Let me preface this with a little of my background.

I have 5 years experince as an optician (lab and dispensing)

I was a US navy Opticalman for 4 years went to tech schools in both Great Lakes Il and New london CT. Serviced thousands of pairs of binoculars, hundereds of periscopes, lots and lots of telescopes, numerous navigational instruments.

4 years experience servicing opthalmic intruments (eye doctors equipments) microscopes, astonomical telescopes, and tons of binoculars.

2 years experience in laser optics

As a side note. When I was involved with astonomical telescopes and astronomical optics we had a little joke about newbies just getting into astronomy. The joke was about amateur astronomers obsession with power. Always the question "what power is this" or "what's the most power I can get out of my scope". People who spend their livesworking with optics know what I'm talking about. Power is way overrated.

So here's my question to you all........

WHY....WHY ....WHY.. do so many of you guys who are obviously pretty damn intelligent carry around 10X binoculars? My guess is that you have fallen prey to a marketing strategy.

I've got a slew of reasons most hunters (especially bow hunters) should be carrying 7X, 8X, 8.5X, or maybe even 9X binos.

I've already heard most of the reasonssome of youcarry 10X. But Let me hear your reason you carry 10X.

I'll post the reasons lower power (8X)are better suited for 99.5% of hunting (&3D)situations after I hear from you all.

By the way if you've got 10X I'm not advocating you throw them away. But if your thinking about getting a new pair or a second pair you might want to rethink or take a closer look at the power.

i hunt out west. long distance glassing were, IMO, i would need to bring the thing i am looking at that extra 2x closer. granite i am giving up light gathering, ... but when i compared the 10 with the 8 the 10 brought it just that hair closer in the store..so at a farther distance ... oh say 800 yards that i am looking at a buck and need to see if he is a 3x3 or a 2x2....10x would be better suited for that situation.

I use 8X, but I will echo what JNTURK said about10X for viewing detail at long distances. I have hunted a few time in Eastern Montana. Wide open country compared to the deep south where I hunt. Down here frankly 4X-6X is plenty. There were times while looking across 2000 - 3000 yards wide washes I'd like to havehad 10X.

I have got to go with the author on this one. My binoculars are 8X56 Swarovski SLC's. Clarity at long distance is directly related to optical quality not power. I am not saying power is not important, I am saying to buy quality-not power. I can see things with my Swaro's at 600 yards on 8X that a lot of optics will not pick up with 10X or greater power.

At the shooting range my friends use my binoculars to spot their hits at distances of 200 yards and more, and some of there scopes go to 20X. Tom.

Hi Tom, Riflescopes have more opitcal glass [elements]in them and I noticed that my Leupold 2-7x33 riflescope set at 7X would not pick up the detail that my Swarovski 7x30SLC would on a foggy day. This 7x30SLC binocular is a non p-coated roof. I only ever use 10X groundhog hunting and it helps to use a rest of some sort. I hunted in Union W. Virginia with my brother-in-laws and we hunted farm fields, I sometimes wished I had 10X there a few times.:-) I would say you lose the advantage of 10X to some extent because of tremor without a rest. I put a vote in for a very good 7x myself,also 8X. :-)

vichris, Do you still repair binoculars? Do you know Bill Cook?


Regards,Steve

Ok....I purposely didn't mention anything in my original post about the size of the objective lens or exit pupil. I'm glad to see most of you understand the relationship between the two. Multiply the power into the size of the objective and you get the size of the exit pupil. 8 divided by 42 is 5.2....a 5.2 mm dot of light coming out of the eyepiece will more than cover your pupil even under poor light conditions, on an 8X42 bino . 10 divided by 42 is 4.2mm on a 10X42 bino. Give me the choice between an 8X25 with a 3.1 mm exit pupil and a 10X42 with a 4.2mm exit pupil and I'd be a fool to choose the 8X25.....of course I'd choose the 10X42....but are either of those choices ideal? When you couple a smaller exit pupil with magnified movement do you think you're going to get ideal resolution????? Now give me the choice between an 8X42 with a 5.2 mm exit pupil and a 10X42 with a 4.2 mm exit pupil I'll take that big dot of light every time. That bigger dot of light not only covers all of your pupil under almost any hunting condition but also allows for movement and misadjustment of interpupilary distance. You all ALWAYS have your binos set at the perfect interpupillary distance don't you????????

The US military has studied the human body as it relates to optics. The average maximum that the human pupil will open up to is 7mm. So designing an optic with an exit pupil of 7mm would meet ANY viewing condition thus the military standard 7 X 50. They also found that 97% of the test group could HANDHOLD a 7 X bino well enough to CORRECTLY count the lines on a 7X resolution chart.............but only 8% could CORRECTLY count the lines with a handheld 10X bino on a 10X resolution chart. All of the binos had at least a 5mm exit pupil. The test group were required to use both hands, could sit, stand, or kneel, steady themselves in any way against any part of their own body but were not allowed to lay prone or use any foreign object to help steady themselves or the bino. The test group were between the age of 18-27.

Bino's by design are handheld, so it only makes sense to use a binocular that gives you the best possible options while using them handheld. If most of your glassing is from a bluff overlooking a huge expands of land and you glass while sitting then by all means get a tripod and buy a 15X or use a spotting scope. But for that peice of glass that hangs around your neck that you use in MOST hunting conditions..... what's the best option? BTW I love those answers along the lines of "well I hunt out west were you can see for miles"?????? Well I live on earth and I can see for millions of miles with my naked eye completely through our atmosphere and see Mars. How many of you know that you can clearly see the rings of Saturn with only 20X. ..... (the larger the exit pupil the better the resolution.) By the way I live in New Mexico and can clearly see with as much detail as you can.... the same thing you're looking at with 10X...... because I use an optic that gives me excellent resolution and I CAN HOLD IT STILL ENOUGH to take advantage of that resolution.

Lets talk about hunting conditions. How many of you all are going to tell me you never use your bino with ONE hand. How many of you are going to tell me you can't "see" your heart beat or your breathing cycle when looking through your binos. How many of you are going to tell me you are as steady as a rock with a pack on your back and a bow or gun in one hand as you top a ridge and see movement on the next ridge over. How many of you are going to tell me you are as calm as a lamb when you see a tangled web of antlers on top of that buck or bull. Movement is your enemy when looking through any optic and the more power you try to handhold the more that movement is magnified. You see the question is NOT will the 10X or 12X bino produce good resolution. With most decent optics made today the answer is almost certainly YES they will produce good resolution. The question IS can you hold them steady enough to take advantage of that resolution?

Just some food for thought for those of you looking to buy a new pair of binos. And see.... we haven't even touched on FOV, matched optics, coatings, or any brand names.

I believe as well 8x's are the right balance/mag for use/performance/ in field conditions. If you need detail at distance the logical step to me is a spotter on a tripod. I always thought bigger was better until I realized when it comes to some things like opticsa point ofdiminishing return factors in. Less light to the pupil, ability to hold on target for extended periods, weight, etc. I moved my bins to the 8x and never lost a beat but rather I feel I gained. In recent I have proclaimed my approvalfor my 10x42 EL's here but they were switched for 8's this fall - no regrets. I hunt where there are places where you can watch your dog run away from home for 3 days, yes it can be prettyflat/open in the saskatchewan prairie. The extra 2x didn't do enough in area of bringing it in even on high end glass. I like many used the lower to mid range bins and noticed more performance issues between a comparable 8 vs a 10 then with the swaro's. The only reason I bought the 10x ELwas the price so when I had the opportunity to trade for new 8's straight across I jumped on it and no regrets.

Most folk really don't consider how little they gain in magnification on a 10x

At 500 yds with 8x the subject looks to be 62 yds vs 50 yds with the 10x......... it is negligable. Yes the performance on an 8 x far outweighs that little extra power that in most cases isn't realized anyway because they are right at the limit of what you can hold steady enough to see the detail.

BTW I've been looking at that Swaro 8.5x42 EL. Wish I could afford those..... probably the best peice of glass on the market today.

IMO, when trying to look at antler size at further distances (500+) 12 yards can make a difference if you are looking at inches on an animals head.

In the instance of field judging animals down to inches at distances such as 500 yards(+)bins in my hands of any mag wouldn't be my choice. JMO but I spend a fair bit of time peering at antlers in a given year and if I am long distance field judging bins aren't the tool I chose for the application, it's a spotting scope on a pod.