The Best Binoculars for Birds, Nature, and the Outdoors The Wirecutter.

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The Best Binoculars for Birds,

The Wirecutter and The Sweethome (part of The
New York Times Company) are lists of the best
gadgets and gear for people who quickly want

Nature, and the Outdoors

LAST UPDATED: MAY 3, 2016
DANIEL S. COOPER
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To find the best binoculars, we had a professional ornithologist The Wirecutter staff researches, tests, and
spend over 100 hours field-testing 17 pairs against his own recommends the best holiday gifts for every budget.

$2,500 Leica Ultravids. After using our test pairs in the

mountains and hills of Southern California, then on a research Athlon Optics Midas ED
trip to the rain forests of southern Mexico, he found that the Best Binoculars for Birds, Nature, and
the Outdoors
Athlon Optics Midas ED 842 pair was the best of the group,
offering performance comparable to his Leicas for a fraction of Buy for $290* from Amazon

the price and the widest field of view out of all the binoculars
*At the time of publishing, the price was $295
tested. This means youll see more, and it will look better.
 Last Updated: May 3, 2016
You support The Wirecutter by purchasing what we
Weve just completed our first extensive test of binoculars since the summer of 2012, and our recommend. Read more.
new pick for most people are the Athlon Optics Midas ED. If those are not available, check out
the Celestron TrailSeeker model. The Carson VP binoculars are a great bet if youre looking for
We love the things we
an inexpensive pair. And if youre really not worried about money, we still would recommend
the Alpen Wings EDwhich are still a fraction of the price of a pair from Leica or Nikon. recommend. We select each
pick with the utmost care,
Expand Most Recent Updates relying on expert opinion,
Our pick The best binoculars for research, and testing.
nearly everyone
Athlon Optics Midas ED
Amazingly affordable with
great optics, these binoculars Important Specs
have comparable
performance to many models Field of view (at
that cost thousands more. 1,000 yards): 426 feet
Close focus: 6.5 feet
$290* from Amazon
Weight: 25 ounces
*At the time of publishing, the price
was $295.
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The Athlon Optics Midas ED 842along with nearly all of the other binoculars we
testedare the beneficiaries of a revolution in optical quality caused by the falling
costs of precision manufacturing and optical treatments. For under $300 you can get a
pair of binoculars that matchesthats matches, not comes close toproducts that
cost hundreds, or even thousands, more. The Athlon Midas ED pairs optics arent its
only strong suit: These are exceptionally durable binoculars that easily withstood the
humid, dusty, and hostile environment of the Mexican rain forest and harsh sun of the
Californian desert. And their focus dial adjusts reliably and smoothly across a wide
range of depths, making it easy to focus on what youre trying to see, no matter where it
is. ADVERTISEMENT

But if the Athlon Optics

Midas ED
binoculars arent available,
the slightly less-expensive
Celestron TrailSeeker 842
binoculars are a terrific
choice with a comparably
wide field of view.
However, the edges of the
image have noticeable
blurring, whereas the view
through the Athlon Optics Midas ED pair is clear from edge to edge.
If youre on a supertight
budget and are willing to
see less of a scene at a time,
you can get the Carson VP
842 for half the price of
the Athlons and get almost
all the performance, with
only a slight compromise
in field of view (how much
of the landscape youll see through the binoculars).
Runner-up Almost as good Your Guide
Celestron TrailSeeker
A little cheaper than our pick, Daniel S. Cooper is a
but with great light-gathering Southern California native
qualities, optical resolution, and
and a former California
close focusing. director of bird conservation
for the National Audubon
$193* from Amazon +Email
Society. He has collected and
*At the time of publishing, the analyzed ecological data
price was $190. and communicated his
findings to resource
managers and decision-
makers for the past 20 years.
Cooper is the author of
Important Bird Areas of
California and more than two
dozen peer-reviewed papers
Budget pick Splendid views at a great
on California natural history,
price and has worked as an
Carson VP independent consultant on
Proof that binoculars have land use and ecological
undergone a quality revolution, issues for public and private
these are high quality at a price clients around the state and in
that once would have gotten
$128 from Amazon Latin America. He lives in
you little but junk.
Ventura County with his wife
and two young children.
In the past, we might have
Follow The Wirecutter
Upgrade pick Very bright with a great
recommended a $1,500 case Follow Like 40K
pair of Leicas, or perhaps a Alpen Wings ED
high-end Nikon model as Get emails with our best picks and new
Even brighter, better optics and
the best binocular case weve guides every week:
an upgrade pick, but we
ever seen, but at a price.
were so impressed by the Email Address
Alpen Wings ED that wed $424* from Amazon
be hard pressed to find a *At the time of publishing, the
price was $400.
reason to pay more under
any circumstances. The You Might Also Like
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Table of contents The Best Picnic Table Camp

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Who these are forand why binoculars An upgrade thats better optically and
for birding stand in for other has a terrific carrying system
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Flaws but not dealbreakers The competition

Why you should trust me The Best Everyday Rain

Ive been birding since grade school and have spent the past 20 years working as a
Jacket
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professional ornithologist, traveling worldwide to look for and learn about birds. Ive
published a couple dozen scientific papers and wrote Important Bird Areas of California,
published in 2004 by Audubon California. Professionally, I lead birding trips for both ADVERTISEMENT

beginners and experts, and for my day job I perform environmental surveys for
individuals, conservation groups, corporations, and government agencies.

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The author testing binoculars in Mexico. Photo: Dan Cooper Lenses
 Point And Shoot
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Ive peered through binoculars of different types If my Leicas got lost
Cars
and made by dozens of different brands over the tomorrow, I wouldnt Car Extras
years, and had settled on my current pair of $2,500 hesitate to replace them
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Leica Ultravids. After eight weeks of testing over 30 with one of our top picks. Keyboards
pairs of binoculars in the $150 to $350 price range Monitors
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Who these are forand why binoculars for birding stand in Receivers
for other applications Soundbars
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Anyone looking to make far-away objects appear a bit closer should consider a good
pair of binoculars. But you might wonder why this story is so oriented toward bird Mobile Extras
Cases
watching. The answer is simple: Binoculars that are great for birders are great for Exercise
anyone looking to make things appear closerwhether youre hunting, watching
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sports, or otherwise. Thats because birding asks everything you need to ask of
binoculars. So even if you never plan to seek a scissor-tailed flycatcher or a harpy eagle,
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birding binoculars will do what you ask. (But you really should try out birding; for Outdoors
more info, contact your local Audubon Society, or, in North America, pick up either The Print / Scan
Sibley Guide to Birds or the Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America.) Scanners
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No matter what you plan to gaze at, your binoculars need to do two things well: They
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need to make distant objects closer, and they need to make them clearer. The better the
binoculars, the better you can see those birds up in trees, those athletes down on a Smart Home
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field, the antlers of a deer crouching at the edge of a woodlot, or the butterflies
gathering at a drying patch of mud along a trail. Weve tried to pick binoculars that do Smartphones
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Challenging conditionsdense vegetation and varying levels of light. Photo: Dan Cooper

How we picked When faced with the challenge of providing

liquor to your friends and family, you cant go
So, what exactly makes good binoculars? Binoculars optics consist of three main wrong with a boozy punch or batch cocktail.
components that affect their performance: the ocular lenses (in the eyepiece), the
objective lenses (the lenses that are farthest away from your face), and the prism, which
December 23, 2016
well discuss further in a bit. The ocular lens is a magnifier. So when you see
binoculars specifications, the first number signifies how much that lens enlarges what Inner Vision for the
youre looking at. In the case of all the models we tested, that number is an eight, so Weekend of December 23,
youre getting an image size eight times larger than you see with the naked eye. The 2016
objective lens gathers light; its related numberin our case, 42indicates the
diameter of that lens in millimeters. The bigger the lens, the more light it can gather.

We chose to limit our tests to 842 binoculars for a number of reasons, one being that
we found 10x binoculars to be too shaky, like walking around with a fully zoomed
telephoto camera lens. Plus, the 42 objective-lens size is perfect for balancing
brightness and clarity with weight. Compact binoculars, which have smaller objective
lenses, are often much dimmer. Theyre not great if you want to truly spot and identify
something in the field, though good reasons to use smaller binoculars do exist, as
many backpackers and travel-light types will attest. We plan to test compact binoculars With our final edition of Inner Vision we share
some of the best books of 2016, explore using
soon.
breath control to counteract the effects of feeling
cold, compare JPEG output of several of the
Other no-go categories that we wont be touching anytime soon are zoom binoculars or most popular digital cameras, and say farewell
binoculars that include a digital camera. In the former case, youll end up with optics with a list of gratitude.
so compromised (less light-gathering ability, lower clarity) that the convenience of
multiple levels of magnification would be quickly negated. In the latter, the quality of
the cameras found inside these neither-here-nor-there binoculars is about a thousand
years behind even the most basic modern smartphone. Stay away.
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and The Best Gear for Travel. [See all 10 most
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The good news is that the true technological improvements in binoculars over the past
few years have come not in gimmicky features, but optics. Whereas 20 years ago you
might have needed to spend $500 to get decent, waterproof binoculars from a factory December 22, 2016
in the Midwest, now the recent manufacturing boom in China has brought us
increasingly cheaper versions of familiar products, resulting in a crush of nearly The Best 360-Degree
identical binocularsmore than 2,000 models right now on Amazon, for example Camera
most of them featuring similar designs.

After 30 hours of research and hands-on

testing, the Ricoh Theta S is the camera we
recommend for creating 360-degree stills and
video.

The Best Turntable for Casual

Listening

Left: Vintage (circa 1966) Carl Zeiss porro-prism binoculars. The Zeiss 850 binoculars cost $175 back then and
were considered the best in the world. Right: Modern roof-prism binoculars. Photo: Dan Koeppel

Most of these binoculars now feature roof prisms, rather than old-fashioned porro
prisms. Roof-prism binoculars, which you can identify easily by their H shape, draw
light in along a straight path through the binoculars, from the objective lens to the
The highly adjustable, good-sounding Audio-
eyepiece. Porro-prism binoculars, typically A shaped (see photo above), bounce the
Technica AT-LP120-USB, with a built-in phono
light along an angled path. Though either design can yield a great pair of binoculars, preamp and digital output, is our top turntable
porro-prism units have, until recently, tended to be cheaper as well as heavier and less for most people.
durable, though they could potentially yield a better image for less money. These days,
roof-prism units are very inexpensive to manufacture, leading to the disappearance of
high-end porro units except at the very lowest price points. For more on binocular Dear Wirecutter: Whats the
design, see the Birding Binoculars Guide. Best Way to Protect a
Vacant House During the
Another technology that has gotten less expensive is the ED lens (ED stands for Winter?
extra-low dispersion). ED lenses generally weigh less and transmit light better than
standard lenses. Though all of our tested binoculars performed well, of our four picks
only the top two use ED lenses.

The last element of todays great, affordable binoculars is optical coatings. Lens
coatings perform various functions, such as improving light transmission, reducing
glare, and keeping colors true. Coating quality and levels used to be a key differentiator
between cheap and expensive binoculars, but these days, lens coating technology has
come down in price. All of our picks use the highest level, which is full multicoating,
meaning that all glass surfacesmost binoculars have between 10 and 16 such If youre leaving your home unoccupied for an
extended period during the winter months, a
surfaces, called optical elementsare coated.
little prep work can keep it protected.

Another feature we deemed essential was proper functioning for users with glasses.
Your binoculars work only when the proper distance between your eye and the
binoculars ocular lens (the lens on the eyepiece end) is maintained. Glasses would
Older New Things
increase that distance if you didnt have a way to adjust the inboard or outboard
position of the ocular lens. This feature is called eye relief, and the standard
recommendation is that those who wear glasses need a minimum of 15 mm of
adjustability. Old-fashioned eye relief meant a pair of rubber cups that rolled down to How we work
bring your glasses to the proper distance; those cups are still found on some We help support the hundreds of hours that
binoculars, but we dont recommend them, because theyll eventually stiffen or even go into our evaluations through affiliate
tear. Preferable are eyepieces that twist downward into a more compact position, a commissions on purchases made through our
links. Were committed to publishing
feature that all of our picks have. unbiased guides that clearly detail our
decision-making criteria to our readers, but
But even with all these improvements, binoculars will vary in important ways. A few we just want you to know.
models close focus down to 5 feet away or even a little closer, though at least one Here's how to support our writers and our
popular model reaches no closer than 16 feet away, making them a no-go for seeing work. For more on our ethics, ideas and how
butterflies and other up-close objects. The field of view (how large an area you see we work, read this. We obtain the products
we review through a mixture of buying our
when you look out into the distance) is also variable and differed by more than 20 own and working with companies to borrow
percent across models tested for this review. review units. Our policy is to return or donate
products after were finished working with
Below our midrange (roughly $150 to $350), the quality differences become apparent. them.

Above our ranges higher end, you dont necessarily get much, if any, performance Find an error?: Also, If you notice a guide
that needs a little freshening up, or has
advantage. Most brands we investigated tend to offer at least a couple different models
errors, please tweet us at @wirecutter or
of full-size (versus compact) binoculars, claim their models are waterproof (or at least email us at notes@thewirecutter.com and
water-resistant), and offer many models with a no-questions-asked lifetime and we'll fix it. Thank you.
transferable return policy. Combine this with continuing improvements in glass and
optical coating (or at least, a drop in manufacturing cost to the point where higher-
quality lenses are now widely affordable), and we appear to be living in something of a
golden age of binocularsone birding website alone offers more than 150 models at
Splurge on the tools of your craft or trade.
our midrange prices.

To find a manageable group of testing finalists, we first eliminated companies that

make only one model and that dont exist outside of their Amazon presence. We also
ruled out companies with just one model in our target price range, based on the logic
that those binoculars are less likely to be widely available in the future, particularly if
they get damaged and you need to return them. This left us with 17 models of 842
binoculars, priced mostly under $350:

Company Brand/model Field of view (at 1,000 Close Weight

yards) focus (ounces)

Alpen Shasta Ridge 393 5.0 26.3

Athlon Midas ED 426 6.5 25

Optics

Bushnell Legend L Series 426 6.5 23.5

Carson 3D 341 9.8 22.4

Carson VP 393 6.6 25.9

Celestron TrailSeeker 426 6.5 23.1

Eagle Denali 408 7.0 21.9

Optics

Eagle Ranger ED 341 5.2 23.6

Optics

Nikon Monarch 5 361 8.2 20.8

Nikon Monarch 3 330 9.8 24.9

Nikon Prostaff 7S 390 13.1 22.9

Nikon Prostaff 5 361 16 22.2

Opticron Explorer WA 393 6.6 23.6

Oasis-C

Opticron Discovery WP PC 393 4.9 24.8

Opticron T3 Trailfinder 375 4.9 26.2

WP

Opticron Oregon 4 LE WP 342 9.5 23.9

Vixen Foresta DCF HR 423 9.8 23.1

Optics

Vortex Crossfire 393 7.5 23.5

Optics

How we tested
I took my initial 17 models to a few of my favorite local Southern California beaches,
mountains, and deserts for a couple weeks to get a feel for their handling
characteristics and durability, and to get a rough feel for their images quality. But I
couldnt get an accurate handle on what actually looked better in such a familiar
setting. My brain and its stored knowledge of overfamiliar birds take over, and
binoculars are a lot harder to evaluate. Thats because with familiar objects, you know
what youre going to see even before you lift the binoculars.

The act of seeing is more a confirmation of a couple facts your brain stores, and
identification becomes a result of quickly matching a minimum number of those facts
with what your eyes tell you. Sure, mockingbirds have sharp, narrow bills, but thats
not usually what you look for in a distant mockingbird; you see a slender gray bird and
confirm that it has black-and-white wings, and, hence, isnt something else. Knowing
that mockingbird is pretty much the only thing around with those featuresand if
nothing else jumps outyour identification of it as a mockingbird is instant. Your total
time looking through the binoculars is maybe a second or two.

How much did the binoculars help? Probably not too much. Thats why to really test the
quality and effectiveness of the equipment, you need to start with the unfamiliar, such
as, say, a set of birds that you dont see too often. Seeing unfamiliar birds requires the
assimilation of a large number of unfamiliar marks all at once, preferably under
physically demanding, or at least very different, circumstances.

With that in mind I selected my top five binoculars from the initial tests and took them
along with me to unfamiliar territory in southern Mexico for advanced testing.
Working in the field is the ultimate test for any pair of binoculars. The optics need to do
some very heavy liftingstudying intricate patterns of white vermiculation on the
upper back of a woodcreeper before the bird scoots around the trunk of a tree, for
examplewhile my brain sorts through several near-identical species, something I
dont get to do back home.

Ultimately, I spent 10 days birding Mexicos Sierra de Chiapas with the Alpen Shasta
Ridge, Athlon Optics Midas ED, Eagle Optics Ranger ED, Nikon Monarch 5, and Vixen
Optics Foresta DCF HR, spending a full day with each model.

Our pick

The Athlon Optics Midas ED binoculars are an incredible bargain, with spectacular optics, light weight, and
durable construction. Photo: Dan Koeppel

The binoculars I use day to

Our pick The best binoculars for
day as a professional nearly everyone
ornithologist are the Leica Athlon Optics Midas ED
Ultravid 842 model, Amazingly affordable with
which I purchased seven great optics, these binoculars
have comparable performance
years ago for around to many models that cost
$2,500. Yet when I looked $290* from Amazon thousands more.

through the Athlon Optics *At the time of publishing, the

price was $295.
Midas ED pair, I could not
tell much difference
between them and my
Leicas, which cost around 10 times as much.

What makes the Athlon Optics Midas ED binoculars great? For starters, their
brightness. A lot of birding and using binoculars in general involves looking out or up
at something much brighter, like the sky, or darker, such as into a dense thicket. Just as
your autofocus camera cant figure out how to illuminate something against a bright
(or overcast) sky, binoculars may have difficulty mustering the light needed to brighten
the distant object youre trying to identify. Also tough is the inverse of this situation,
looking into dark, dense vegetation, a situation in which you need all the light-
gathering ability the binoculars can give you. The Athlon Optics Midas ED performed
well on both fronts. For example, several other models tested would not allow me to
differentiate throat coloration of warblers in treetops early in the morning. With the
Athlons, it was almost as if the glaring, whitish background of sky wasnt therethe
colors popped to life.

During testing in Southern California and/or southern Mexico, a few other models
proved very good at bringing in color under harsh conditions, including the Bushnell
Legend L Series, Celestron TrailSeeker, Carson 3D, and the Nikon Monarch 5 (my
favorite of four Nikon models at the target price point). Neither the Nikon nor the
Carson model had the wide field of view at distance the Midas ED boasted. The Nikon
was 361 feet at 1,000 yards versus 426 feet for the Athlons, Bushnells, and Celestrons,
which had the widest fields of view I tested. The Carson 3D binoculars were incredibly
sharp and easily as bright as the Athlons, but felt almost as if they had tunnel vision,
likely because their field of view was around 20 percent narrower than that of the
Athlons. These field-of-view differences proved more noticeable when trying to
differentiate spot-breasted wrens from rufous-and-white wrens as they
crawled through vine tangles in southern Mexico, for example; the Nikon pairs
narrower field, which had otherwise excellent glass, seemed to require more time to
find the birds than the Athlon pair did (and tellingly, by the end of the trip, I was
grabbing the Athlons each morning).

One of the best features of the Athlon Optics Midas ED was the ease and precision of
adjusting the focus. It smoothly and accurately adjusts across a wide range of focal
depths. Some models, like the Nikon Prostaff 5, focused very quickly, but this often
translated to loss of detail at distance, or basically, the smooshing together of anything
more than a couple hundred feet away into one focusing position. This sounds
confusing, but makes sense if you think of a focusing knob the way you might a volume
control. Less rotation between silence and loudness means you can get between the
extremes quickly, but you may not be able to get to precisely the level you want; on the
other hand, a volume knob with too much rotation will take forever to adjust. With
binoculars you want a happy medium that focuses fast but allows for granular
accuracy. In other models, even within the same brand (e.g., Nikon Prostaff 7S), this
focusing issue was less noticeable, and they performed well in this regard. In still
others, such as the Opticron Explorer WA Oasis-C pair, the knob was sluggish,
requiring a good crank around several times to focus on anything near or far.

Close focusing is key when trying to see detail on things like butterflies, wildflowers,
and the like. Our pick gets as near as 6.5 feet, and though a few binoculars focused
closer than that, several contenders didnt get anywhere near getting near. The Nikon
Prostaff 5, for example, couldnt bring objects any closer than 16 feet into focus. We
liked the Prostaff 5 as a budget pick, but we warn that theyre not for looking at
butterflies or anything that requires getting ultra-close for detail.

One question youll likely have when buying binoculars will be about warranties,
especially for brands youve never heard of. And the question is valid.
Binoculars get beat up and dusty, and cheap ones go out of alignment in a few weeks or
with a good knock, resulting in double vision or blurry patches. For the record, I
accidentally dropped the Athlon Midas ED binoculars onto a dirt road in Mexico (right
onto the focus knob!), brushed them off and found they worked just fine. Nearly all
companies I was able to reach offer a full, transferable, lifetime warranty of the you
can drive over it with a truck type, but I recommend researching warranties before
buying any model, because their details may change in the future.

But take some comfort in knowing that binoculars are now more rugged than ever.
Theyre about as waterproof as possible, meaning all of the pairs we recommend are
sealed against dust and can handle immersionthough if you drop them into a lake,
youll still need to dive because they dont float, yet.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The Athlons come with a set of press-in lens caps for the objective (larger) lens; most
other binoculars use caps that fit over the lens. The press-ins make for a sleek look, but
we found that they tended to fall out, leaving the lens unprotected. But that was the
only (minor) flaw in a product that was otherwise close to perfect.

As a more general comment on the current state of binocular manufacturing: With

things changing so rapidly, consumers should check that the pair they end up with is
the same high-quality model weve tested. So many new binocular brands and models
are in the market now, and some confusion is inevitable. Athlon Optics, a relatively
new company, currently has 28 different models and six distinct binocular lines. If
youre the kind of person who prefers the stability (and availability) of a better-known
brand, look toward our runner-up and budget picks.

Runner-up

Celestrons TrailSeeker binoculars are rugged and have an expansive field of view. Photo: Dan Koeppel

Our runner-up, the

Runner-up Almost as good
Celestron TrailSeeker
Celestron TrailSeeker
8x42s, have rugged, A little cheaper than our pick,
armored construction and but with great light-gathering
qualities, optical resolution, and
were among the lightest
close focusing.
binoculars we tested, at 23
ounces (the Athlons weigh $193* from Amazon
two ounces more). *At the time of publishing, the
price was $190.
Celestron has been making
high-quality consumer
telescopes since the 1960s,
but also offers a huge line of binoculars (over 14 lines, and more than 30 different
models).

Optically, the TrailSeeker offered exceptional light-gathering abilities. I remember

watching a northern harrier soaring against the sky and the colors of the streaks below
were as sharp as can be. Another bonus is this pairs ability to focus closeas near as
6.5 feet, with a field of view of 426 feet at 1,000 yards. However, the outer edges of that
expansive field of view had some mild distortion. The streaks on a Lincolns sparrow
got a little mushy through the edges of the Celestron lenses, yet remained razor-sharp
through the lenses of the Athlon Optics Midas ED. Most users probably wont notice
this, but the Athlons were clearly superior, to my trained eye.

One caveat: The Celestrons we received had an odd catch in the focus dial; a second
pair we checked out in store didnt have that flaw. Be sure to check the pair you end up
with to make sure everything moves smoothly.

An upgrade thats better optically and has a terrific

carrying system

The Alpen Wings ED are as good as binoculars get, and they come with a very rugged, versatile carrying-case
system. Photo: Dan Koeppel

Another model that

performed very well, Alpen
Wings ED, came in over
our $350 price limit. This is
as good a pair of binoculars
as weve ever tried and is
further proof that the
overall market for
binoculars has been turned
upside down in terms of
Upgrade pick Very bright with a great
case
Alpen Wings ED
Even brighter, better optics and
the best binocular case weve
ever seen, but at a price.
$424* from Amazon
*At the time of publishing, the
price was $400.
quality and price. The
Alpens are brighter, a bit sleeker, and were a little easier to carry than the Athlons.
When looking through both models side by side, you might notice a slightly superior
image quality with the Alpens over the Athlons, but viewed apart, both are excellent.
The real reason these Alpens are worth you paying more for is their excellent storage
system.

Though all of the binoculars we tested come with cases and straps, the Alpens
perhaps befitting for their higher pricewent above and beyond, offering what could
rightly be described as a case system.

The system begins with an adjustable, wide-band neoprene strap, a step up in comfort
from the cheaper nylon straps found on pretty much all less-expensive binoculars.
From there, Alpen includes a hard, form-fitting holster that attaches to either your belt
(using the included loops) or can hang around your neck via your binocular strap (the
binoculars are secured to the holster via an elastic band and snap). If thats not enough,
the holster fits inside an included hard-shell nylon zippered case. The case is a bit
bulky, but more protective than the typical nylon-secured-by-Velcro carrying cases
common to the other models we tested. You should consider a case system such as this
one, especially if you have rugged travel planned in your future. (For a quick, thrill-
packed look at the Alpen case system, see the GIF above.)

Budget pick
 The Carson VP is about as inexpensive as a really good pair of binoculars can be. Photo: Dan Koeppel

We cant really recommend

Budget pick Splendid views at a great
any binoculars that cost price
under $100; those tend to Carson VP
have very poor optics and Proof that binoculars have
arent durable enough to undergone a quality revolution,
these are high quality at a price
survive hard knocks that once would have gotten
without coming out of $128 from Amazon you little but junk.

alignment. But for just a

bit more, the very
functional Carson VP pair offers excellent optics, a minimum focus distance 10 feet
closer than the Nikon ProStaff 5, and rugged waterproof and fogproof construction.

Budget pick if you prefer name-brand binoculars

If owning a pair of binoculars from an established brand is important to you: Nikon makes a full line of
binoculars, and its Prostaff 5 model will do almost everything you need binoculars to do (though they dont focus
as closely as our other picks). Photo: Dan Koeppel

Though we dont see any reason for you not to go with a lesser-known or newer
binocular maker, for some people, knowing that a name brand offers established
service and distribution networks might offer some peace of mind. If you are one of
these people, we recommend the Nikon Prostaff 5, a very good pair of binoculars at a
very good price. We didnt like their limited performance at close rangethe Carson
VP model does much better for less moneybut theyre otherwise a durable, fine
choice for an under-$200 pair of binoculars.

In our previous binocular review, we also recommended Nikons Monarch 5 binoculars

as our upgrade pick and its Monarch 3 binoculars as our main pick. The Monarch 5 pair
has slightly better optical quality than the Monarch 3 pair, especially in low-light
situations. But overall, we think that Nikon has some catching up to do before its
products match the quality of those from the crop of new names in the binocular
world.

Care, maintenance, and use

A simple trick for spotting stuff faster with binoculars: Dont hold your binoculars up
to your eyes and then pan and scan for what youre trying to spot. Youll never get there.
Instead, with the naked eye, stare up at what you want to see, then raise the binoculars
to your gaze. Thatll allow whatever youre looking at to instantly pop into your
magnified view.

As for cleaning your binoculars lenses, what you dont want to do is start cleaning by
breathing on and then rubbing the lenses with something like a microfiber cloth, lens
wipe orheaven forbidyour shirtsleeve. Thats because doing so may lead to the dust
thats already on your lens leaving tiny scratches. Instead, start with a lens pen or bulb-
type blower to remove that dust, then go ahead and use either lens wipes or fluid and a
microfiber cloth. For more info, visit our guide to the best camera cleaning gear (the
routine for cleaning binoculars is fundamentally the same).

The competition
Given the extreme similarity of design across makes and models, minor details of
construction and performance can take on outsize importance. If youre a long-time
binoculars user, the most surprising difference will be that most models now focus in
reverse direction compared with your old pair, meaning now you crank right for closer-
in objects. In a couple of models (e.g., Opticron Oregon 4 LE WP), the strap hooks were
located exactly where Id rest my thumbs when looking through binoculars; maybe its
just me, but I couldnt get used to that. In one of the Opticron models, the black paint
was chipping off the strap rivets as I pulled them out of the box, and the ring around
one of the eyecups had become loose and was freely spinning by the time I attached the
neck strap. In the Nikon Prostaff 7S model, the rubberized coating is so tacky that it
kept pulling back on my fingertips (under the fingernail) as I was working the focus
knob. It wasnt exactly painful, but it wasnt comfortable either. Obviously, these are
personal annoyances, and none was enough to knock any particular model out of
consideration for top pick. But it is worth noting that the Athlon Optics Midas ED
didnt present any of these issues.

Other flaws of the top binoculars focused mainly on what they didnt do. For example,
in several models (e.g., Nikon Prostaff 7S, Opticron Discovery WP PC), I found little
details to complain about, like the fact that the twisting plastic eyecup was physically
too easily pushed down as I carried it around, so each time I would raise the binoculars
to my eyes, theyd be at wildly unbalanced levels. Even more annoying (and painful),
several pairs I tested produced mild to fairly severe eyestrain, that ache behind the
pupils when staring for more than a few seconds at a time through the lenses
(memorably with the Eagle Optics Denali pair and a couple of Opticron models), or
resulted in my eyes having a jittery little kick after I put the binoculars down and
tried to focus on something else (say, my field notebook). This transition was smooth
and virtually seamless in the top pairs of binoculars of the bunch I tested (e.g., Athlon,
Carson, and Nikon), less so in other makes and models.

Incidentally, one odd problem with the Nikon Monarch 5 (our pick in our previous
binoculars guide) was a loud, rubber-on-rubber squeaking sound the focusing wheel
often made when coming into contact with the rubber housing. I would have thought
this was a random, fixable issue, but judging from online reviews, others complained
about this too. The problem seems limited to individual pairs, so send yours back if
they start doing this.

Alpen Shasta Ridge: Though we loved this companys more-expensive Midas model, we
were less impressed with this cheaper sibling. Focusing was difficult, feeling soft and
difficult to get exactly right. These also offered noticeably inferior light-gathering
compared with the Athlon Optics Midas ED pair.

Carson 3D: A very small field of view produced tunnel vision, so these arent useful for
close-distance viewing.

Eagle Optics Ranger ED: This was our top pick prior to Mexico, but the small field of
view made forest birding tough. The eyecup on these binoculars were too easily pushed
down, and we experienced some loss of clarity at distance with very small birds.

Eagle Optics Denali: These didnt do well at resolving white objects. We tried to use
them to look at an adult western gull at the beach, and the image appeared fuzzy, with
some loss of clarity at the edge of view.

Nikon Monarch 5: This model was our previous pick, but the current crop of binoculars
outmatch this model. In addition to a squeaky focus wheel (possibly a one-off
problem), these binoculars smaller field of view led to a sort of tunnel vision with birds
in dense cover.

Nikon Monarch 3: These binoculars yielded images less sharp than those of the
Monarch 5 pair. The Monarch 3 binoculars are also a bit larger than their higher-end
cousin. Also, colors viewed in bright glare through them appeared fuzzy.

Nikon Prostaff 7S: These were very acceptable binoculars in terms of optics, but had a
problem with loose eyecups that pushed down too easily.

Opticron Explorer WA Oasis-C: This pairs optics were lacking in sharpness enough to
lead to some eyestrain, and the focus knob moved sluggishly, making it difficult to keep
up with fast-moving objects.

Opticron Discovery WP PC: The good image quality of these binoculars was
overshadowed by an eyecup that pushed down too easily.

Opticron T3 Trailfinder WP: Our test model came with a loose ring around one of the
eyecups. The individual eyecup focus suffered from poor ergonomics, characterized by
an odd bump where a you would rest your thumb, making the binoculars hard to hold.

Opticron Oregon 4 LE WP: Optical flaws included some distortion and glare. These
binoculars had ergonomic issues, too, including a strap hook in an odd spot that
interfered with the eyecup cover and eyecup focus wheel.

Vixen Optics Foresta DCF HR: These were an initial favorite, despite a slight brownish
view in certain scenarios, like viewing seascapes. But after some usage, we noticed very
poor low-light performance, such as seeing virtually no color in backlit warblers up in
tree canopy. This pair also had eyecups that loosened over time.

Vortex Optics Crossfire: These seemed like a throwback to the past, with a cheap, flimsy
feel, poor distance resolution, and limited low-light clarity.

Athlon Optics Midas ED

Best Binoculars for Birds, Nature, and the
Outdoors

Buy for $290* from Amazon

*At the time of publishing, the price was $295

 Tweet Share

Sources
1. Binoculars Buying Guide, Birding Binoculars Guide

Originally published: May 3, 2016

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