The 10×42 Leupold Cascades Binocular is an outstanding low-light performer considering it’s powerful 10x magnification. This is achieved with the help of their  multi-coated lens system ensures maximum brightness for clarity, contrast, and color fidelity.

These Leupold binoculars are completely waterproof and built tough, with shock-absorbing rubber armor for extra protection.  They are have the classic roof prism design with a central focussing knob.

The Leupold Cascades Wind Rivers feature center focus dial mounted lockable diopter adjustment – puts all the controls at the user’s fingertips and keeps the focus setting secure against accidental bumps.

The design of the body is ergonomic and easy to grip in all weather conditions. There is plenty of  eye relief and twist-up eyecups for comfortable extended viewing, even with eyeglasses.

Close focus distance of 10 feet. Rugged, waterproof, and covered by the Leupold Limited Lifetime Warranty.

They are available in natural, black, Advantage Timber, camouflage, or Mossy Oak

Features

• Rugged hunting binocular in black with 10x magnification and 42mm aperture
• Multi-coated lens system ensures maximum brightness for clarity, contrast, and color fidelity
• Generous eye relief and twist-up eyecups for comfortable extended viewing
• Close focus distance of 10 feet; 5.1 degree field of view; 20.5 twilight factor rating
• Waterproof; backed by limited lifetime warranty

Cost and where to buy

These binoculars are now available on Amazon for well under $300, which considering their quality is what I believe to be a really good deal:

Leupold 10×42 Cascades Binoculars on Amazon

One of the most important thing to look out for in a good pair of binoculars for birding is their field of view. This is especially important if most of your birding is done in forested areas or places with plenty of vegetation where a wide field of view will make it much easier to locate fast and erratic moving birds.

For those that don’t know, the field of view is basically the width of the scene that is in view when you look through your binoculars. Even if the magnification is the same, the optical structure of each model of binocular is not the same and how much view the pair of binoculars can pull into your eyes will be different.

The field of view is represented in a number of different ways but usually as a number of feet per thousand yards of distance or meters per 1000 meters of distance. It is also sometimes expressed as an angle.

As with most things there are usually trade off’s and a wide field-of-view eyepiece design often means reduced eye relief and a higher field of view often means a less powerful magnification. For bird watching in a large wooded area, using a wider field of view will be more useful than a high powered magnification and is why most of the best binoculars for bird watching tend to have a magnification of around 8x.

For more information and for full binocular reviews, take a look at this section on binoculars for bird watching on the Best Binocular Reviews Website.

Lorgnette Opera Glasses

Well these Opera Binoculars or Theatre Glasses are actually know as Lorgnette Glasses or probably more correctly Lorgnette Opera Glasses as Lorgnette spectacles (as opposed to a binocular) that were popular in the 19th century and were invented by George Adams and the binocular versions were a natural progression for people attending the theatre and operas.

Some of the biggest brands who produce these versions include Zhumell optics and LaScala Optics:

Lorgnette Glasses on Amazon.com

Opera Glasses on Amazon.co.uk

If you are looking for outright quality, no matter the price, the European and in particular German brands are generally the way to go with the likes of Swarovski, Leica and Steiner.

But value for money, that is where the Japanese companies excel and in particular Nikon. Probably best known for their cameras, they also produce a wide range of Binoculars, monoculars and spotting scopes. Nikon Fieldscopes & Spotting Scopes have are now some of the best in the world and like their binoculars, they use much of their camera technology to enhance the optics.

So to cut to the chase, out of the many compact porro prism binoculars that I have reviewed, some of my favourites are the Nikon Travelite V Binoculars.

Nikon Travelite V Series
The series consists of 5 compact porro prism binoculars with magnifications that range from 8x to 12x as well as the Nikon Travelite V Zoom Binocular takes you from 8x right up to a 24x magnification.

What is interesting is the 9×25 Nikon Travelite V binocular, in that it is not that they have the same field of view as the 8x binocular which makes them ideal for birdwatching, yet with slightly more power, which will make them more appealing to the wildlife observer. This as well as the fact that they are small enough to easy put in your luggage makes them ideal binoculars to take on safari. For more on this take a look at this article on the Safari Holiday Guide about the 9×25 Nikon Travelite V Binoculars for safaris, that is well worth a read.

Quality Bak-4 prisms, multi-coated lenses and aspherical eyepiece lenses that provide a very flat viewing field and improve edge-to-edge sharpness over many conventional lenses demonstrate the quality of the optics, whilst a metal frame has a carbon fibre body covering with a rubber coating on top of that all point to a quality construction.

So you get plenty of binocular, but what about cost, well depending on which model you get it ranges from about $80 – $200 / £90 – £200 and in my opinion makes these great value for money.

US Shoppers
Nikon Travelite V Binoculars on Amazon.com

UK Shoppers
Nikon Travelite V Binoculars on Amazon.co.uk

Nice for butterflies and birds – 11/25/2009
by Robert Garriock from San Francisco, CA
These binoculars are great. They are lightweight and easy to carry. These traveled along on many hikes when I lived in Arizona. The optics are sharp and bright. If they were fully weatherproof these binoculars would deserve the highest rating. Because of the fog and drizzle in San Francisco where I live now I tend to keep these at home and don’t give them the use they deserve.

Microscope on the go – 08/31/2009
by Shawn Davis from Dallas, Texas
I recently purchased a pair of the Pentax Papilio Binoculars sold by Eagle Optics. WOW! they are great. They are particularly good for looking at the fine details of VERY close objects such as butterflies, beetles and other insects. They are also great for checking out spiders and bees sitting on wildflowers. Pentax says they focus down to 18 inches and BOY do they ever. They do great for birding in the woods as well although for shore birds and other waterfowl I would recommend a full size pair of binoculars. I love my Papilio’s and would highly recommend them to any nature lover.

Where to Buy & More About Pentax Binoculars
Check out this page on Pentax Binoculars on the Best Binoculars Reviews Website.

What is more, to celebrate this, they are giving away free Steiner t-shirts to the first 50 people who “Become A Fan” of their facebook page. It is still not too late and I have just become a fan myself

The Steiner fan page can be found here: Steiner Facebook Fan Page

More About Steiner Optics:
Steiner were established in 1947 in Germany and are widely acknowledged as one of the world leaders in the manufacturing of quality binoculars since 1947. In addition to the outdoor, hunting and marine markets, Steiner provides products to military and law enforcement worldwide. Allied forces around the world, including the U.S. Army and countless law enforcement agencies, have made Steiner their binocular of choice.

So, a good pair of binoculars ideal for travel and wildlife observation at a great price:

Overall, I would say if you are looking for a good value binocular that is ideal for taking on safari, Steiner 10.5×28 Wildlife Pro’s or the Steiner 12×30 Wildlife Pro Binoculars are hard to beat.

Compact enough to easily carry in your luggage as well as with on a walking safari and take your camera along with as well. If you plan on a walking safari and want to take your camera with, I would suggest the smaller 10.5×28′s

Tough enough to survive the travelling a well as general bumps in the 4×4 on safari.

Excellent quality optics and workmanship from one of the best brands.

All at what I would call a reasonable price. So plenty of binoculars for your money.

More about Me

I used to work as a safari guide in South Africa and so used to use my own pairs as well as see those of the guests and comparing different brands and versions is what first got me interested in binoculars. Since returning to the UK from South Africa, I set up the binocular reviews website and have a section on the best binoculars for safaris. I also have a section on my Safari Guide Website, that will help: Safari Binocular Reviews: Best Safari Binoculars

I hope this helps and I hope that you have a great holiday.

Configurations Available:

• 10×32 mm
• 8×32 mm
• 6×32 mm

The smaller 32mm diameter objective lens means that they are far more compact than the standard 42mm versions, yet not so small that they sacrifice performance.

Depending on which model you are looking at, they have a list price of between $470 and $550, but are usually available for sale at a far cheaper price and I seen them on Amazon and Eagle Optics for between $320 – $370

So in my opinion these make ideal travel companions, small enough to easily pack away into your luggage and simple to carry around with you.

For more information and where to buy, take a look at this in-depth review of Leupold Wind River Binoculars.

Brunton is an American company based in Riverton, Wyoming, that are best known for their top of the range outdoor and camping equipment, They produce items like high end portable stoves, solar heating devices and compasses.

Brunton Binoculars
Their flagship range are the Brunton Epoch binoculars that are good, but are probably out of the price range for most people, except a few that are looking for the best optics and even then I feel most people would probably end up choosing more recognizable brand, like a pair of Carl Zeiss or Swarovski binoculars.

This is why it is the series of Brunton Echo Binoculars that are for me most interesting. They sit just above entry level, but still have many features that you would probably expect to find in far more expensive optics, things like Bak-4 prism glass with fully multi-coated lenses. They are also fully waterproof as well as nitrogen filled to prevent fogging up.

There are 10 different binoculars in three sizes in the Echo Series, Full size, Medium and compact binoculars.

The medium 8×32 and 10×32 Echo binoculars are of real interest, especially to those looking for a pair to take on safari or other outdoor or wildlife adventure as I feel that they offer a good compromise between size, quality and brightness of image and of course price.

Whilst they are never going to compete with the quality of the Swarovski EL 32 binoculars, for my money some of the finest binoculars in the world, they are however FAR FAR cheaper.

A pair of Swarovski’s costs between $1500 and $2000, but at around $210 – $250, the Brunton’s are almost 10x cheaper, yet the Swarovski’s are definitely not 10x better.

Overall, I think the best way to sum up the Echo Range from Brunton, would be value for money.

They are not the best binoculars in the world and they are far from being the worst. But I do think that you get a pretty decent pair of binoculars for the amount you pay. If you are looking for the best, I am afraid you will still have to pay for it and get something like a pair of Swarovski’s. But if you are looking for a good dependable, take anywhere pair of binoculars, you could do far worse that a pair of Brunton Echo Binoculars.

USA Shoppers
Brunton Echo Binoculars on Amazon.com

Swarovski EL 10x32 Binocular on Sale

If you were thinking of purchasing a real quality pair of optics, now may be the time as whilst I researching the fantastic range of Swarovski EL Binoculars, I noticed that Eagle Optics currently have a sale on most of their Swarovski binoculars as well as their scopes.

For example the Swarovski EL 10×42 Binoculars which are ideal for birdwatching and wildlife viewing have a suggested retail price of $2187.78 and they are listed on Eagle Optics for $1749.00, saving you an impressive $438.78 (20%) or if you are after something a little more compact, the Swarovski EL 10×32 Binocular has a list price of $2098.89 and are listed on Eagle Optics for $1679.00, saving you $419.89 (20%)

For more details follow to my blog post on  Swarovski binoculars on sale at Eagle Optics on the Best Binoculars & Binocular Reviews Website.

Post Update
Since writing this post, i have now also reviewed the binoculars in the Swaroviski EL range, so for more information and full reviews on these binoculars, take a look at the following links below:

• Swarovski Binoculars
• Swarovski EL Binoculars