Nikon Premier 8x32 Binocular

As a five or six year owner of 8x42 Monarchs, I thought my Monarchs were awesome, compared to my older 8x32 Nikon Sporters.
I unboxed these at lunch, and only had the time to gaze through them at my goldfinch feeder through a window. However, after work i headed to our inter-city lake, and sat glassing the ducks and geese all over the lake and shore with their offspring close behind. I was blown away by the clarity, the focus, and simply the WOW factor. Mine were a pair of refurbs from EO, and they are in perfect condition, with absolutely no flaws visible. As one of my friends told me, I'm in alpha glass heaven. If you can find one of these, buy it.

I had my pair of these that I purchased from Eagle Optics while on a trip to Panama with a birding group. Several birders in the group had their larger 10x 42 Swarovskis. Two of them asked me (in a slightly condescending way)if the Nikon's were my "traveling" binoculars. I said no these are great and I take them everywhere. They showed me theirs to look through and they looked through mine. The reaction was not what they expected. Woa, these are good they said. I noticed no difference other than the magnification and it was a pleasure to see the look on their face.

The Nikon Premier 8x32 binocular is an excellent binocular for all my birding activities. It is compact, lightweight and has superb optics. It is easy to hold and quick to focus. I can recommend this binocular to anyone.

After doing much research and dreaming about reference class bino's, I settled on this model and am happy I did. I've tried many pairs of binoculars and have owned about 7 myself and these are by far the best yet.

First off, the construction is first rate and well protected from damage with the fully ruber covered armor, and the focus knob is super smooth. The focus is extremely fast and the fastest I've ever used, with only a little turn of like a 1/4 inch making a huge difference in focus. This would normally be a problem since it would make it more difficult to get precise focus, but the smoothness of this focussing device more than makes up for it. The focus is so smooth in fact that it beats out pretty much every binocular on the market such as Leica, Zeiss, and even the already great in this respect Nikon Monarchs. The Nikon Premier 8x32mm's are compact, though a tad heavier at 24.5oz than their flagship europeon counterparts. This isn't a problem for me, since they are very well balanced, still lighter than most 42mm models, and you can feel that the rugged top quality armored cast magnesium construction is built to last. They come with a supplied leather case with a magnetic closure, rainguard, objective covers and a neck strap. Nikons 25 year warranty also is reassuring.

The 32mm model has a wider field of view than the 42mm model, which is ultimately why I chose it.(plus you save a few bucks!) The field of view is 408ft wide at 1000ft which puts it right up there in performance with the best fullsize binoculars available. I compared it side by side to the new Leica 8x42mm Ultrvid HD's that my friend bought and noticed no difference in sharpness or contrast.(Sorry Leica) Granted when I compared the two it was on an overcast day, but I would still expect to notice some difference non-the-less. In the sun or with brightly backlit subjects I would still expect to notice a difference between the Leicas and these, possibly with chromatic abberation performance but you'd be splitting hairs that's for sure. The eye relief is ample and the eyecups have three locking positions and should suit any eyeglass wearer. The eyepieces are flat field corrected for perfect sharpness to the edges of the field. They are very sharp, have very high contrast, and have that "pop" to the image that you only get with the best, all for about a third of the price of the top binoculars out there. The brightness during the day is no different than the 42mm models due to an interesting little effect between the 4mm exit pupil and your eye's pupil diameter. The only time you'd notice the field of view starting to close in or the brightness dropping due to the smaller 32mm objectives, is well after dusk when the birds are asleep anyway and nobody except night hunters and possibly S.W.A.T. officers are out using binoculars. They are still plenty bright at dusk, or before sunrise, and only loose some performance in what I would call "twilight" conditions. There is some distortion when you pan while looking through these I think due to the flat field correction in the eyepieces, but it's not an issue worth worrying about. When you do stop panning everything is razor sharp to the edges of the field and to me that's more important. An excellent choice for any birder. At the current pricing for these, they are a steal and a pretty big step up from the already very good Nikon Monarchs. Get them and you'll never need another pair!

I compared these to all other high end binoculars in Eagle Optics show room two years ago. Nothing was any better than these. These have to be the most under rated binoculars going. They are sharp and crystal clear. People who have looked through them in our birding club are surprised how good these binoculars are. The focus knob is a joy to use and focusing on a quick flying bird is a delight. You can pay more, but in my opinion these are all the binoculars you need for birding. For the price this is as it good as it gets in a 32 mm objective lens binocular.

I compared these side by side with similar swarovski SLC, EL and Leica's. Better all round than the SLC's and very hard to discern from the EL's and Ultravids, even against an optical chart. These offer a very crisp, bright view from edge to edge with a definite 'pop' to the picture. Whenever I let folks look through them they always say 'wow'. I do a lot of back country hunting which involves hours of glassing - for me, 8x32's offer the best compromise of low weight and portability with brightness and comfort. They are brighter than most 8x42's and much lighter. They're built tough but I'm hard on equipment. They've survived multiple falls, slides and an unexpected swim, mostly - I did dent an eyecup such that it won't twist out anymore. it's stuck in my preferred position so I haven't sent it in for repair - I don't want to be without them!
I found mine on sale for $750 which made the decision easy. Now that I've lived with them awhile I'd gladly pay more. At under $1000 they're an amazing bargain and I would hate to see someone shell out Leica money without at least looking through these, they are that good.