discovered to their horror when they attempted to repair it on their own. Just give your new birding binoculars or hunting binoculars or astronomy binoculars reasonable care and you and the binocular will be happy, but do not, ever, take your binoculars apart. Not only are you likely to end up with a box full of parts, you also void the warranty. In the case of waterproof binoculars, you also destroy the waterproofing.

This is also a good time to mention that, for the most part, it is better to use a leave it alone approach with your binoculars. Do not add oils, grease or other lubricants to the binocular. Not only do you risk getting oil into the optical system, there is also a problem with oil and grease picking up dirt. The sludge produced, increases wear and tear on the binocular’s moving parts. As for cleaning the lenses, less is more. It really takes a lot of dirt and smudging to reduce performance, optically and every time you touch a lens surface, you risk scratching the lens coatings or even the lens glass.

Your new binocular is an amazing tool, right out of the box. There’s not much you can do to make it better, so just enjoy it.

A binocular is one of those things you didn’t know you needed until you start to carry one. Okay, “need” might be a bit strong, so let’s just say you really don’t appreciate how useful binoculars can be unless you make it a habit of carrying one.

This especially true with compact binoculars. They are so light and easy around the neck that you barely know they’re there, but then, without warning, you see something that calls for a closer look and, no problem, you just happen to have a binocular around your neck. Before you know it, reaching for the binoculars around your neck becomes a habit. In severe cases, you panic because when it's not there. Oh, no, I left my binoculars at home!

I'm definitely a severe case. My birding binoculars and astronomy binoculars stay in the case until I have those respective uses in mind, but I do panic a bit when I find myself outdoors without one of my compact binoculars. I’ve just grown weary over the years of finding myself in situations where a binocular could be useful and not having one, so I'm always sure to grab one of my compact binoculars as I head out the door. For me, it's a bad case of, binoculars, don’t leave home without one.

There are many types or subcategories, if you will, of birdwatching. You could approach birding from the standpoint of habitat, for instance and talk about marsh birding, desert birding, prairie birding and so on, but we birders more commonly approach it from the standpoint of specific bird groups such as warblers, shorebirds and raptors (hawks, falcons, eagles and owls) and so on. To be sure, there are no hard and fast lines, here. Head out to the warbler woods and you’ll see many types of birds other than warblers in the binoculars.Still, it is a kick to go looking for specific types of birds.

One of my favorite bird groups has always been the raptors. Hawks, eagles, falcons and owls are magnificent and exciting birds, no doubt about it. I was fortunate enough to spend much of my life on the prairies of Nebraska and I’ve yet to find a place that was better when it comes to raptor diversity. Not too many places you can go and actually see a dozen different species of raptors in the birding binoculars on a good day, but I did it in Nebraska quite often. Oh, yeah, bird watching for raptors is very much in my blood.

In that open country, I used both birding binoculars and a spotting scope on a car window mount as I traveled the back roads in likely raptor habitat. The binoculars would verify a raptor was present on some distant power line or tree and the birding spotting scope would clinch the identity. A birder who knows this group can make identifications at astonishing distances.

These days, I make my home in the north woods of Wisconsin. We don’t have near the diversity of raptors you will find in Nebraska, but I still spot my share of hawks, eagles and owls in the binoculars, all the same. It is still as much a thrill for me as ever. Love those raptors.

About the pic: Like many folks that feed birds, I occasionally get visits at the feeder from raptors such as this little Sharp-shinned Hawk

My Nikon 10x25 Premier LX is a case in point. Of all my expensive compact binoculars, I use this one the most on a daily basis. It's the one that gets the most wear and tear and I confess that I sometimes could get a bit gentler when I handle it, but a grab and go binocular is not one that you tend to baby. My little Nikon binocular has been out in the snow, the rain, the fog, the freezing drizzle, sub-zero cold and scorching heat and has never failed me. It gets thrown into our range bag along with sandbags, cased handguns, ear protectors, targets and whatnot and is no worse for it. Still looks as good as the day I bought it. The Nikon 10x25 Premier LX is one tough little binocular.

Binoculars can and do break, but, given reasonable care, even cheap binoculars should last for years. So, care to guess the number one reason for binocular failure?

The answer is customer abuse. People drop binoculars or inadvertently bang binoculars against something, drive over their binoculars and so on. Believe me, I’ve heard all kinds of horror stories on breaking binoculars. It’s not that people intentionally break their expensive birding binoculars or hunting binoculars, of course, but accidents do happen. People get in a hurry and sometimes forget some basic binocular handling rules.

The first and most important rule when handling binoculars is to always use the strap. It’s a no-brainer, but using the binocular strap every time you pick up your binoculars will do more than anything else to add years to the life of your binoculars. Every binocular comes with a strap, so use it. Putting that strap around your neck every time you pick up your binoculars should be an automatic. This even goes for compact binoculars. Just because compact binoculars are light and handy does not mean you should use them without a strap. You can drop or knock a compact binocular, too.

Now, my big astronomy binoculars are not fun to wear around my neck, but I still use that strap. I’ve been out at night when the dew was forming and have had my beloved Nikon 10x70 Astroluxein the pic, above, slip out of my hands because it was a little wet. Fortunately, I was using the strap, so disaster was averted. Had I dropped this expensive astronomy binocular on the ground, I would have been one very upset astronomer.

Use that binocular strap.

When it comes time to buy binoculars, a common question is 8x or 10x? These are, after all, the two most common magnifications in binoculars. Unfortunately, the decision between 8x or 10x seems to throw some folks for a loop with much wringing of the hands. So, 8x or 10x binoculars? Which binocular magnification is best?

8x binoculars will be a bit easier to steady – your body’s shakes and shimmies will be magnified only by a factor of 8, instead of a factor of 10 in 10x binoculars. This can be important for users that will be trying to operate the binoculars with only one hand and it can also be important for older users since our ability to hold a binocular steady can decrease with age. 8x binoculars, all else equal, also offer a wider field of view than the typical 10x binoculars. This makes it easier to get on target with what you are trying to see in the binoculars. 8x is a more user-friendly binocular magnification and probably a better choice for a do everything binocular.

Again, all else equal, 10x binoculars do offer a bit more resolution – the ability to separate two closely spaced objects and show them as distinct objects instead of one. Thus, if you’re trying to see that last bit of hard to see detail, 10x binoculars may be right for you. The little bit of extra detail is why I like 10x in my astronomy binoculars and my long-range birding binoculars. Keep in mind, though, that we are not talking a huge difference in resolution between 8x and 10x binoculars. It's there, but for most uses a good 8x binocular will provide all the detail you need and will be easier to handle and use to boot.

Again, the difference between 8x and 10x binoculars is not that significant. Choose the one that tempts you the most and you’ll do just fine. I own and use both 8x and 10x binoculars (and a few other magnifications as well) and find myself buying binoculars based on other features. Don’t stay up at night worrying about 8x or 10x?.

I love astronomy, both with binoculars and telescopes and, if you asked me to pick between using binoculars or telescopes for my astronomy, I would probably self-destruct. That is one choice I would never allow myself yo make. If you really want to appreciate what is in the night sky, you need to use both astronomy binoculars and telescopes. It's not an either or proposition - the two instruments complement each other and eacc provides its own unique perspective. That's why most astronomers use both.

Now, before you rush out to buy that giant astronomy binocular, try taking a look at the night sky with whatever binoculars you already own. Even compact binoculars will show much more than what you can see with only your naked eyes. Typical birding binoculars or hunting binoculars will even show more. In fact, an 8x42 or 10x50 is all you actually need to get started in binocular astronomy and will keep you busy for a long, long time.

That includes the moon, by the way. Yes, ordinary 8x and 10x binoculars will show a great deal of lunar detail, especially if you support the binoculars with a tripod or otherwise brace the binoculars on a convenient support. Just grab the binoculars, find a moon map (plenty to be had on the internet for free) and start looking. The moon will make a good target this next week, so go for it.

There are specific features you should look for when shopping for birding binoculars, hunting binoculars, sports binoculars, astronomy binoculars and so on, but binocular manufacturers try to pack as many features into a binocular as possible, so there is a lot of overlap as to features. Thus, most birding binoculars make good hunting binoculars and visa-versa. This is good news when it comes time to buy binoculars, of course, since a single binocular can be used for many applications. The binocular you choose may not be the prefect choice for every application, but it will probably still be usable to some extent.

Astronomy binoculars are a good example. These days, when folks think about astronomy binoculars, they often think about giant binoculars with 70 mm, 80 mm or even 100 mm objectives. These are large binoculars, indeed, and will typically require the use of an astronomy binocular tripod for support. You could make such a large astronomy binocular do double duty as a long range observation binoculars, but that's about it. These are definitely not binoculars you want to wear around your neck.

On the other hand, a lot of us astronomers also use smaller astronomy binoculars for some of our astronomy. One of my favorite sizes, for instance, for a smaller astronomy binocular is a 10x50. No tripod needed for this size and a 10x50 is also quite useable as a daytime binocular. I consider it just a bit too large for an all around birding binocular, but it certainly could be used for birding and a 10x50 is also a favorite size for some hunters.

If you're shopping for a binocular that can be used as much by night as by day, you might want to consider a good 10x50. Looking for a great value in a 10x50? Try the Nikon 10x50 Action Extreme, the Leupold Rogue 10x50, the Oberwerk 10x50 or the Pentax PCF WPII. Any of these will do a good job by day or by night.

I can remember the day when no one could imagine ever having to spend a thousand dollars on binoculars, let alone two-thousand dollars. Impossible! Why, even the most expensive European binoculars cost much, much less than a thousand dollars. Even $500 was scandalous. As for the average binocular, you could get a lifetime quality binoculars for as little as $100.

Times have changed, of course, but not altogether for the worse when it comes to binocular prices. Oh, yes, premium birding binoculars, hunting binoculars and astronomy binoculars can easily run a thousand dollars or more, but things are not quite so bad on the other end when it comes to binocular prices. For instance, you can definitely get a good, usable binocular for a hundred dollars. It may not be lifetime quality, but it will certainly last for years with reasonable care. Hit the $300 mark in the binocular market, though, and there are binoculars that will last a lifetime for average use. In other words, the binocular market has gone crazy on the premium end, but not so much on the low end.

No doubt about it, binoculars remain one of the best values in a consumer product. Everyone can own a binocular.

We get both the Red-breasted Nuthatch (left) and the White-breasted Nuthatch (right), up here in northern Wisconsin, all seasons of the year. Both species are a birdwatching treat in the binoculars and both species are quite easy to lure to the feeders with suet. Of the two species, I’d say the Red-breasted seems a bit more inclined to visit the feeder, though.

In most places I’ve lived in the past, the only time I’d see the Red-breasted Nuthatch in the birding binoculars was for a short time during migration, so it’s been a treat to see them all year long, now. The Red-breasted Nuthatch is a year-round resident in the north woods and not a day passes that I don’t see one in the binoculars. They’re also tame little birds. Like the chickadees, this smaller nuthatch species often stays put while I’m refilling the feeders. No trick at all to get a pic with just about any of the little point and shoot digital cameras on the market. The one in the pic, above was only a couple of feet away from my hands, in fact, when I snapped the shutter.

I really don’t need my binoculars to identify most of the birds at my feeders, even though the birds are too far away to see the usual field marks used for identification and even though these tired old birdwatching eyes ain’t what they used to be. How do I do it? It’s simply a matter of seeing the birds so often that I can identify most birds before I even pick up the binoculars by subtle differences in the way these birds fly, the way they perch and so on. Watching birds every day does that for you.

That’s not to say, however, that I don’t use my binoculars to watch the birds. Are you kidding? Seeing birds in my birding binoculars or my birding spotting scope is one of my greatest joys in life. I’ve seen chickadees, nuthatches, goldfinches and other typical feeder birds at least a million times, but pass up a chance to see them in the binoculars? No way. That would be like calling it quits with one glance at a great piece of art.

There’s no way to put a number on the enjoyment I get from watching birds. I am truly grateful for the beauty they’ve brought into my life in good times and in bad. May it ever be so.

About the pic: the ever magnificent Pileated Woodpecker at on of my feeders.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Chickadees and have ever since I bought my first birding binoculars and got hooked on birdwatching oh so long, ago. Chickadees are such active birds, even on the coldest winter day. You might not see any other birds in the binoculars when the temperatures drop below zero, but you’ll probably still see Chickadees.

It’s a wonder to me how such a small bird can stay so busy at a time of year when so many other birds have headed south and so many other animals seek shelter in a den to escape the cold. Chickadees seem to defy the principle of energy conservation if you watch them at the feeders. They fly into the feeder from a nearby perch, grab a single sunflower seed, then instantly fly back to their perch to eat it. They do this over and over, again. Makes you almost dizzy to watch them. Just seems like a lot of work for one sunflower seed, but it works for them, so who am I to question their methods?

In our immediate neighborhood, here in northern Wisconsin, I’ve only seen the Black-capped Chickadee, but there are Boreal Chickadees seen in the general area, so I always take a peek with the binoculars at any Chickadee I see.

As much as I love Chickadees, though, I have to say that they make terrible subjects for digiscoping. You have to take a lot of pics before you get lucky and hit that shutter release while the bird is sitting still and that is almost never.

There are times when the birdwatching at the feeders is so slow that there are more squirrels in the yard than birds. Actually, I feed both birds and squirrels, so having four or five squirrels in the yard at a time isn’t all that unusual. Better yet, we often have both Gray Squirrels and Red Squirrels in the yard at the same time. Add chipmunks in the warmer months of the year and we have a lot of fur running around the yard on any given day.

Some folks who feed birds wage a war with squirrels and go to great lengths to protect their bird feeders from these furred marauders. I used to be one of them and, though I still keep my bird feeders well-protected against squirrels, I’ve found that distracting the squirrels away from the bird feeders by feeding the squirrels with their own separate feeders is a better solution. It’s a win-win situation for all of us. Besides, squirrels are fun to watch, with or without binoculars.

Have you ever taken a good look at squirrels in your birding binoculars or, better yet, a birding spotting scope? They really are handsome animals. I’m not about to call squirrels cute because I know only too well how aggressive they can be. When I think cute, I think gentle and squirrels are anything but gentle creatures. Indeed, squirrels are determined, persistent and aggressive feeders, but, I for one, admire their tenacity. They are welcome in our yard.

The thermometer read one whole degree above zero, this morning, so time for Joanie’s cold weather binocular care tips.

Unless you did something stupid like pour oil or grease into the focuser of your binoculars, the focuser should still work in even the most severe cold. The focuser may be a bit sticky or hesitate, at first, once out in the cold, but this is normal. Just work the focuser, slowly, until it frees up enough to use. If the focuser is so badly stuck that you cannot move it with reasonable effort, do not force it or you may do some damage to the focusing mechanism. Time to head back to the house to let the binoculars thaw. Individual eyepiece focus binoculars (IF binoculars), of course, avoid this whole issue and thus are better binoculars for severe cold weather use.

Bringing that ice cold binocular back into the house, though, will instantly get you a binocular covered with condensation. A wet binocular is probably no big deal for waterproof binoculars, but it is something to be avoided for binoculars that are not waterproof. All my binoculars are waterproof, but even so, I like to do the same thing for them that I do for my digital cameras, namely placing the binoculars in a zip-lock bag prior to stepping back indoors and then leaving them in the bag until the binoculars warm to room temperature. All the condensation, then, form on the outside of the bag and the binoculars stay dry.

Using binoculars in serious cold can also mean iced or fogged over binocular eyepieces. It’s condensation, again. Bringing that cold binocular next to your warm face produces condensation and then that condensation freezes when the binocular is moved away from your face. The process is exacerbated by allowing your breath to hit the eyepieces when you exhale. It takes some pretty serious cold for this to happen, but, yes, some of us are out in that kind of cold with our birding binoculars or astronomy binoculars, especially astronomy binoculars because winter skies bring some of the best observing of the year.

Mostly I try not to allow my breath to hit the eyepieces when out in the cold, even to the point of holding my breath, at times, when looking through the binoculars. The key thing to remember with iced over eyepieces is not to go crazy trying to scrape off the ice or you risk scratching the lens coatings or, worse yet, the lenses themselves. I usually try to get the ice to thaw by warming the binoculars under my coat and then quickly wiping the moisture off with a lens cloth. I have to carry the lens cloth, anyway, for my glasses are even a bigger pain in the butt to use in cold weather than binoculars. :)

I don’t own any cheap binoculars, so you might be tempted to call me a binocular snob. True, I have a taste for high end birding binoculars, astronomy binoculars, and compact binoculars, but the fact is, I am anything but a binocular snob. I have no hesitation in recommending cheap binoculars for folks who simply can’t afford to spend a lot of money when it comes time to buy binoculars. You don’t have to mortage your house or sell your car to get usable binoculars.

Let’s just define cheap binoculars as binoculars under $100. That’s an arbitrary number, of course, but even we define cheap binoculars as binoculars at $50, you can still get a lot of binocular for the money. Why? Thanks to computerized lens production and manufacturing, the optical quality of cheap binoculars has actually improved over the last twenty years. Under $100, you may have to forego great mechanical construction and features such as waterproofing and long eye relief eyepieces, but optically, some binoculars under $100 are surprisingly good.

There is, of course, a time to never go cheap on binoculars, so don’t get in a hurry to sell off your good binoculars and replace them with cheap binoculars. If you use your binoculars on a regular basis; if you depend on your binoculars to deliver in critical situations; if you use binoculars in rough conditions or if you are just plain fussy about binocular quality as I am, it is, indeed, foolhardy to go cheap on your binoculars.

On the other hand, for casual use or very occasional use, cheap binoculars may be all you need.

We had our first “real” snow of the season, over the weekend. By “real”, I mean a snow that is deep enough to start cross country skiing. Other snowfalls just don’t count when you love to ski as much as I do.

Cross country skiing is a simple sport as far as needed equipment goes. Reminds me very much of birdwatching in this respect. For skiing, you just need boots, skis and poles; for birding, you just need birding binoculars and field guide or, maybe, a birding spotting scope to view birds at more of a distance. Both pursuits get you out in the woods, both get you plenty of fresh air and, when it comes to aerobic exercise, what could be better than cross country skiing?

Maybe that’s why I like to combine winter bird watching with my skiing. Compact binoculars don’t weigh me down while skiing and do just fine for birding. The skis even allow a closer approach to birds because they are so silent or maybe it’s just because birds don’t associate that kind of movement with danger. Whatever it is, I do seem to get closer to birds when on my skis.

Yup, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

What compact binocular do you grab for a routine trip to do errands or maybe visit family when you own a number of very high quality compact binoculars? Do you take your most expensive binoculars or your cheapest binoculars or maybe something in between? Is your choice based on a careful consideration of features or do you just reach in the case and grab the binocular that most fits your mood?

It’s a nice dilemma to have, of course. Most folks don’t own four or five models of compact binoculars the way I do. So what is my favorite traveling compact binocular? It’s not my Leica Ultravid 10x25 BL. I save it for dedicated birding trips, not general purpose work. It’s not my Swarovski Pocket Crystal series compact binocular. That elegant jewel is strictly for social events, concerts and the opera. It’s not my Zeiss 8x20 Victory. The single hinge design on this compact binocular stays adjusted on my mountain bike and road bike outings it’s light weight is a blessing when riding the bikes. I don’t think Zeiss had biking in mind when they designed the Victory compact, but they might do well to advertise it as the ultimate compact binocular for biking.

Nope, the compact binocular I most use as a general purpose workhorse is my Nikon Premier LX 10x25. It’s seen more miles and rough handling than any binocular should, but it always delivers superb optics and in an easy to use package, at that. I know that this Nikon binocular will do just about anything I can ask a compact binocular to do and it has never let me down. The Premier LX 10x25 is truly my workhorse premium compact binocular.