Bresser Luchs 8x42 Binoculars Review

The 8x42 Bresser Luchs is marketed as a high quality binocular with many excellent features but still has a really reasonable price tag. The Luch or Lux as it is called in some markets, is Bresser's flagship range and with this in mind I eagerly looked forward to reviewing what should make for an excellent birding binocular.

The Main Body

What is immediately noticeable once you take the Bresser Luchs 8x42 Lux out from it's carry bag is just how compact it is. At only 12.4cm (4.9inches) long, it is the shortest full size binocular that I have so far reviewed and equally as narrow as any out there. It's pretty lightweight too, at only 678g (23.9oz) they are lighter than most other full size roof prism binoculars.

What I do like is even though they are both compact and fairly lightweight, they do not feel cheap in anyway, in fact the opposite is true the tactile rubber armoring on the binocular not only feels great in the hands, but will help protect the optics from any minor bumps. Overall this Bresser Luchs binocular feels well balanced as well as light in your hands, an important quality when used for extended periods.

Waterproof
The Luchs 8x42 is waterproof (Immersion tested at 1m for 60sec) as well as fogproof as they are nitrogen filled to prevent internal fogging.

The Eye Cups
I really like the twist-up eyecups that have avery rounded shape to them that makes them very comfortable against the face. The twisting action is smooth and they work well. They do not have fixed intermediate stops as you sometimes find on other binoculars.

Focusing
Focusing using the central wheel is smooth and very accurate with the central focusing wheel that takes about 3 and a half full turns to go from infinity to it's closest focusing distance which is a stunning 1.2 meters (3.9ft). Personally I like to be able to go from far to near focus with fewer turns of the wheel, but this less aggressive gearing does make fine tuning your focus that much easier. Worth highlighting is the incredible close focusing distance of 3.9ft - most quality 8x binoculars can only manage about 8-9ft and so this is makes these Bresser binoculars ideal for anyone wishing to study butterflies other insects or even flowers up close.

As with the majority of binoculars, the diopter adjustment is on the right barrel, it has a ratchet system that I like and is easy to adjust, but tight enough to prevent it from being moved accidentally. This adjustment allows you to adjust the lenses separately to allow for differences in each of your eyes and plays an important part in correctly focusing your binoculars.

Bresser Luch Optics

Bright and sharp were my initial thoughts when I first looked through the Luchs and this is backed up with their quality prisms, lenses and coatings:

Lens & Prism Coatings
Bresser Luchs use quality BaK-4 roof prisms, meaning that they are made of superior optical glass that produces a sharp and high-contrast picture over the full field of view. The optics are also fully multi-coated, which means that all air to glass surfaces have received multiple layers of antireflection coatings meaning that more light gets to your eyes.

Stats

Binoculars with an 8x magnification and 42mm objective lenses generally make ideal birding binoculars, as they strike the ideal compromise between magnification, field of view, light gathering potential and size.

8x42 binoculars like these Bresser Luchs have an Exit Pupil of 5.25 and a Twilight Factor of 18.3, both of which make them pretty good in most low light conditions like twilight. It is important to remember that whilst these figures do not take into account the quality of the prisms, lenses and their coatings, they do make it possible to compare the performance of binoculars in low light conditions and what is good is that these Bresser's do have really good lenses, prisms and coatings that combine to produce an image that is both bright and sharp.

The apparent field of view for the Bresser Luchs 8x42 is 120m at 1000m, which is about average but does fall short of the best birding binoculars like the Swarovski 8.5x42 EL's (133m at 1000m), but you must also remember that the Swarovski's are more than 10x the cost of these Bressers!

As mentioned the close focusing distance is 1.2 meters (3.9ft), which is excellent and as close as any binoculars I have reviewed. Another great close focusing binocular is the Minox 8x42 BV Binoculars that matches the Bresser's.

Also Included
The quality of the soft carry case is a little disappointing, especially when you compare it to the quality of the binocular it contains. Don't get me wrong, it works fine, it is just not something that shows the quality of your binoculars very well.

Another let down to these Bresser 8x42 Lux is the lens caps, the eye cup cover is fine, but the objective lens ones fall away far too easily, have nothing to tether them to the binocular with and in my hands would easily get lost! (watch the video below to see what I mean)

Conclusion

Overall I would say that these Bresser 8x42 Luchs Lux binoculars are excellent and at their selling price make excellent value for money. The view through them is vary good as is the body construction. Highlights include their very compact size and their close focusing distance, because of this they are ideal for anyone wanting to observe things like butterflies at close range. The binoculars are also ideal for birdwatching and due to their compactness are easier to carry around with you than almost every other "full size" binoculars.