Hi Mike:
Bins are a subjective thing once you get past the sticker shock of popping $7-800 (a discount on the usual $1K price available through Eagle Optics on-line and other places) for a top of the line pair. I use 8x42 B&L Elites, although there are times when I use my old Zeiss 10x40s.
Top of the line Leica, Zeiss, Swarowski, B&L, and Nikons are all outstanding. If I was going to buy just one pair of bins to last forever it would probably be the 10x42 Leicas, although I love my 8x42 B&Ls because they can focus to 5 1/2 feet and are outstanding on pelagic trips--10 powers are harder to hold steady with the vibration and movement of a boat.
The brand new Swarowskis are apparently outstanding--but I haven't spent any time with them. Power is not as important as clarity, eye-relief, light-gathering, and color correction. Having said that, I wouldn't settle for anything less than 8x42s with modern technology.
If you go to a 50mm objective (as in 10x50) they become too heavy for normal field use--therefore the wonders of lighter high-tech roof prisms with x40 or x42 objectives which let in a lot of light under all conditions. Glad to have another birder in the county.
Brad Schram
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P.S. from Mike Baird:
You can get Brad's great book "A Birder's Guide to Southern California" at
Barnes
& Nobel (they had it in immediate stock and it arrived in a few
days)
or at Amazon.com
(they now claim it ships immediately - they earlier had indicated it was on back
order).