As usual, the Tweeters community comes through with lots of good feedback to
help my binocular decision. I received almost 40 notes with suggestions and
criteria for evaluation.

As I mentioned in my original note, I had already done quite a bit of
research both online and (more important) looking through many pairs of
binoculars for long period of time. I'm sure I annoyed the salespeople at
Captain's and Kenmore Camera to no end.

After much deliberation I ended up choosing the Zeiss 8x42 FL T for several
reasons:

First, the image quality was, to me, the best of any pair I looked through.
They're amazing at showing contrast even in low light situations. Compared
to my old Pentax bino's its like night and day. The color seems
accurate...none of the "warming" that some people say Swarovski's sometimes
have. The field of view is great, as is depth of field.

Second, they feel great in my hands...good balance and easy to focus.
They're slightly heavier than my current bino's but not enough to bother me.


Third, the price (while high) was "reasonable" compared to the Swarovski's.
Quite honestly, after looking through various versions of the Zeiss and
Swarovski's the decision was easy. The Swarovski's are almost $400 more and,
to me, the image quality they offer isn't as good. I have to admit that the
Swarovski's felt a little better in the hand but the difference was marginal
at best.

Several people suggested some lower cost alternatives and I checked some of
them out. The new high-end Nikon bino's are particularly good but didn't
match up that well with the Zeiss. Bruce's comments about their poor
customer service didn't help either.

Now all I have to do is pay off the second mortgage I took out on my house
to pay for them.

Mason Flint
Snoqualmie, WA