True sleeper optics

[Spiral Horn]

What? No Zen Ray?

 

[Newtosavage]

I’ll throw out Leupold Yosemite’s when they were 50-60 bucks at my local Cabelas.

YES! Those Yosemites were outstanding "cheap" bins. Great add!

 

[Newtosavage]

What? No Zen Ray?

 

[Hoodie]

A few more, including some that are sadly no longer in production:

Theron Questa/Leupold BX-4 Mckinley/Zen Ray Prime- Probably all the same design or from the same OEM. Best edge sharpness you'll find for $500.

Vanguard Endeavor HD spotters- Really solid for a $400 optic.

Athlon Cronus 15x56- I wouldn't say they compete with optics 2x as expensive but these were way closer to the Maven B5 than their price would suggest.

 

[nobody]

I vote any porro prism type bino. They’re always overlooked because they’re big and heavy and bulky, but you always get more optical bang for the buck if you’re willing to entertain the porros.

My brother and I each had a pair of bushnell 10x50 porro prism binos that our dad bought us for Christmas when I was about 9. I hunted with them and used them until I was 21. I think my dad paid about $50 for them, and I even think he ordered them mail order from the Cabela’s catalog. They came with an enclosed carry case and everything. No they weren’t alpha glass, but holy low light performance and 3D views Batman. For as poorly as I treated them and as cheap as they were I was impressed. Bushnell doesn’t make them anymore, and I’ve since moved onto much more expensive glass, but I would happily buy a few pairs for each vehicle and for loaner binos if they were still available.

Porro prism binos aren’t ideal from a packability standpoint, but optically you get more than you bargain for in my experience. Of course, this assumes they come from a reputable OEM.

 

[Cant hit em]

Nikon HG binos


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[Decker9]

The pentax pf-65ED. I ran one for years and loved it, then replaced it with a ATS65.

Build quality swarovski defiantly shines, but optically, I see no difference. Size, weight (and focus nob imo) all favour the pentax.

 

[Newtosavage]

Nikon HG binos


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That reminds me, I left Nikon's old Premier LX-L's off the list. They were the precursor to the current day HG's. Built like tanks and superb optical quality.

 

[Newtosavage]

Chinese? They had made in Czech Republic on the ones I got direct from their US rep. That’s too bad you didn’t like them. Was their customer service any good at least? Ive bought and sold several conquests and for me they just never gave the color or detail that the meoptas do. Conquests have had good and bad generations but I have not owned enough to tell the difference. There was even a generation of conquests that Zeiss commissioned meopta to produce the glass and assemble. The new meopro air generation, the glass is still produced in Czech but the production and assembly is completed at their US location in Florida.

You certain about that? The meopros I bought (about 4-5 yrs ago) had "china" right on them. They reminded me a lot of Zen-Ray's with the odd distortion.

Conquests have had 2 generations that I'm aware of. The first (non-HD) were just okay. The second and current production are superb optics.

Either way, Meopros don't fall anywhere near my sleeper list. You get what you pay for there. I'd never pay 2-3x what they cost and feel like I got what I paid for.

 

[TriIceS]

Thanks for the information. I am looking for a bino in the 1k range.

What is your opinion on the Cabelas branded vs Zeiss conquest?

 

[matthewmt]

Any other fans of the cabelas outfitter 10x42?

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[Thinkingman]

Nikon Premier LX or the updated LX-L binos.
Eagle Optics...The made in Japan predecessor to Vortex.
Riflescopes...Burris Fullfield all day long.

 

[Newtosavage]

Nikon Premier LX or the updated LX-L binos.
Eagle Optics...The made in Japan predecessor to Vortex.
Riflescopes...Burris Fullfield all day long.

Agreed on the Burris Fullfield II. Very underrated and I've used them quite a bit.

Also agreed on the MIJ Eagle Optics. Well built and optically very good, as is usually the case with any MIJ optics going all the way back to the early Bushnell products.

 

[Newtosavage]

Thanks for the information. I am looking for a bino in the 1k range.

What is your opinion on the Cabelas branded vs Zeiss conquest?

Depends on which Cabelas branded optics you mean. Some of their stuff is made by Meopta and is very good. A lot of it these days is cheap chinese crap that looks good in the store for 2 minutes, but will fail on you and give you crosseyed headaches after a few hours in the field.

 

[JGRaider]

I wouldn't trust Cabelas (thanks Bass Pro) to honor any warranty, or take care of it 's customers nowadays. They pretty much suck, once again, thanks to Bass Pro.

Be patient and look for a Tract Toric UHD demo on their website. For under $500 they are an absolute steal, and on par with the Conquest, easily. I had both of them side by side in Africa for 10 days and everyone agreed. If you like super fast focus (birdwatcher dudes do) and potentially eyepieces that are too short, look hard at the Conquest.

Meopta Meopros were never, ever made in China.

 

[WKB]

I really thought this was gonna devolve into poor-shaming or knocking anything that wasn't German-made. This is way better than I anticipated. Great info ya'll.

 

[Eric_F]

The now discontnued Steiner AZ842's could be had for $110 or so and they aren't quite up to Swaro levels but way closer than they ought to be.

 

[DakotaBPNW]

BX-4’s still really impress me for what they cost. I love my EL’s but those Leupy’s don’t give up much

 

[Newtosavage]

Meopta Meopros were never, ever made in China.

Now I wish I had those bins still to make sure I was seeing that right. Oh well. They didn't suit me at all.

 

[Newtosavage]

BX-4’s still really impress me for what they cost. I love my EL’s but those Leupy’s don’t give up much

BX-4's are a good value. And at least for now, Leupy honors their warranty. So that's a plus.