[Min]

I just got a pair of Steiner Police 8x30 binocs, and the light transmission was very good, slightly better than my Pentax 8x42. I know they should not be as good as the Leupolds and the Zeiss and the Swarvoski (sp?) out there, but where do they stand against the premium brands and the Japanese optics?

[mete]

Steiner makes excellent optics but like the others have diffrent grades. Do you want water proof or water resistant ? Do you want built in range finder ? If you want the highest grade you'll have to pay the highest price. But they are high quality ,rugged and often used by the military.

[Jaywalker]

Personally, though I've wanted to like Steiners, I've never been able to. They've just never felt right to me. The best site on the web to research binocs and spotting scopes is Better View Desired. (http://www.betterviewdesired.com/) There's years and years of research, reviews, and theory about what quality means in binocs.

Jaywalker

[Futo Inu]

I would bet that I ascribe a different definition to "birding" than the peeps over at that website, Jaywalker. :)