Who do you think makes the best 8x20 Bino's, Leica, Swarovski, or Zeiss?

I have a pair of 8x42 Leica Geovids. They are great but a little heavy and bulky for elephant hunting. I really do not need the rangefinder when hunting elephants, but would still like to have a pair of quality binos. I do not see the need to drop slightly down to 8x30's [they are actually my favorite size], so I am thinking about a pair of the much smaller 8x20's.

Thanks in advance.

I consider 8 X 20's as the kind of field glasses that should fit in your pocket and be reasonably good, not worth shelling out the big bucks because even the best will not be anywhere in the same league as their big brothers. I am happy with my Steiners which were very inexpensive.

Since I do very little plains game hunting anymore, I also was looking for a smaller pair of binos that were easier to carry on buffalo and elephant hunts. I bought a pair of Pentax 10x28 DCF MP (they also make 8X28). Given the price, I am very happy with the quality.

Regards,

Terry

I checked out Zeiss, Swaro and Leica. The Swarovski 8x20's get my vote. I think that quality is very important with compact binos. More so even then a full size due to the small exit pupil, etc.

Everyones eyes are different. Try as many as you can and then make a decision.

NE450No2 Check out the Nikon LX 8 X 20's if you are set on the really small stuff. I own 2 pair of Leicas, 2 pair of Swaros in the bigger stuff. I checked the big 3 along with the Nikons when going for the 20's and really thought they were the best of the lot. I paid $399.00 for theses and don't feel I gave up any features or quality in doing so. Do a side by side and check for yourself. Hope this helps?

Larry Sellers

quote:

Originally posted by N E 450 No2:
Who do you think makes the best 8x20 Bino's, Leica, Swarovski, or Zeiss?

I have a pair of 8x42 Leica Geovids. They are great but a little heavy and bulky for elephant hunting. I really do not need the rangefinder when hunting elephants, but would still like to have a pair of quality binos. I do not see the need to drop slightly down to 8x30's [they are actually my favorite size], so I am thinking about a pair of the much smaller 8x20's.

Thanks in advance.

I have a pair of the Leicas (8X20 Trinovid BCA if I have it right) you can borrow to see what you think. It looks like they have an Ultravid out now as well.

They are what I will likely take next time, but if I planned on doing a lot of glassing I might try to scare up a pair of 8x30s.

At one time when I lived in Alaska and was carrying everything on my back for hunting sheep etc. I thought everything had to be the lightest possible so I bought the smallest pair of Leica, Zeiss and Leupold binos I could find. The Leupolds were by far the least expensive but I could not decern that they gave up anything in optical quality to the Leicas or Zeiss and the Leupolds were waterproof.

Now I just carry 8x30 or 10x42 Swaros because they are so much better optically than the small glasses. For elephant hunting which is not usually a daylight or dusk affair and where weight might be an issue on long walks the small Leupolds might be a good choice.

Mark

Thanks for the info. I will take the 8x42's as well. Since my hunt for bull elephant is in an area where I will do no other shooting I would be carrying them there.
When hunting buff and plains game I will use the bigger pair.

For the past 6 years I ahve been carrying a pair of Leica 8x20 binos on DG hunts under bush veld conditions. I like them because they have all the power I could possibly want, they are light and I can tuck them into my left breast pocket where they are out of the way if a quick gun mount is called for.

465H&H

I bought a pair of Leica 8x20's for the same reasons. To my eyes they were the best. They are the Ultavids. My bigger binos are Leica 8x30, which stayed in the truck for too many hunts, especially elephant and buff.

Don't knock the high quality glasses until you try them. I would rather have the Leica or Swaro 8x20's then some lesser but bigger glass, even for all round use. They are as good or better than may lesser bino's even at dawn and dusk. And since they wiegh nothing and are so compact, you will have them with you.

JPK

Tony:

If you want, I will bring my pair of Swarovski 8X20 (Pocket) for you to check out at Cooley if you are interested.

Here is a link to the item description:

Swarovski 8X20

577 Thanks, please do.

I used to carry Zeiss 10x20 for ele hunting, but found it was a hassle. My new policy is that if I can't see the ele without binos, I am not going to shoot him.

500 Grains
You know how close I get to shoot my elephants. I have to turn the binos around and look through them backwards to judge the Ivory.

Up date.
I went to customs to register some guns for travel yesterday, and since I was in the directions of Cabelas my wife and I went there.

They had the 8x20's in Leica, Swarovski, and Zeiss.
I gave a;ll of them a try. They had an "eye chart" mounted up high on the other side of the store. I checked out som of the compact 10x as well as some other brand 8x20's.

The 10x Swarovski compacts were real good, but many times i use one hand to look through my binos when stalking and I find it hard to hold the 10x as steady as 8x.

The L,S, and Z 8x20,s were all good.
I liked the location of the focus wheel on the Leica Ultravid 8x20 BR best, so I bought a pair of them.

577, still bring your Swaro's, we will let the DRSS give them a test with the Liecas.

They sure are light and handy.

On my last hunt I took a pair of Swarov's in 8X20. I also took my Leica 8X42's. I used the swarov's on the first day, from then on they stayed in camp and the leicas went on the truck. The field of view just wasn't big enough.


TerryR

I'd try some Brunton Epochs as well -- I thought they had better glass than Nikon, Leupold, Zeiss, etc in the smaller sizes -- wouldn't buy one of Brunton's cheaper lines, but the Epochs seem pretty good.