Santa Claus brought my son the Vortax Diamondback 8X42 in coyote brown. My son and I hunt deer, turkeys, waterfowl, and coyotes together and he is always asking to look through my Pentax DCF SPs (can't blame him for that). Since I wear a bino harness it is a bit of a pain taking them off, put them back own, etc. It was time he get his firstbinocular.

I (er, Santa) researched the purchase for a good roof prism glass around or less than $200.00. My son is 11 and has demonstrated a bad habit of misplacing things, so a more expensive bino was out of the question. I could get better glass with poro prism binos at that price point, but he wanted roofs.

The Diamondbacks are Vortex's best seller (according to the customer service rep at Vortex - probably because of the price I figured). Theyhavethe following features:

- fully multicoated
- phase correction coatings
- Bak4 prisms
- fully water and fogproof, nitrogen purged
- twist-up eyecups
- Vortex VIP lifetime warranty
- objective lens covers that flip down but remain attached to the bino
- good eye relief
- wider field of view than my DCF SPs

I purchased the binos from Eagle optics for 199.99 shipped. They arrived in a nice hard case with a good neck strap. Upon inspecting the bins I was amazed at the optical clarity and brightness. The field of view is noticably wider than my SPs. The edge focus isn't quite as sharp as my SPs but is still quite good for a $200.00 glass. They appear to be well constructed and the brown color is quite nice. The eyecups are among the best I have used. I am no optics expert, but to my eyes the quality of this bino at this price represents a terrific value.

The only downside, which doesn't matter to me, is that the bin is assembled in China. That may bother some people, but with the lifetime warrenty I don't really care. Vortex customer service, from the accounts I've read, is excellent. Additionally the focus wheel isn't quite as smooth as my SPs, but still fine.

Overall he was thrilled with the binocular.Upon using the Diamondback in the field since Christmas Ican strongly recommend this bino for a guy on a tight budget.