McKinley 10x42 on sale at Midway USA (1 Viewer)

For $399 until 1/21/2014

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/55...d-binocular-10x-42mm-roof-prism-armored-black

Wow, that's like the price that Cabelas had last month. Another retailer, B&H, dropped their prices to clear them out too, and now lists them as "discontinued". I wonder if a new model is on the way?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=Leupold+Bx+4+Mckinley+Hd+Binoculars&InitialSearch=yes&N=0

My thoughts too.

For such a 'great' bino, why the huge discount?

Me thinks these are not the Alpha killers Leupold thought they were and simply are not selling.

Cabelas also had their Euro HD discounted during the Holiday shopping season, so I don't thin the price cut at that time is indicative of any sort of failure within the BX-4 product line. I am not sure why BH lists them as discontinued; Cabelas, Opticsplanet, and Eagle Optics all still have them listed at roughly $500-600.

The discount is likely for the same reason the Golden Ring HD was discounted: Leupold caters primarily to lower-end purchases and doesn't seem to have much of a following in the mid and high-end markets. It is sad too, as both the Golden Ring HD and McKinley HD are fantastic optics, albeit in a heavy package (although I like the robustness of them, to be honest).

Oh, and I don't think Leupold envisioned these as an 'Alpha-killer'. From what I've read and heard, these are more or less a stop-gap between the poorly selling but costly to produce Golden Ring HD and their next 'top of the line' product.

All the best,
Justin

McKinley 8x42's are listed as on "sale" at Eagle Optics. $484.99. They do not list any 10 x 42. CameraLand still lists both at regular prices of $600.00 and up.

Bob

I am sure that will change shortly Bob.....as soon as Doug does another one of his "gone somewhere..." sales.

That gives you an idea of the mark up on binocs

Just bought a pair of 8x42 - tested them for about 3 weeks versus several others in price range +/- $150

I was struck by how responsive retailers were to reducing the cost - as perterra noted - it really does tell you how much markup there is on binoculars

I bought mine for approximately $180 off list

yankeeflipper said:

Just bought a pair of 8x42 - tested them for about 3 weeks versus several others in price range +/- $150

I was struck by how responsive retailers were to reducing the cost - as perterra noted - it really does tell you how much markup there is on binoculars

I bought mine for approximately $180 off list

Click to expand...

Tell us more about how they perform, and how they compare
to some others you have ?

These and the Zenray Prime were to be the next best thing to
the Alphas, but on this forum there has been very little on
these.

I suppose you can draw up some binoculars, and try to produce
them with specs. including ED glass, flat field optics and all the rest.

It seems quality control, and execution of this binocular design
is not easy.

Jerry

NDhunter said:

Tell us more about how they perform, and how they compare
to some others you have ?

These and the Zenray Prime were to be the next best thing to
the Alphas, but on this forum there has been very little on
these.

I suppose you can draw up some binoculars, and try to produce
them with specs. including ED glass, flat field optics and all the rest.

It seems quality control, and execution of this binocular design
is not easy.

Jerry

Click to expand...

Yeh, what Jerry said!!! Bryce...

Coin Hound said:

My thoughts too.

For such a 'great' bino, why the huge discount?

Me thinks these are not the Alpha killers Leupold thought they were and simply are not selling.

Click to expand...

Why would anyone think that they were supposed to be "Alpha Killers?"

Their list price is 1/3rd and even less the price of equivalent "Alphas."

Coin Hound said:

Easy--they are almost identical to the Zen Primes--the Zens were marketed in a position to be the Alpha Killer--this is Leupold's version of that Zen

Click to expand...

Almost identical could be quite a hurdle to jump.

I think Zen has marketed pretty much every thing they have ever imported as an alpha killer. I have never heard anyone proclaim any Leupolds other than gold rings as alpha killer. I have heard they were good binocs,

Maybe "alpha-killer" depends on how picky you are, or your criteria. Personally, a pair of binoculars that give 90% of the "view" of alphas (however you define "view"), for 25-50% of the cost are "alpha-killers" for me.

I made it back to Cabela's a few weeks ago and spent some time with the Conquest, Cabelas (Meopta) Euros and the McKinleys (all HD) (and compared them against a Swarovision EL 10x42). Only looked at 10x (I did leave my drivers license and take them outside). W all know that such tests are not like using the binoculars for a couple of weeks in familiar territory, but to my eyes the McKinley's were probably within 10% of the Meoptas and Swaros, optically (brightness, sweet spot size/sharpness and color, although you'll have to give me a little latitude on the last one since it was already afternoon and the light was yellow). The McKinleys seemed as good or better than the Conquests, optically. This was after the Cabela's sale, so the Leupolds were around $600. I found them online for $150 less and ordered them, but when they arrived one eyepiece was very loose. Not broken. It just hadn't been screwed down all the way. I was worried that moist air might have replaced the nitrogen, so I returned them. The others were more user-friendly.

The one big criticism I had with them is that despite the nice big eyepieces, long ER and decent FOV (for 10xs), they were fiddly in terms of eye position and getting a great view. I wear glasses and I had to be precise about getting the IPD and my head position correct. I can't say whether that would have been something I would have adapted to or whether it would have continued to bother me. There was also some rolling ball effect when scanning, which I don't like (bothers me far more than a little CA).

One last note on "alpha-killers": Since I bought my 7x42 Hawthornes in October I have been able to compare them to a couple of 8x "alphas" (again at Cabelas) and I couldn't be happier. I've used them for game-spotting at over a mile and bird ID in dark shady woods and they are a joy. I'm not implying there is anything wrong with searching for bins with the best "view" for you, but I like the standard that I've seen expressed by a few posters here: "There's nothing I could see with [binocular A] that I couldn't see with [binocular B]."

Paul,

I too have found the McKinley HD to exceed the performance of the Conquest HD and be optically close to the others you mentioned. I've tested them primarily in real-world settings (Refuge visitors and participants of our Christmas Bird Count were happy to let me look through their binoculars) and found that I only really preferred the view of the Zeiss HT. Though as you mention, the BX-4 does feature some "rolling ball," I didn't find it nearly as pronounced as in the 8.5x42 or 8x32 Swarovision models, which nearly made me ill when scanning. The view of the Ultravid HD and Trinovid were also brilliant, but I was not able to comfortably use them with my glasses.

I think the two main detractors of the BX-4 are ergonomics, particularly in relation to the shape of one's face, and quality control due to their Chinese origins. The one nice thing about Leupold is they have a fantastic warranty service that will pretty much handle any claim you send them - I've owned three models (BX-4, BX-3, and Green Ring) and have sent the latter two in for repair without issue; they came back clean and without any of the issues I was originally having.

All the best,
Justin

Justin: Lucky me, I got to experience the weird ergonomics and the QC issues first hand! ;-)

You're right about the Swaro's rolling ball effect: literally nausea-inducing (and I'm a former sailor - not prone to motion sickness).

My Japanese-made Hawthornes are so nice that I wish Leupold would work with the makers there to come up with a good 10x42 design, even if it did raise the price a little. Unfortunately, the Hawthorne 10x42 have a narrow FOV and short ER.

Coin Hound said:

Easy--they are almost identical to the Zen Primes--the Zens were marketed in a position to be the Alpha Killer--this is Leupold's version of that Zen

Click to expand...

And how has the marketing of them, from that aspect, gone?:smoke:

Have they out sold any of the Alphas?

Maybe aiming their marketing to this segment of the public who can afford to buy Alpha binoculars was the problem? Perhaps they did not believe the hype?

Bob

The current models are no longer being made.

Mike

Rather than hijack this thread..

NDhunter said:

Tell us more about how they perform, and how they compare
to some others you have ?

....

Jerry

Click to expand...

I'll post my review on the 8x42 review

I compared them directly with Viper HD and EO Ranger ED and indirectly with monarch 7, zeiss terra ed, and conquest