In my opinion the 8X42 or 8X43 is the all-around best choice for hunting mixed cover. What I mean by mixed cover is the type of ground I hunt here in West Tennessee. One day you are in the woods with 75 yard max shot and then that afternoon you may be hunting a 250 acre cut corn field.

I have the Pentax DCF-SP in 8X43. In three years of owning this bino I have never felt underpowered at any viewing range. I use them for every type of hunting (deer, turkey, coyote, waterfowl) and sports viewing. I looked at the 10X before buying the 8X43s and quickly decided against it because of the following

1. 8X will always be brighter than 10X in binos of the same objective size. The exit pupil (the diameter of the light stream exiting the ocular lens) is 5.375mm for my 8X binos vs. 4.3mm for the 10X. This is a significant and noticable difference in brightness, especially at lower light levels.

2. Wider field of view with 8X

3. I read that is is more difficult to build a good 10X bino at the lower and mid-level price pionts compared to a 8X. I would consider my Pentax SPs as a mid-level binocular.

4. Excessive imageshake with the 10X. I simply can't hold them still enough for any extended period of time. How does one expect to count the points on a distant deer when the image is shaking and fuzzy????

5. The step-up in magnification from 8X to 10X is far less than you may realize. A deerviewed at 500 yardswith a 10x bino appears to be 50 yards away. That same deer viewed with an 8x bino appears to be standing 62.5 yards away. In order to gain those additional 12.5 yards of magnification at 500 yards viewing distance I was unwilling to sacrifice all the other advantages that an 8X glass has over the 10X (FOV, more stable, better image quality, brightness)


Mouthcaller