Franny and Tweeters,

You were recently asking about Brunton binoculars, so I'll share with you
what I know about them. Brunton is a company in Wyoming that has been
making great compasses for ages. I don't believe that they design or
manufacture their own optics, but are just marketing someone else's.

I recently purchased a pair of their Lite-tech 8x25 waterproof compacts.
The optical quality could be better, but I was looking for a pair of metal
body waterproof compacts to take backpacking and canoeing that would be
inexpensive enough to keep me from worrying excessively about losing or
breaking them, so these (about $70) fit the bill.

Interestingly, Bushnell/B&L sells a pair that are virtually identical to
these, with the exception of the label, of course. Both are made in
Korea, and I would assume in the same factory, making me wonder exactly how
much optical design and manufacturing Bushnell actually does these days.
If anyone else knows, please comment. The Brunton Eternas that you
mentioned are more expensive and of Japanese origin and probably have
much better optical quality. I have never seen anyone else selling
similar looking ones, so I have no idea who actually manufactures them.

I also looked at some Steiner waterproofs, which had nice optics. At
around $270, they were, unfortunately, over my self-imposed limit, but
still about half the cost of the *really* expensive compacts.

I hope this information will be of use to you.


Jamie Howland

jhowland at pratt.edu


> Meanwhile, I have decided to buy a pair of waterproof binocs and am looking at
> several pairs. Has anyone ever heard of or used some called Brunton Binoculars,
> 8x40, Eterna Standard, waterproof? They look kinda interesting. I've looked at