Bushnell Excursion EX 10x42 Binocular

Where do I begin? I had high hopes for this pair of binoculars - my first decent pair, yet it failed me in alot of ways.

I'll begin with the body of the binos. It is well constructed and very comfortable in your hands and it does have gel filled thumbrests, which feels great. The split hinge design can be a love hate relationship - either you love it or you hate it (I personally hate it). The objective lens covers are poorly made and WILL get lost sometime soon. I'm constantly checking to make sure that they're attached to the binos while hiking. The connection of the binos to the neck strap is unusual and looks rather fragile. It consists of a sort of snap-on fixture. Bushnell foresaw its flimsiness and included an extra set. The neck strap works well and is padded. The packaging is very deluxe with a great carrying case and storage bag.


Now tho the main discussion of any pair of binoculars - the optics. I've had to replace my first set of binoculars with a second set and both have had the same problems (not from Eagle Optics though), so it isn't a matter of coincidence that these binos have very poor quality optics for the specifications and price. Firstly the eye relief is very shallow in my opinion - only 15.5mm. I wear contact lens most of the time but sometime I wear glasses and I notice the shallow eye relief. Also the right diopter setting doesn't work for my eyes, since even though I turn it all the way to the right, I still can't have my both eyes focused at the same time (I don't know if this is due to the shallow eye relief). I have 20/20 vision when wearing my contacts, so I don't think that my eyes are the problem, since the right diopter should work properly in the base setting but it doesn't. This was the case in both pairs I've had.

The major problem I had with the first pair (prompting me to return it) was the huge amount of glare I encountered while looking through the binos. Approximately two thirds of the image (a third on either side) would have a glare even though I would change my viewing angles. I thought that this was an isolated case, but when I received the current pair the glare was still there even though it was slightly reduced.

I have used Vipers (Viper) and Nikons (Monarch) from friends and I haven't had any problems. So I'm currently stuck with a set of poor quality binoculars, which I wouldn't advise anyone to purchase before trying them out.

DSN