10x42 Binoculars

[yth-mnstr]

I've compared all three mentioned head to head outdoors in natural lighting, verses indoor fluorescent lighting, and the leupolds looked better to me.

[mmisciag]

Bladepeek,

You made me rethink and investigate what I remembered. Here is something that may be the reason for my conclusion:
A lot of the advertising hype on budget Chinese binoculars has been their "BaK4 prisms". This morning, I was looking up the data on these when I realised that the data I was seeing for BaK4 was not the same as for the data I remembered for BaK4 -- specifically, the critical angle was larger. So, a little bit later, this is what I have:

The Chinese designation "BaK4" is an entirely different glass to the Schott BaK4 -- BaK stands for Baritleichkron (Barium Crown); the Chinese BaK4 is actually Schott PSK3, which is not a Barium Crown at all: it is a phosphate crown. PSK3 is much cheaper to make than BaK4; it also has a lower refractive index.

Porro is different then roof. It was my understanding that BaK4 had to do with roof prisms.

A lot of good information can be found on bird watching sites.

Martin

[twistedlim]

I went the extra mile and got the Vortex Razor HD 10x42.  I did a lot of research about glass in this range from hunting forums and birding forums.These binocs are bright, sharp, sturdy and compare well with binoculars from Leica, Zeiss, and Swarovski that cost 2x as much.  
I came to this decision to go the little extra after my much loved Leica 10x25 Trivinoids came up just a bit short on my last Elk hunting trip.  My partner had some $2K Swarovski 10x42s that gave him that extra umpth to see things that I could not get.  
Eye relief is a huge issue for me and The vortex offered great eye relief as well.  If you can get to a cabelas anywhere it is worth the time to do it.  They carry just about all the models mentioned in this thread plus more. It is nice to compare both the optical quality and handling characteristics of the glass.
Birding Forums are also a great place to get input.  Those folks spend all day with the binos at their eyes.

[sloaf]

The package of the monarchs was better than the acadias but the glass on acadias is better than the monarchs.  You really need to put your hands on both .  Just a suggestion but spend the extra 100 and get the leupold mojaves.   Way better than intro level glass.  I had to jumo up to viper hds to find nicer and that was too much money.