Hello Tweets,
I wish I could share great reports of the rarities that showed up in
Seattle over the weekend, but I spent my afternoon dipping on all of
them.

I was browsing Cabelas site this evening and I noticed that they had
some really good deals going on a couple excellent-for-the-price
binocular models so I thought I'd pass the info along. I know many of
you have binoculars costing many orders of magnitude more than these,
but these might be a good second/third/seventh pair to keep in your
car or around the house or to give to a budding birder in your life
for Christmas.

The first pair are the Leupold Yosemite BX-1 6x30's. I've often seen
these recommended as excellent starter binoculars for younger birders
because of their wide field of view, light weight and compact size.
The image quality in the pairs I've played with are excellent,
especially for the price, and they close-focus to 10ft. They're
waterproof and have a "limited lifetime" warranty as well. Usually
they're about $90, but they're on sale for $69 at the moment. There's
also a 8x30 model that's $79.

The second pair the Redfield Rebel 10x42's. These are a pair of roof
prism binoculars sold under Leupold's budget Redfield brand. They're
also waterproof and backed with Leupold's lifetime warranty. I've
played with these extensively and found the image quality to be quite
good and the focusing mechanism especially smooth. Typically they sell
for $130-150, but I believe they've been discontinued in favor of a
newer model and they're selling them for $89. There's also a 8x32
model for $79 that I briefly owned before returning them in favor of a
8x42 model from another brand. There was a little too much light drop
off at the edges for my taste in the 8x32 model. The 10x42's didn't
have this issue when I tested them.

I have no financial interest in promoting these items, just passing
along what I think is a good deal.

Josh Adams
Lynnwood, WA