The holiday rush showed me that there was a lot of increased interest in the Celestron Nature DX 8x42 binocular, which is one of the best performers you're going to find at such a low price. Any lower and you're getting into territory where durability becomes a concern.

Here is a review of binoculars released in 2013 and the Nature DX 8x42 received the highest rating of the group of sub-$200 binoculars tested.

I'd also like to point out that Leupold and Bushnell didn't even make the list.