Bfo
It is understandable that some birders react negatively to hunters, but this is a binocular forum, and a good one to boot, so personally I choose to leave those issues aside and concentrate on binoculars here.
Answering the original question, there's not much in practical terms between the models discussed in this thread. They would all give an excellent image and plenty of detail. What was missing in your description of your needs is to what extent you are able to brace your binoculars when viewing, or to what extent they are genuinely hand-held. This makes a lot of difference, as when you can support the binoculars, you will get concrete benefits from magnifications higher than 8x. Then, a 10x42-50 model might be better for you than an 8x42, and the higher magnification will show you more detail more easily even in dusk and deep twilight, let alone in full daylight.
Then there is the option not yet mentioned of using an image-stabilized binocular. This is what I do for all of my birding except for the bit where I'm testing other binoculars, and for much of my other binocular use. Reason being that they show so much more detail than any normal hand-held binocular, no matter how good. They also show detail quicker and with more certainty. For instance, with stabilized binoculars it is easy to count the remiges of an eagle, and spotting immobile birds from treetops or foliage is greatly facilitated. So, overall, I'd recommend the Canon 10x42 IS L over all other options. In the following link, there is discussion on the benefits of stabilization in some detail:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=297776
Hope this helps.
Kimmo
I wasn't reacting negatively because he's a hunter, we've got some hunters on here who are also birders, but since his questions were specifically how the bins would work for hunting, it seemed that he might find more targeted answers on a hunting bin forum such as Optics Talk or 24hrcampfire where they even have reviews by hunting optics experts such as John Barsness as well as some hunters on BF. Steve C. and Frank D. are both big contributors on Optics Talk.
OTOH, I have read on more than one occasion where just the opposite has happened, i.e., hunters on those forums have referred to reviews or comments on BF because when it comes to sports optics, nobody is more obsessed with optics than birders since binoculars are not a means to the end as it is with hunters but the end itself.
Still, if I were looking for a bin for birding, I would come here, not Optics Talk since what birders find important in bins is not what hunters do as the OP stated with his lack of interest in close focus. There's more, while some birders bird all year around, not too many go out in 0*F weather to watch birds (except that "jerk" HighNorth
).
It's also dim in the winter, so low light performance is more important to most hunters than it is to most birders. Aperture is also more important to hunters than it is for birders, some birders use compacts as their main bins. Trying taking a compact out in late November to look for deer a half mile away on an overcast day. "Was that a deer antler or a tree branch or a floater in my eye?
When I visit Dick's Sporting Goods to try binoculars, most of the binoculars in the case are 10x. Most birders don't need or use 10x bins, but from looking at Dick's selection and reading reviews in hunting magazines, more often than not 10x is preferred by hunters, because they are generally looking at greater distances than birders.
Then there's different styles of hunting which require different kinds of bins such as stalking in the bush or hunting from a tree stand or blind. Hunters have experience with these differences, most birders do not.
While alphas are alphas are alphas, selecting the best tool for the job as a birder is different than selecting the best tool for a job as a hunter.
That was my point. You want to eat a good Italian dish, you don't go to Red Lobster. :eat:
<B>