I've been looking at a couple of the compact steiner binoculars and was wondering if anyone has been using them? Just wondering if they are any better than the cheaper models for late evening hunts.

I have the Steiner nighthunters 8x56's. I like em' and they definately gather some light. I hunt yotes using just the moon as a light source. Some important things to consider are thesure they have multiple lens coatings and a the bigger the exit pupil the more light that will reach your eye. An averagehuman eye opens to around 5mm so anything much over that we can't beneifit from anyhow. To get the exit pupil you divide the objective by the power, so mine have an exit pupil of 7mm. 56/8. 10x50s=5 and so on. I'm sure there are other good brands out there, I got the steiners cause their lightweight, rugged, have a good warranty, and had eyecups that fit my face well. Try em all out, I suggest going with some that are comfortable to look through and meet some of your minimum performance requirements. Good luck.

Thanks for the reply. I've got a pair of 10x50 Swift binoculars i like but they are big and heavy. I've also got a 25.00 pair of 12X tasco compact that don't help much in the late afternoon, and was wondering if it was the compact style or just the quality of the binoculars?

I'm sure if their compact they have a small objective, and thus a very low exit pupil. Typically, compact binos aren't good for evening viewing, especially those that are 12x. When you mix 12x with a 20mm objective you looking at an exit pupil <1....not good for light gathering. I'm sure if you paid $25 for them, their not fully multi-coated lenseseither. If your wanting the best evening viewing you'll have to sacrifice somewhere, either with bulk, lower magnification, or $$$. The nighthunter series is suprisingly lightweight for the size, maybe the 7x50s would interest you. I had some 10x50 bushnells and replaced em' with the 8x56 steiners and couldn't tell a bit of diff. in the magnification....the quality of the steiners more that compensated for the 2x diff. If you looking for a cheaper pair, Alpine makes some decent waterproof binos that are slimmer and probably lighter.Most people say you get what you pay for in optics....I'd probably agree for the most part. Good luck.

I have not used any of the small Steiners but did have a chance to look through the Peregrines. Nice view and well built but others in the same price class offer better optical performance, IMO,....namely Pentax and Kahles.

If you are going with a compact then I would suggest a reverse porro prism design. They allow brighter, crisper images than those small folding roof prism designs...unless they are phase coated and then you are talking about at least $300. And, as mentioned above, you are going to end up with a small exit pupil meaning poor contrast and image quality in low light conditions..when you need them most.

If you want good image quality but don't want full sized binos (10x50s, 8x40s, etc...) then check out many of the 8x30 and 8x32s on the market. They offer 90% of the performance of a full sized bino even in low light and yet the are typically much more compact to use and carry.

My own choice for this season is a pair of Pentax DCF-XPs in 8x33. As you can see they compare very well in size to a typical roof prism compact and yet the image they provide is far brighter and offers better contrast.

Hope this helps.

Sorry, forgot the pic....

Thanks for all the good info and advice. I'll keep looking and se if i can find a happy medium.