Leupold BX-5 Santiam (1 Viewer)

There’s some very attractive prices on these now but I have found no reviews on the 8x42 and 10x42, including the Leupold forum here. Does anybody have experience with these?

Nobody?

I got the Santiam 15x56, but that‘s a different story than 8x42.

I spoke with a fellow at Leupold. He told me the BX4 and BX5 have identical (glass and coatings) oculars and objectives. The only difference is the body and the prism coatings, which he said give a the BX5 better contrast. He wasn’t sure if the prisms were different beyond coatings. The larger 15x versions have the abbe-konig? Prisms but Leupold makes no mention of them in the 42 mm models. Interestingly he said the users who would see the most benefit would be birders. I didn’t tell him I was a birder so he wasn’t trying to sell me on the BX5. So at retail I cant see paying double for the BX5s but the 10x42s can be had for $849 at Eurooptic and the 8x42 for $683 at Optics Planet using a 10% off promo they are running now.

Leupold is becoming more clueless by the day IMO.