help on hunting binos?

Bausch and Lomb 7 x 50. Cost about $500 in the late 80's. Heavy!
Early in the morning and late into the evening deer can be spotted before your naked eye can detect them.
The quality allows extended use during the day without eye strain.
The problem I have found with them is the diopter eye piece is almost impossible to turn when cold but next to the warmth of my body it will wander off optimum by itself.
 
I have a similar conundrum. Last year I felt like my $350 bushnells weren't really a huge improvement over my 3x9 scope other than the FOV within say 3-400meters. But I was also in spots where I was looking at old slashes up to a couple of kilometers away where I was holding a spotting scope and that didn't work very well either.
New to hunting but I wonder if there is a middle ground.
 
I have Swarovski and , like a guy above said,they work for my eyes. I believe he had Leica. Last time I looked seriously their glass , to my eyes, was as good or better than the comparable Swarovski ......but they didn't feel as good in my hands. That's me , could be total opposite for you

I would also look at the Meopta that Cabela's sells. Very good at less $$$ than Ziess, Leica & Swarovski ,the 3 'premier' . There are some VERY good Chinese made for the $$$$, Zen Ray for example.

It's a lot of coin but I've never regretted getting the Swarovski.
 
I did a comparison yesterday in a rivervalley between leica ultravids hd and my freinds swarovski el hd.
Both were 10x power,

We both agreed the glass was equal, we could not describe any defect from one another and we were busting each other
Over binoculars and whose were superior as most hunting pals do but all in both were perfectly clear.

As far as fit and finish go both are really well built, different hinge designs, both had good coatings, weight, eyecups yadda yadda
Came down to personal preference on which was better neither was better just different in their own way.

The only thing leica lacked was extras, they should be ashamed at the crappy storage bag they send, and lack of extras., ithe bag is useless no padding or pockets, not what i would expect for that price of binocular, but he swaro were tagged a couple hundred dollars more so i guess i will have to buy a after market .

All in im happy with the ultravids, and after really comparing side by side with the swaro I do not feel any need to change over as there is no optical gain, and I like the weight, size, fit.

I also owned a pair of comquest HD 10x, when they were priced at 1000 bucks they were the best value binocular on the market,
The only reason i passed on them was the nagging what if in the back of my head. The optics in the high end swaro, leica, zeiss are better but with glass you really pay i mean pay dearly for what you want! That said i will not go back to the conquest HD, but i really appreciated that glass when first came out at that price point.
 
I had the Zeiss Conquest HD on a recent hunt on Kodiak and while they were "ok" they fell fall short of the quality of the Victory HT model I left at home trying to save a bit of weight. Given the amount of glassing on a hunt like that I plan on taking the HT's back in April.
 
I have the made in Japan Bushnell Elites and pocket size Leica Trinovids. The Elites have wonderful glass for the money. Not in the same category as the European brands mentioned but nonetheless extremely bright & sharp with very little CA. The pocket Leicas are fantastic as well but they are built to be compact so they give up some brightness/clarity.

Buy the best you can afford,

Patrick
 
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