I was very excited about this pair of binoculars for a number of reasons. I found them at a great price online (a little under $200), the extremely sparse reviews online sounded promising, and I liked the specs. I ordered them sight unseen based on:
629g/22.2oz
6.45° FOV (341ft / 114m)
12cm/4.8" long
17mm eye relief
Possibly a magnesium body (B&H mentioned this but not Bushnell, so perhaps this was a spec lost in a product update)
ED glass
It seems like a great size format: very compact in length, relatively lightweight, and the 36mm objective gives a little step up in exit pupil which I figured would improve ergonomics and performance when compared to the much more common 10x32 midsize format, without stepping up to a 10x42. I already own a heavier 10x50 (Nikon Action EX) and this looked to be a good compliment to my small collection.
The image quality under ideal lighting conditions was great. The spec'd eye relief was a little overstated but still usable for me with glasses on, getting just nearly the whole field in view with the eye cups down. But I found such a strong problem with glare, it ironically overshadowed everything else about these. With the sun even 40° off-axis there was a strong glare on the opposite edge of the field. A little closer to a light source or over water and a significant veiling glare was unavoidable, even by shifting eye position to the opposite edge of the exit pupil. On an overcast day, there was a haze over the entire image. Realizing that sometimes glare has to do with internal reflections from the ocular lens, I tried using them without glasses, varying the IPD and eye cup settings, but the problem would not go away.
It was so bad I thought these might have been a defect, something didn't get black paint inside the barrels that should have. Maybe that's how I got that good price? I couldn't see anything, but there were bright specular reflections right at the edge of the pupil and other reflections around it when holding the binoculars at a distance. I sent them in to Bushnell and while the person I spoke to there was very nice, he explained that he both didn't see any glare at all when looking through my pair, and that glare happens with all binoculars. Besides any potential contradictions between those two points, he assured me the view looked the same as his reference sample and offered to send a new unit.
I think especially for a 10x, which one might be using it for shore birds and raptors (my reason for wanting a 10x anyway), effective handling of stray light is critical. I only tested a sample size of 1, but it seems to me that this is a binocular which looks better on paper than through the barrels. Skip these.
629g/22.2oz
6.45° FOV (341ft / 114m)
12cm/4.8" long
17mm eye relief
Possibly a magnesium body (B&H mentioned this but not Bushnell, so perhaps this was a spec lost in a product update)
ED glass
It seems like a great size format: very compact in length, relatively lightweight, and the 36mm objective gives a little step up in exit pupil which I figured would improve ergonomics and performance when compared to the much more common 10x32 midsize format, without stepping up to a 10x42. I already own a heavier 10x50 (Nikon Action EX) and this looked to be a good compliment to my small collection.
The image quality under ideal lighting conditions was great. The spec'd eye relief was a little overstated but still usable for me with glasses on, getting just nearly the whole field in view with the eye cups down. But I found such a strong problem with glare, it ironically overshadowed everything else about these. With the sun even 40° off-axis there was a strong glare on the opposite edge of the field. A little closer to a light source or over water and a significant veiling glare was unavoidable, even by shifting eye position to the opposite edge of the exit pupil. On an overcast day, there was a haze over the entire image. Realizing that sometimes glare has to do with internal reflections from the ocular lens, I tried using them without glasses, varying the IPD and eye cup settings, but the problem would not go away.
It was so bad I thought these might have been a defect, something didn't get black paint inside the barrels that should have. Maybe that's how I got that good price? I couldn't see anything, but there were bright specular reflections right at the edge of the pupil and other reflections around it when holding the binoculars at a distance. I sent them in to Bushnell and while the person I spoke to there was very nice, he explained that he both didn't see any glare at all when looking through my pair, and that glare happens with all binoculars. Besides any potential contradictions between those two points, he assured me the view looked the same as his reference sample and offered to send a new unit.
I think especially for a 10x, which one might be using it for shore birds and raptors (my reason for wanting a 10x anyway), effective handling of stray light is critical. I only tested a sample size of 1, but it seems to me that this is a binocular which looks better on paper than through the barrels. Skip these.
