New for 2012 (available in March)
Eagle Optics announce the release of their top of the range Golden Eagle HD Binoculars.

Available in both 8X42 and 10X42 configurations they include a whole host of excellent features, including a rugged and lightweight body that has a protective rubber armoring, waterproofing, and the barrels are filled with argon gas to inhibit internal fogging.

The body houses their High Density (HD) extra-low dispersion glass with fully multi-coated lenses that will enhance fine details and provide you images rich in colour as well as being bright. Eagle Optics have also added their own SeeClear Lens Coating that Repels oils on outer glass surfaces.

These Golden Eagle binoculars also come with the Eagle Optics Platinum Protection Lifetime Warranty and both are available for under $600 and are available to purchase now on the Eagle Optics Website.

Main Features

• High Definition (HD) extra-low dispersion Glass
• Fully Multi-coated Lenses
• SeeClear Eagle Optics Lens Coating that Repels oils on outer glass surfaces
• Phase Correction Coatings on the Prisms
• Waterproof & Fogproof
• Rubber Armoring
• Twist up and down eyecups for comfortable viewing with or without eyeglasses.
• Locking Right Eye Diopter
• Tripod Adaptable

Main Specifications of the 8×42 Golden Eagle

• Magnification: 8x
• Objective Lens Diameter: 42 mm
• Field of View: 347 feet/1000 yards
• Eye Relief: 20 mm
• Close Focus: 5.1 feet
• Weight 24.2 ounces
• Dimensions (H x W) 5.8 x 5.3 inches

Main Specifications of the 10×42 Golden Eagle

• Magnification: 10x
• Objective Lens Diameter: 42 mm
• Field of View: 319 feet/1000 yards
• Eye Relief: 16.5 mm
• Close Focus: 5.1 feet
• Weight 24.6 ounces
• Dimensions (H x W) 5.8 x 5.3 inches

Further Reading

• About Eagle Optics Binoculars & other Models
• My Full review of the Eagle Optics 8×42 Ranger ED Binoculars

According to Terry Moore, Leica Sport Optics vp sales & marketing, “In everything we do at Leica, our objective is to be best in class. We developed the new Trinovids to be fully-featured and to maintain Leica’s high standard for exceptional engineering while providing superior value and performance as the new Best in Class of premium entry-level binoculars.”

Whilst new Trinovid binoculars are relatively affordable, the highest quality for which all Leica sport optics are renowned is still very evident in both their manufacturing and optical quality. For instance, you won’t find any plastic parts on the body, whilst the body itself is made from magnesium which is very light as well as strong. This housing is then covered in a rubber armouring, which ensures that they are durable as well as tough enough to handle rugged conditions. This includes unpredictable weather as they are fully waterproof (impermeable to water to a depth of 5m) as well as being fog-proof as the air inside them has been replaced with dry nitrogen gas.

Other features include a stainless-steel center hinge and large eye cups with 4 stops and ample eye-relief (16mm on the 10×42 and 15.5mm on the 8×42 model).

The Roof prism system features a P40 phase correction coating on the prisms as well as their HighLux system (HLS) – A newly developed mirror layer on the prisms that is said by Leica to increase light transmission significantly (99.5%) which in turn increases the image brightness. Thy also have an improved optical and mechanical configuration that markedly reduces stray light.

Wide Field of View
The 10×42 model has an impressive field of view of 326ft at 1000 yards (6.2°), but it is the 8×42 model that is most impressive with a FOV of 378ft at 1000 yards (7.2°) which means it easily makes it onto my list of wide angled binoculars and will therefore really appeal to serious birders.

One feature were these binoculars do not really excel is their fairly distant minimum focusing distance of 11.5ft (i consider anything under 6ft to be excellent) – so possibly not the ideal binoculars if viewing objects close up (like butterflies) is your main intended use for them.

To sum up, the New Leica Trinovid’s offer the classic Leica style, superb optics as well as a tough exterior at a surprisingly affordable price.

Main Specifications

For More details take a look at their main specifications (PDF file):
Leica Trinovid 42 Specifications

Cost & Where to Buy

Further Reading

• About Leica Sport Optics and Leica Binoculars

With the Facebook page, we hope to further embrace the optics community and aim to offer exclusive content, the latest news and announcements from all the best binocular manufacturers as well as discussions, competitions, plus exclusive offers and prize give-aways.

How To Enter

To join in and for a chance to win all you have to do is ‘become a fan’ by liking us on our Facebook page. The date of commencement of this prize draw is Thursday 7th July 2011 and the winner will be chosen at random from the first 100 fans.

Enter now by going to the Best Binocular Reviews Facebook page

The Prize

We are giving away KATO Group’s top of the range Eden Quality 8×42 ED Binoculars worth £245 that I recently reviewed and as their name suggests they feature high quality extra low-dispersion glass (ED).

As well as ED Glass, this Eden Quality ED binocular incorporates fully multi-coated lenses that will increase light transmission with multiple anti-reflective coatings on all air-to-glass surfaces. The outer lenses also feature a water-repellent coating that helps water to run off them to ensure that an excellent view is retained even in wet conditions.

The quality BaK-4 prisms come with phase correction coatings that have the effect of producing a sharper and high-contrasting image over the full field of view.

These roof prism Eden Quality ED binoculars come with a light weight magnesium body, which is 100% waterproof as well as fog proof: All the air inside them has been replace with Argon, which makes it possible to use the binoculars at very low temperatures without any condensation of air inside the binoculars.

They also have a really wide field of view of 142m at 1000m (426 feet/1000 yards) and easily make it onto my list of wide angle binoculars.

For more information take a look at My Full Review or visit the Binoculars section on Eden Webshops.

General Competition Rules

• This is a free to enter prize draw with no purchase necessary and all you need to do to enter is “Like Us” by becoming a fan on the new Best Binoculars Facebook page, so If you don’t like us… don’t enter!
• The winner will be chosen at random from the first 100 fans of the Best Binocular Reviews Facebook page
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I recently wrote about me taking a pair of Luna Optics Night vision binoculars with me on safari that worked incredibly well. But as well as these, I also obviously took a pair of “standard day-time” binoculars with on that trip as well.

My usual choice and my general advice for a good pair of safari binoculars is to take a fairly compact and tough pair, something like the Steiner 10.5×28 Wildlife Pro or the excellent Minox 8×33 BL Binoculars that actually won my award for the Best Safari & Travel Binocular back in 2010. The main reason I recommend and usually take a compact or mid sized binocular is because when travelling, I like to keep my luggage as light and compact as possible. Then once you have arrived and whilst actually on safari, especially when walking in the bush, I also usually have my camera with me as well and so in this situation, the more compact my equipment is, the better.

For this trip however, I knew that as well as all the big stuff like elephants and lions, I would also be doing a lot of birding, often very early in the mornings. So this is why for this trip I decided that I wanted to focus more on the binoculars performance and in particular their low light performance than their physical size and weight.

Therefore a “full sized” 8×42 binocular would be ideal, but which ones should I take on safari? For me the decision was not very hard, I had just finished a review of the Vanguard 8×42 Spirit ED Binoculars and I was so impressed with their performance that I decided that these would be my choice of binocular to take with me on safari.

My Findings

As with my initial review, overall I was really impressed with the 8×42 Vanguard Spirit ED and they performed really well for me.

As far as full sized binoculars go they are about as light as you can get, meaning even though I had decided upon a full-sized binocular, they were still pretty lightweight. This combined with the very good neck strap that they come with made carrying them in the field as hassle free as possible.

And as expected, their performance, especially when the light was not optimal like on the few occasions when I got up before sunrise to go out on safari was excellent.

It also felt really good to know that the view through them was just that much better than what I would usually have got from a fully compact binocular. On top of this, because they use ED glass and other quality optical components like Bak-4 prisms and anti-reflection coatings meant that even if I was to compare them with other 8×42′s, the quality and brightness of the image produced would be superior.

This however does not mean that I have now changed my tune and will no longer use compact binoculars on safari – for most situations I do still feel that when travelling a compact or Mid-sized binocular is the way to go. But for this particular trip I really enjoyed having the Vanguard Spirit ED 8×42 binocular with me

Not always for looking at things in the distance
The main photo above of me looking at the elephant through these Vanguards was taken by my wife. Being so close to an elephant, you may be forgiven in thinking that binoculars may not be necessary, but what I find really interesting is to look at all the details of an animal like this at close range. Things like the eyes and the skin of an elephant are so incredible and a quality pair of optics like the Vanguard 8×42 Spirit ED can really help you to to appreciate them in very fine detail. (I must confess however that my heart was in my mouth, but I knew that from their body language, we were not really in that much danger and it was far safer for us just to remain calm, moving slowly away.)

Tough Waterproof Body
It never rained during this trip, but water is not the only thing that a fully sealed binocular like these Vanguard’s protect against. I was visiting Zimbabwe in the dry season, and in places it can get very dusty. Having a binocular that is fully air-tight means that it will prevent any fine pieces of dirt from entering the system and ruining your view and is for me an important consideration when choosing a good safari binocular.

For more, please read:

• My full review of the Vanguard 8×42 Spirit ED Binoculars
• Where to Buy Vanguard 8×42 Spirit ED Binoculars

The Razor Range Come in 5 configurations: 10X42, 8X42, 12X50, 10X50 and 8.5X50.

For me it is the 8X42 Razor that really stands out with it’s very wide field of view (410 feet @ 1000 yards / 137m @ 1000m), meaning that they would easily make it onto my list of wide angle binoculars and will therefore make ideal birding binoculars.

I also like the open bridge design – on binoculars that I have reviewed in the past, like one of my real favourites, the Minox 8×33 BL Binoculars, this design just feels more comfortable to hold as well giving you a more secure grip when you are carrying them about.

As you would expect with binoculars of this quality they are 100% waterproof. They have also been filled with argon gas meaning that the internal air has been replaced with argon to ensure there is no internal fogging in areas of high humidity or rapid temperature changes. Being fully waterproof also helps prevent any dust or dirt from entering the system and being fogproof helps protect the internal components from any corrosion.

High Quality Optics

All Vortex Razor Binoculars come with Phase corrected BaK-4 prisms that helps keep the light in correct color phases producing an image that is sharper and with higher contrast over the full field of view. On top of the Vortex also use dielectric high-reflective multilayer coatings on the roof prism, rather than the more common aluminum coatings often found on cheaper binoculars. The dielectric coating causes the prism surfaces to act as a dielectric mirror and boosts the light reflectivity, giving you clearer whites and a sharper, brighter, more natural vision across the entire field of view.

They all also have fully multi-coated lenses that increase light transmission with multiple anti-reflective coatings on all air-to-glass surfaces. On top of this ED Glass (extra low-dispersion glass) is used on the lenses which Vortex call theirs XD glass, but whatever the name they will increase performance even more by enhancing light transmission.

Price Range

With so many quality optical components and as you would expect for a high end pair of optics, all binoculars in the Vortex Razor range are what I would describe as High Value Binoculars, but what makes them really tempting is that they are available at a few outlets at a discount. For example:

Vortex Razor 8X42 Binoculars (list price: $849)
Currently available on Amazon for $725 or Binoculars.com for $749 – In the UK you can find them on Amazon for the excellent price of £495. This trend continues throughout the range:

• Buy & Compare Current Prices for Vortex Razor Binoculars

Good Value For money?
Having not looked through any yet to gauge the image quality, I am a little hesitant to be too committal, but if I take into consideration all the top quality components it does look like you get plenty of “Binocular for your buck” and they compete very well with others in this price category in terms of features. Compare all High Value Binoculars ($500-$1200 / £500-£1200) that I have reviewed.

Vortex Razor Reviews
Because of these great features and all at what I believe to be a very competitive price, I am really desperate to get my hands on one to fully review (big hint to Mr. Vortex!) Until then, I hope this article has helped, the only thing I couldn’t do is comment on the quality of the view through them or how they feel in the hands. For more information, take a look at my page on Vortex Binoculars that also includes a section on the Razor.

Today’s question comes from someone looking to choose between two different models of Steiner binoculars, to take on safari.

Question

I can afford a Leica Ultravid compact but am also impressed (looks and review) with the Steiner 12×30 Wildlife Pro’s & the Steiner Merlin 8×42 binoculars. I am not a birder but am interested in getting hold of a good Safari binocular. Can you tell me which one I should get if this is the case. Anything higher than a Leica Ultravid compact means taking out a mortgage for me!

Answer

Personally I would opt for the Steiner 12×30′s – Not because of the increased magnification, but more because they are more compact. This means that they will not only be easier to carry in your luggage, but more importantly easier to carry with you when on safari. This is even more important if you plan on any walking safaris. If you also carry a camera, I would even consider an even more compact pair something like the Steiner 10.5×28 Wildlife Pro’s that you can fold and carry in a jacket pocket.

If size is not a problem, the larger Merlin 8×42′s will have a larger field of view and produce a brighter image because of the larger objective lens diameter.

Whichever pair of optics you choose, it is always important to go with the best you can easily afford, for more information take a look at my article on the Best Binoculars for Safari Holidays.

(I took the photo of the elephants in Zimbabwe on Lake Kariba, whilst I was on holiday there)

Amazon have taken almost 45% off the asking price, whilst Binoculars.com and Eagle Optics also have big discounts on them.

The Nikon 8X42 Monarch ATB binoculars at it’s full asking price was always good value for money, with some excellent quality BAK-4 Prisms and fully multi-coated lenses combined with a tough, armoured exterior made these some of the best selling binoculars on the market, but now that they have been such highly discounted, I feel that if you are after a great deal on some binoculars ideal for bird watching, nature viewing and general all round use, you could do far worse than these.

>> Check Prices

Read my full review on the Nikon 8×42 Monarch binocular as well as a general guide to Nikon Optics: Nikon Scopes & Binoculars.

The range of Steiner Merlin binoculars were designed with help from experts from the American Birding Association as well as Steiner Optics’ championship birding team and include important bird watching features like a lightweight body, an excellent 342 feet at 1,000 yards field of view important for not loosing fast moving birds. A large 42mm objective lens giving you an very good exit pupil rating of 5.3 (meaning that they will let in loads of light even in poorly lighted areas like woods and forests.) They are waterproof and have a rugged tough body that is both comfortable and long lasting and come in a brown colour that has been specially designed to be the least noticeable to birds, so as not to frighten skittish species away with a sudden flash of colour.

So for these and many other features that you come to expect from quality Steiner optics, I believe that the 8×42 Merlin Binoculars from Steiner make excellent bird watching binoculars as well as fantastic binoculars for Safaris.

Check out my full review of the Steiner 8×42 Merlin Binoculars including where to buy and price comparison details for these excellent mid priced binoculars from Steiner.