Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

There is really no need to get binoculars that cost 5 times (or more) for casual use. These work just fine and I've owned one for a couple of years. If you get any higher magnification than 10X, they are difficult to handhold - so 7X is really the sweet spot as far as magnification goes. The other number refers to the exit aperture (bigger the number - more light gets into the binocular). These also work quite well in darker situations - letting in plenty of light and giving you a bright image. I've noted small differences when compared with an Olympus that cost about 8 times more - but really, for their price, these can't be beat.. The lenses are also coated and combined with a prism system (instead of mirrors), makes for sharper images. Only con is that this type of binocular is not pocket sized. However, its pretty comfortable to carry on your neck (neckstrap) For the reviewer who claimed that these were worse than toy plastic binoculars - well - just one word comes to my mind "clueless". They either had sphagetti on their lenses or were looking at birds through the wrong end of the binocular...