I'm thinking about purchasing a pair of the swarovski compact binoculars. I have a pair of the swaro 10 x 42's & love them. You fellas that own the swaro compacts, please give me your pro's & cons. Thanks for your time.

Regards Mike

Superb optics,-- bright, clear, sharp from edge to edge, just like Swarovski anything. Not so hot at night. Relatively expensive.

I carry the 10x25 backpacking and hiking, have for about 10 years, and love them. They do spoil a person, though.

I've got the 8x20B pair. Lovely. I mean really cute and very functional. Fold up into a real pocket size pair that I take everywhere. Compared to the older 7x42 they are a bit dim in the evening. Compared to the 8x56 they are very dim in the evening. So, for day hunting-lite I take the smallest and for the rest, the 7x42. The 8x56 are just too bulky to cart about (with the parka, range finder, ammo, pack, knife, rifle, water, food, and all of the paraphenalia).

I also have the 10x42's and absolutely love them, but there is no doubt they spoil you. I have wondered about the compacts myself. At 5'1" and 115 pounds, my ammo pouch goes from the front to the back of my waist, add a leatherman and a knife and that area is history. Include a gun, small bag, water, sm camera, and windbreaker - wow! I use the Crooked Horn harness and really like it, so I may just stick with it. Keep us posted on what you decide.

Depending on what and where you hunt. I also owna pair of 10X42s and give them the same accolades, except weight! If you are sitting in a blind or treestand they're great, great in low light also, but in Africa or anywhere else where you might be "walking up" your game, they are way too heavy. For african use I much prefer the 8X30s. jorge

I have the same set up as Jorge. The 8x30's are great for long hikes. The 10x42's are heavy and wear out my neck by the end of the day.

Have the 8x20 pair also, and use them a lot in 3-d target archery. In comparison they are not as much of level above other bino's I've looked through as my 10x42's are. In other words, the little ones are great, but not as much of a notch above when looking at others as the 10x42's are when looking through other 10x42's. I have a pair of 8x20 pentax that are very close, but not near as much $. Having said that the Swaro's are better, and I like them better than anything else, I've got a couple of pair of Leica's that are comparable, and the rangefinding Leica's are my go to sets for hunting now.

Take care--Don

I had a set of 8x20 Leica's that were stolen and I replaced them with 10x25 Swaro's. I'm not so sure I didn't like the Leica's better. The 8x20's are enough smaller to make them just that much handier in the pocket.
In a side by side comparison I found that of the big 3 in the small Bino's I saw best through the Leica Ultravids.
In 8x30's I liked the Zeiss FL's, and in 10x42's I prefered EL's to FL's and Ultravids.
So basically the best thing to do is to compare the big 3 side by side and buy the one that you can see the best through. You may see differently than I do................DJ

In a test of these small bino´s in Germany, http://www.test.de ,the best bino´s was Zeiss and Leica.

I went to Cabela's last weekend & tried the swarovski 10 x 25. They were nice but for right now I'm going to continue to use my 10 x 25 leupolds that were made in portugal. (There is not enough difference in them to warrant buying the swarovski's.) Thanks for the comments.

Regards Mike