Under $300 I would suggest the Bushnell Legend Ultra HD. ED glass objectives, fully multicoated lenses and phasecoated prisms plus they have Bushnell's rainguard coating on the exterior lenses. Regular price is around $225 on the net plus Bushnell currently has a $50 mail-in rebate.

Basspro has a pair of 10x42 on sale this week for 49.99. I bought this same pair back in August and they are waterproof. I used them yesterday in the woods and I got to say I am really impressed with them. Very crisp and clear optics

Basspro has a pair of 10x42 on sale this week for 49.99. I bought this same pair back in August and they are waterproof. I used them yesterday in the woods and I got to say I am really impressed with them. Very crisp and clear optics. Regular price is supposedly 149.99

I ordered a set of 8x42 Nikon Trailblazer ATB's on sale for $119.99 at Cabela's. I should get them today or tomorrow, so I'll report back after I get a little field time in with them. Pretty excited to try them out!

I looked through a set of 10x42 Nikon Trailblazers ($150) and 10x25 Nikon Compacts ($70) at Walmart and really liked how the Trailblazer performed compared to the compacts. I think the 8x42's will perform nice in low light situations in the woods compared to the 10x25's. I guess any binocs can look pretty good in a lit up store! lol

I recently tried the Nikon Monarchs, and Alpen Optics Wings 10x42, and the Alpen definitely had superior contrast and brightness to the Nikons, which were the same size.

I'll throw another punch for the Diamondbacks, hard to beat for the price. I have the 10x42's.

8X42 vortex diamond backs

IMHO, the Zen-Ray VISTA is the best binoculars under $200. people have reported that it has the same optics as Vortex Diamondback

http://www.zen-ray.com/shop/binocula...vista8x42.html

Nikon Monarchs all the way. I bought a pair of Trailblazers the year before last, should have kept the box and tossed the binos. Trailblazers were bad in low light, edge to edge clarity, poorly designed eye cups......... This year I bought 8x42 Monarchs and am quite happy. Very good in low light, clarity and are very light. Money well spent,

The Vortex Diamond is good enough. My husband uses it for several years and seems to be glad enough!