Added a few new bino reviews sites at the bottom.

Birdwatching, Cornell update and Outdoor life

http://home.pipeline.com/~shoo...rces.html#Binoculars

Interesting. There is an overall table and its results may not be what you expect.

The main thing I look at is weight, as in some other aspects telling the difference can be subjective. I'm sorry to say that over past 30 years they do not seem to have got much lighter - and roof prisms might be more compact but do not save mass.

Birdwatchers represent the 800-pound gorilla in the binocular market, so most binoculars are designed to be well-adapted to that purpose. The ability to quickly and frequently refocus at high magnification (for birds moving from 40 feet to 100 feet distance, for example) can be extremely important in birdwatching. Unfortunately, this feature is often a disadvantage for the way hunters use a binocular since hunters typically use their optics focused close to infinity -- and like them to stay there.

It's too bad that more optics companies don't produce Individual Focusing binos with strong detents on the focus rings, a system that is stronger, lighter, less expensive, more water-resistant, and serves hunters much better than center-focusing systems