By: dashaobei (21-Nov-06)      Experience with product: 10 Days

Strengths:	Water proof, smooth focus
Weaknesses:	none

Full User Summary
I took this binoculars to watch the NBA game, it performed perfect, looks like a professional one. It focuses is quick and very smooth and has very good eye-relief. I love it.

By: safari4u (15-Oct-06)      Experience with product: 2 Months

Strengths:	Clarity is fantastic. Light weight and easy to hold.
Weaknesses:	I haven't found any yet!

Full User Summary
I took these binoculars to the Arctic and I saw everything with great light and clarity! I just wish my camera was as good. The optics prove to be as good as the more expensive brands that I did compare them to before making my purchase. I am very pleased with my choice and recommend them for safaris too! Also, I must add that they have a lifetime warranty, so they stand behind their product! I love that! I will definately look to Olympus for future purchases!

By: glamourcon (25-Mar-04)      Experience with product: 30 Days

Strengths:	Excellent optics, water/fog proof, relatively light, smooth focus, very good eye-relief, phase corrected, fully multi-coated
Weaknesses:	none

Full User Summary
I bird every day and have a dozen pair of binos. I find myself grabbing this pair most often. The optical quality is excellent, especially for the price. The phase coated prisms and fully multi-coated optics produce a bright image with good resolution and surprising depth of field. They easily compare with my Pentax HRII but are about 5 ounces lighter, a bit shorter and better balanced. They also focus down to about 9 feet which is fine for the birding I do.I appreciate the long eye-relief (18mm) of the 8 x 42 as I also have the 10 X 42 which has 15mm of eye-relief which is not quite enough for my glasses. Twist up eyecups help a lot here as I don't care for the rubber fold down eyecups found in some other binos in this price range.Focusing is quick and very smooth ... something I appreciate while birding. In fact, the only glass I ever returned was a pair of relatively expensive binos that didn't have a smooth focus.While these are not quite in the same league as optics costing several hundred dollars more, they are very, very close and, therefore, represent a 5-star value.