Who knows about binoculars

on the 8X42 / 10X50. With glass you get what you pay for so spend as much as you can!
Do you wear glasses? if so look for ones that are easy to adjust for eyeglass wearers, I personally do not care for the roll down rubber. A few years ago I purchased Leopold wind rivers and have never regretted it. Not the most expensive at around $300.00 (back then) but well worth it IMHO. Just my .02 worth hope this helps.

All depends on what you want to get out of em. Field use you will want something small. Leave in the truck you can get a bigger set.

I got Nikon something or other in 8x40? that are great for what I use em for. The higher the magnication the more steady you will have to be when useing them. That is why I went with the 8X

Vortex best binoculars for the money.

As stated above, depends on what you want them for.

I'm always skeptical about anything that involves spending more than necessary. I got by with the smallest and cheapest compacts in 8X21's for many years, and noticed that when I looked through other shooters' bigger and more expensive binoculars at the shoots, that the images were larger, maybe just a little brighter, and if I switched back and forth I could usually detect a slight difference in sharpness. It was difficult to find, though. I could usually see the scoring lines on the targets as easily with mine as with theirs.

I finally decided to treat myself to some better ones, and bought the still-cheap $40 Bushnells in 10X42 a couple of years ago. The image from them is the same size as the ones in my buddies' Nikons, the same brightness as near as I can tell, and very nearly the same sharpness. Checked the power rating using a steady rest and a brick wall, and found them to be a true ten power, as stated. Again, in a side-by-side comparison, switching back and forth, I can sometimes find some tiny detail that I can see with theirs and not with mine, but it takes some searching.

I carried those for most of my shooting and hunting the last two years, with complete reliability and no problems. They did fog up one extremly damp morning, but cleared pretty quickly when the foggy conditions cleared later in the morning. I didn't consider that to be too serioous a malfunction because I couldn't see far enough through the fog that morning to get any benefit out of the binoculars even if they had remained clear.

Only time I did anything to them was when the barrels started to get a little loose and the distance between them was changing a little easier than I liked. It's a very simple adjustment to pop off the cap covering the adjusting screw and add some tension to get the stiffness you want. Only had to do that once, after several months of use. I would consider that routine adjustment and not a failure of any kind.

I still like those for "truck binoculars", but have found myself carrying another pair of the compact 8X21's lately, because they're so small and light. I carry the bigger ones if I'm going to be on stand for sure, but like the lighter ones if I'm stillhunting or scouting.

The compacts have the folding rubber eyecups, and the 10X42's have the twist down hard plastic ones. Both work fine, but I personally prefer the rubber ones slightly. The hard ones will occasionally get twisted partly to the up position when carrying them around, and the rubber ones stay rolled down better.

I realize that there is some difference in quality as you go up in price, but I think the very inexpensive ones are dismissed way too early in nearly all these discussions. I really had to look hard to see the difference in image quality between my $40 ones and the Nikons that my friends carry that retail around $300 and are found found at discount dealers sometimes for around $240. Might be worth it if you're going to spend hours on end glassing on a mountain hunt, but if you can afford that hunt, you'll probably want Leica's or Swarovski's anyway. For whitetails and general use, I'd suggest giving the Busnell 10X42's at WallyWorld a try.

On any that I've owned, the factory straps are not very good. I like to carry mine with the strap over my left shoulder and the binoculars hanging at just above waist level on my right side. This carry seems to be very handy for immediate use, while keeping them out of trouble and away from the bowstring. If I'm going through extremely tough brush like heavy briars, I slide the binoculars around to the center of my back to be sure they'll stay out of trouble for a few minutes. The factory straps are almost always too short for this carry, and are usually not very good durability anyway, so I usually just replace them right away with some webbing of the right length.

I don't deny that there are better ones out there. I'm just saying that you get 98% of what you pay for with first 40 bucks, and the other two percent with the next $1600 or so.

About a year ago Sportsmens Guide had Bushnell Legacies 8X40s for 30$. They are rubber coated and waterproof. I bought two pairs. One for me and one for my wife. We watch bird, deer, turkey, eagles with them and have been very happy with them. I much prefer them to the Nikons we have. I have had friends watch wildlife through them and thought they were expensive.

The high end optics are definitely worth the money, and there is considerable difference.
You won't notice much difference if you don't use binos much. Where you really appreciate the good stuff; Leica, Swarovski, Zeiss, etc. is when you spend daylight to dark in the mountains hunting and observing critters at long range for hours on end.

The cheap binos will give you a spanking headache if you use them for long. Kind of like wearing glasses of improper prescription.

Another recommendation.
Go with a set of full size binos, not the mini compact, shirt pocket type.
Full size binos are easier to hold steady, plus the larger objective lense gathers more light.