I thought the same thing about binocular restrictions until I came to read that higher magnification binoculars can be used as rangefinders to a fairly accurate degree based on the turns of the dial to focus. Apparently 8x or less isn' t sensitive enough in field of focus to provide that capability. At the qualifiers, there was one guy out with rangefinder binoculars that got caught and another guy with 12x binoculars with marks on the focus wheel for ranges.