The Bottom Line: With multi-coated optics, smooth and precise focusing, a 4.2 mm exit pupil, and an easily hand-holdable weight and form, these binoculars are a great value given their price.

Being more of a photo enthusiast than a real birder, I've relied largely on telephoto optics to spot and observe wildlife, even when I don't intend to snap a picture. But with the annual Wings over Willcox festival and a sunrise observation of Sandhill Cranes on last weekend's agenda, I finally caved in and bought a set of binoculars; my Opteka mirror lens would be far too dim in the pre-dawn light.

This inexpensive Bushnell set, to be had for $31 at Wal-Mart and less through some of the merchants linked by Epinions, was my choice. Price was a consideration, and of the options, this was the best value. At six inches long by five inches wide, they're reasonably compact (although certainly not "compact binoculars"), and I found their 22.2 ounce weight light enough for sustained one-handed use.

10X magnification is quite reasonable for birding or wildlife watching. This used to be considered high magnification for hand-holding, but lens manufacture has improved to the point where 12X and 14X binoculars light and compact enough for handholding can now be found. It is nevertheless easier to make high-quality optics with long focal lengths, hence of two devices of comparable optical quality, the one with lower magnification will have lower price. 42 mm objective lenses make for images sharp enough that any softness present isn't casually noticeable; looking at a chile ristra at the near-focus limit (12 feet, somewhat farther than the listed 10') as I write, I cannot see any softness in the creases or edges, even while looking for such things. A 5.8 degree field of view (305' at 1000 yards) means vignetting is noticeable but not uncomfortable or so narrow that one cannot follow a moving bird through the sky.

Epinions and numerous other websites erroneously quote a 2.25 mm exit pupil for this product; the packaging and my own calculation have it as 4.2 mm. 4.2 mm is a bit narrow; as the dark-adapted adult human pupil is roughly 6 mm wide, performance in dim light will be aperture-limited. If, however, the objectives were made large enough for brightness to be aperture-limited, this wouldn't be such a comfortable hand-held binocular. Regardless, I was able to see the cranes pulling their feet out of the ice at dawn; aperture-limited or not, they're "bright enough." The roof prisms inherently cause about 10% of the light to be lost, but multicoating on the lenses ensures that there's quite a bit coming through in the first place.

Focusing, done using a center knob, is smooth and accurate, with no backlash or drift. The knob turns so that one can focus "beyond infinity". As these are generally used on their own and not as a part of some larger imaging system, I can't think of a reason for this. Perhaps it makes sense to an engineer, but until someone explains it to me, I'll consider it a goofy inconvenience that means one can't pre-dial the focus before looking at the Moon or planets. Adjustment for difference between left and right eyes is done by twisting the right eyepiece. This, too, does not drift and tends to stay in place while the binoculars are being carried. Likewise the usual hinge adjustment for interpupillary distance is smooth but sufficiently stiff to stay in place while carrying.

If these mechanisms are adjustable, how to do so isn't evident; for my purposes this is a sealed unit. On a certain level, that bothers me, but they're not known to get loose or sloppy under normal use. There's no prism adjustment, either; these owe their compact size and shape to use of roof prisms for image inversion, doing away with porro prisms' need for periodic alignment. While not sealed, these binoculars are water resistant. I don't want to have to find out what that means, but I do know that the few drops of alcohol used in casual cleaning don't fog the lenses.

Rubberized coating--"armor" to Bushnell pitchmen--keeps these from getting too scratched up or making noise when bumping against other objects being carried (e.g. an SLR camera) and the low thermal conductivity of rubber means the coating adds comfort on cold mornings. The packaging claims that these binoculars can be adapted for a tripod, but I cannot find a place for attachment of an adaptor, and the instruction sheet doesn't mention it. As these are light enough to handhold and of low enough magnification that small jitter doesn't make viewing uncomfortable, I don't miss it, but I would like for product features to match package claims. The housing has two loops to hold a nylon strap (included); the strap itself has a break-in period during which it's inclined to come loose due to its packaging-induced kinks not matching the curves of its buckles. This didn't result in me dropping the binoculars, but it could have. Being a defect in materials, this would have been covered by Bushnell's lifetime warranty, but that would have been meager consolation for loss of use.

$30 buys a lot of binocular these days; Bushnell's 10X42 binoculars (model 21-0142C) outperformed my expectations in low light and for the rest of the day. I've borrowed or glanced through better, and improvements such as a tripod socket, full multi-coating, and precision corrective "phase coating" for the roof prism would certainly be welcome, but "better" from this point outward is a matter of small increments, not categorical leaps in precision, comfort, contrast, or brightness.