Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm a product designer, and as such, I like to inspect the quality of the things I buy and figure out why certain choices were made. It is my opinion that the eyepiece lens caps were made slightly large on purpose, not by mistake. The injection molding on them are too clean for it to be a mistake, and they're obviously too large for them to be designed with a snug fit. If you look in the instruction book, some of the first pictures in it show you how to attach the (included) neck strap and how to properly connect the lens caps to the strap. When using the binoculars as they're intended, that is wearing them around the neck, the lens caps stay in place quite well. When it comes time to use them, though, the lens cap easily lift off of the eyepieces and hand from the strap out of place. When you let the binoculars hang from your next afterwards, the caps fall over the eyepieces and protect them. Since they face upwards, having them protected helps ward off rain, debris, or sunlight shining directly into the lenses. If they were any more snug, they would not work in this way. Yes, it would be nice if they were a bit more snug, as it would make it easier to use them without the neck strap, but that's the way it is. I also wonder how much they'd wear into the rubber eyepieces if they had a more snug fit. Sometime down the line I may design up and 3D print some more snug lens caps and will post the files online, so keep an eye out for those. Well enough about that, now on to the binoculars themselves. In a word, they're spectacular. I'm used to some of the older and larger Porro prism binoculars or the smaller, cheap roof prism type. But regardless of style, I've never looked through a nicer pair of optics. Before buying these, whenever I was out somewhere in nature, I'd always wished I had some nice binoculars with me, and since I have a big trip coming up, I thought I'd spend the money on a nice pair, and these blew me away. The very close minimum viewing distance is nice, as it makes looking at birds and squirrels a lot of fun. The long distance adjustment works very well, too. Looking past the optics, I wanted a pair that would be small enough to carry with me and won't be a burden (like while camping), but something large enough to provide good magnification. These are pretty much just the right size, as they're easily packable, but still large enough to feel good in the hand and have just enough weight to easily hold them steady. The rubber coating has a nice feel, and I think it should be able to protect them well. The objective lenses are set back enough that I don't have to worry about them taking damage if it bumps up against something flat. The objective lens covers are very nice and snap on tight. The tripod mount threading is nice, as securing it to something with legs really helps with stability. I am looking forward to using these more thoroughly on our trip and will try to post back about how well they work.