These binos are what they are, and they are small, but not TOO small. I replaced a set of 8x20 swarovski pockets because I didn't care for their dual hinges, they were a little difficult to keep steady, and their FOV wasn't quite holding their ground for my line of work. So in comes the CL companion 8x30's. I was looking for small/light single hinge binos as I backpack them to work daily. I got the wild nature bag because it looked the most compact. It fits into a pocket inside my backpack and the bag itself stays there. I just zip the top of the bag open and remove the binos while the bag stays in place in my pack. The setup is working perfect for me so far.
These new CL companions may be just a tad small to be primary binos for some folks' taste. I have average size hands that measure 8 inches from base of wrist to tip of middle finger and 3.75 inches from side to side of my palm; I usually wear a US medium size glove. When I have these 8x CL's in my viewing configuration of no strap connected and interpupillary distance of 2.5 inches I most often find myself using one hand to hold then. My single hand wraps around over half of the entire frame. It's hard to explain without a picture, but my thumb crosses under one whole barrel and my thumb tip rests in the thumb grove of the opposite barrel. Similarly on top of the frame, my index finger lays completely over the focus wheel until the wheel rests in the first joint of my finger. My middle finger wraps over the hinge while my ring finger and pinky wrap around the single barrel. The frame fits very snug and secure in my hand, but to move the focus wheel I need to lift my index finger, thus making my single hand grip not quite as secure.
At first I thought everything seemed a little stiff; the hinge, the eye cups and the focus knob. Maybe I have gotten used to them or loosened everything up a bit, but nothing is over stiff after a month of daily use. I am glad that the focus knob is the size that it is, any smaller would make it difficult to spin with one finger tip being at the torque that it is. Now it is "just right" I'd say.
I cannot complain about the diopter on thees as many people have. I leave it at zero for all the viewing I do and it just simply hasn't been a nuisance at all. Why do people need to change the diopter often? Does their +/- difference change that much when viewing at multiple distances?
I do not wear correction glasses but often wear sunglasses. The eye cups closed makes a good eye relief for my glasses, but I need to extend the interpupillary diastance to about 2.7 inches. Without glasses and the eye cups extended makes for perfect eye relief with the eye cups just very lightly pressed into my eye socket. I have literally zero blackout issues with these binos, and being as small as they are it is surprising.
Optically they are crystal clear. FOV is on par with what I needed for my line of work. Often at work there are pairs of Steiner, Fujinon and/or Nikon mariner 7x50's available. (I don't like using them for fear of contracting pink eye). The CL Companions outperform them in every way besides FOV size, but the edges of the x50's are all grainy it seems. In overcast situations the swaros really shine with much better color and true sharpness throughout, whereas the others seem to become more and more gray, lacking color contrasts.
With these new CL Companion 8x30's I got what I needed and that was a small, rugged, single hinge bino that gets packed around and used A LOT! In no way is this a complaint, but their size is just a tad small, then again, that's what I needed. But if I'm replacing these in 10 years, I might look into a set of 8x32 EL's. I think I'd like their hinged exit pupil covers and of course their ergonomics. Not much need for better glass than these companions to be honest. They are as good as it gets IMO, or at least as good as it needs to be. I don't think the 5 extra oz of weight on the EL's would slow me down since I hardly never use the neck strap. Mostly I'll need to consider if the EL double price can be afforded when the time comes and it it's worth the ergonomics and swinging exit covers.
For now, I am ecstatic with these sleek little companions.