Bresser Luchs 10x42 Binoculars Review

The Luch or Lux as it is known in some markets is Bresser's flagship range and the 10x42 Bresser Luchs is marketed as a high quality binocular with a powerfil 10x magnification with many other excellent features but still available at a really reasonable price. With this in mind I eagerly looked forward to reviewing what should make for an excellent wildlife observaion and sports binocular.

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.

The Main Body

Like the 8x42 version, what is immediately noticeable once you take the Bresser Luchs 10x42 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 binocular out there. As well as compact, the binocular is lightweight too, weighing only 678g (23.9oz) they are lighter than most other full size roof prism binoculars.

What is great is that 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 10x42 Luchs binocular feels well balanced as well as light in your hands, an important quality when used for extended periods.

Waterproof
The Luchs 10x42 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.

Stats

I generally love the 10x42mm combination, especially for wildlife observation and thisis my size of choice when working as a safari guide. For me they are the ideal compromise between a powerful magnification, field of view, light gathering potential and size. Ideal for getting as close to the action as possible without the need for image stabilization or a tripod, yet still have a wide enough field of view to make them more than decent birding binoculars.

A 10x42 binocular like these have an Exit Pupil of 4.2 and a Twilight Factor of 21, both of which are fine fine for most low light conditions like twilight. (I often use a 10x42 binocular on game drives that either end just after sunset or leave at sunrise without any problems).

Whilst these figures do not take into account the quality of the lenses and prisms, 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 quality lenses, prisms and coatings that produce a bright image.

The apparent field of view for the Bresser Luchs 10x42 is 101m at 1000m, which is about average but does fall short of the very best safari binoculars like the Swarovski 10x42 EL's (112m at 1000m), but you must 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.

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 10x42 Lux binoculars 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.

Conclusion

Overall I would say that these Bresser 10x42 Luchs Lux binoculars are excellent and at their selling price make great 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. Because of their compact size, these binoculars are also ideal tavelling with and therefor make perfect safari binoculars.