Endeavor ED 8x42

It was time for a new pair of binoculars for birding, but I did not want to spend $1000 to $1500 for a quality pair. Reviews pointed to the Vanguard Endeavor series and I'm glad I followed them. These 8X42 Endeavors are sturdy and waterproof and feel like they will last a long time (in any case, they come with a no questions asked Lifetime Warranty). They work well with my eyeglasses. The right-eye adjustment locks in place. Focusing is easy. They are brilliant and extremely sharp across the entire field of view (which is a bit narrower than expected). With the $50 rebate, they are 1/4 the price of top of the line binoculars, and you hardly give up any quality. (Full disclosure: Vanguard provided a gift to any purchaser who writes an on-line review-good or bad-at the vendor's site, so I should receive a lens cleaning kit for posting this).

I came across an amazing (1/2 off) deal on these Vanguard ED 8X42 lightly used at Amazon Warehouse so I went for it. Boy, I'm glad I did - they put my crappy old 10X50's to shame. Pros: - They're very high quality; they're heavy for their size but not so heavy that they're a chore to wear or hold like the 10X50's (which made your neck/arms ache after a few minutes). - The view is wide - the specs say 367 ft at 1000 yd; about 7 degrees - enough that you can see what's around your center of focus. - They're sharp as a tack - I can read newsprint at 20 feet - and the view is so bright it actually looks brighter than with bare eyes. - I see minimal coma at the edges. - The 3-position eyecups work well, the detents are firm, I don't have any trouble with them moving around with use. I can use them with or without eyeglasses without any problems. - The locking diopter adjustment is brilliant; one of the reasons I remembered these glasses over several others - once you have them set, you lock it and you're done with fussing. - The 3/4 turn lock-to-lock focusing is invaluable; focus is so fast. - The eyepiece slipcover is tight and easy to use, the objective covers are easy to slip on and off. - The neck strap is nicely made, with excellent stitching, made of thick neoprene. - The case is good quality cordura with a decent 1-way zipper. - The glasses themselves are rubbery and grippy; easy to hold without feeling cramped. Overall, top-quality kit. Cons: - The weight; they are made of solid metal, glass and rubber, not carbon fiber; the price reflects this. They're still 1/3 less weight than the 10X50's they replaced. - The bright lime-green plastic accents and thread are tacky, and should never have seen the light of day - but that's probably just me; they're tiny when viewed from a few feet away. - Unfortunately the case is so tight it isn't big enough to hold the glasses with the eyecups extended - so you're fussing with them all the time. - The glasses are somewhat prone to flare if a light is at about 80-90 degrees; worse than other lenses I've had. - There is some chromic aberration in very high contrast situations; enough that it is bothersome at times. (edited to correct chromic aberration comment)

I bought these based on reviews posted by Birdwatching.com. Just back from two weeks hiking - touring in Arizona and am very satisfied with my purchase. This is the first pair of "good" moderate size binocs I have ever bought ( I do have a Nikon 10x25 Sport that's great for football games) so I was unsure of what to get. Didn't want to spend $$$$$ but did want solid construction, ease of use and high quality glass. The Vanguard 8x42 ED is perfect for my uses at a very reasonable price. Let me say that they are easy to handle (medium size hands), easy to focus (glasses wearer), very bright with great clarity and color rendition. And not too heavy (2-3 hour hikes with moderate climbing) especially with the added harness. The magnification is just right as any greater would get too "shaky" to hand hold. The close focus is about 6' and really good for seeing details in objects (like the cacti at the Botanical gardens). I did get the optional harness (Steiner) that keeps them close to the chest yet easy to use. Well worth the extra money and a must have if hiking. The optics covers work well and so far I haven't lost a front cover but only a matter of time there I'm afraid. The rear cover attaches to the strap and is soft and easy to use. Lastly, the bright green stripes are a nice touch! I would definitely recommend these to anyone looking for a solid all around performer in a moderate price range.

I have owned a pair of the original Pentax PCF 10x50 binoculars (similar to Pentax 65808 PCF II 10x50 Waterproof Binocular ) since the 1980s. These are the original PCFs made in Japan. In the course of almost 30 years I've used them quite a bit for sports and general use - and I find that after all that time they still work as well as they did when new. Great light gathering capability, good balance (if a bit heavy) in the hand, clear optics without any obvious aberrations. I mention the Pentax PCFs because I've just picked the Vanguard Endeavor ED Binocular (8x42) on a Lightning Deal and of course immediately compared them to my trusty PCFs. The most important thing to me is IQ, and to my eyes the Pentax PCFs and the Vanguard EDs are equivalent in IQ. That said, the Vanguards have several distinct advantages over the Pentax. The Vanguard 8x42s are significantly more compact (due both to the roof prism design and the lower magnification) than the Pentax 10x50. They are also lighter, without appearing to sacrifice quality or durability. The Vanguards work much better than the Pentax with eyeglasses. And the locking mechanism on the diopter adjustment is clearly superior to the Pentax diopter adjustment without a lock. So while I still admire my old trusty (and huge) Pentax porro binoculars, these new Vanguards offer a number of usability improvements, in a more compact design, without sacrificing IQ or durability. I will say that I had been eyeing up (no pun intended) the Vanguard Endeavor ED Binocular (8.5x45) which offer a bit more magnification and light gathering power. However, even at the current historically low price the 8.5x45s cost $100 more than I paid for this set. The Vanguard 8x42s really are a bargain.

Got these as a lightning deal on Amazon, when you add in the rebate of $50 they were only $150. The optics are quite good; clear and bright, much better than you would ever expect for this price. The problem for me was they are quite heavy, kind of like your grandfather's old German binocs from the '50s. I agonized over them as long as I could then reluctantly sent them back to Amazon. Hard to give up good quality at such a good price but I already have other binoculars for around the house and these were meant to replace a hiking pair that I had that finally fell apart after 30 years.

I am a birder and depend heavily upon my binoculars for identification of the bird I am observing. I have had used many binoculars in the $600-300 price range over the year. This year I needed a new pair of binoculars, thus the search began, I read dozens of e zines,websites,blogs and bird magazines articles and reviews of binoculars reviewing from the lowest end of less than a $100 to the top $2200 range. For the mid prices the conclusion was the Vanguard was the 2nd most of the time, and half the cost of the 1st place binoculars. I decided to go ahead and get them; from the day they arrived I was excited, they were everything I had hoped they would be and a cost that didn't break the bank!!! The ED glass makes the field of view so much brighter and sharper than the older pair non-ED I was using;with these you can bird earlier and later than the old non-ED binoculars,too! The design has a comfortable grip, light weight to be able to use for longer periods of holding, they have a retractable eye cup which is great if you wear glasses!(gives good eye relief which is the distance a binocular can be held away from the eye and still present the full field-of-view. Extended or long eye relief reduces eyestrain and is ideal for eyeglass wearers.) Also have a locking eye diopter ring, and nice focus range for quickly focus on that bird before it flights away. They are also waterproof, fog proof which is important when using outside. I got caught in the rain several times on my last bird trip and I was able to keep on birding with no worry, and since they are fog proof I was able not to have to stop and continually wipe the lens since it was very warm and humid. I think anyone who is using them for hunting,sports,nature watching or birding will find these a excellent choice and great value. I highly recommend them.

Having read lots of reviews on these binoculars, which were almost universally excellent, I decided to buy a pair from the "Used - Fulfilled by Amazon" section, which was less than $190. That price was hard to resist. They arrived on time and appeared new to me, in the original sealed box. I compared them to a very similar pair of binoculars I have, the Vortex Fury 8x42 which does not have ED glass but is an excellent product anyway. Both have excellent eye relief of 19-20mm, which makes them great choices for eyeglass wearers. The Vanguards are slightly smaller and a touch lighter. They fit very well in the hand, thanks to the double bridge design, allowing me to wrap my fingers around the body. The fit and feel of these binoculars is top notch. There is no play in the focus wheel. Although my Furys are a bit easier to focus with one finger, the Endeavors are almost as good. The attached lens caps are very nice. In rating binoculars, i think the most important feature to consider is image quality. What most people say about the sharpness and clarity of the Vanguards is true. The ED glass improves the contrast and clarity over the non-ED glass Vortex, although I can't say the resolution is any better than the Vortex, which, as I mentioned, is an excellent pair of binoculars. The field of view of both pair is good, although the Vortex pair appears to be a little better in this regard. There is almost imperceptible image distortion in the Vanguards. Colors are true and brightness is excellent. I could not detect any chromatic abberation, although some reviewers did. These focus down to about 8 feet, depending on where you have the diopter ring set. The locking diopter feature is a great touch, by the way. I cannot compare these to the high end products from Zeiss or Leica but I did get a chance to look through a pair of Zeiss Terra ED's recently and I preferred the Vanguards over them. The Vanguard Endeavor 8x42 would make an excellent choice for birders or other sportsmen. For the price, these just cannot be equalled.

These really are superb binoculars--easy on the hands, nice clear, bright optics, unbeatable price, eye cups, generally fantastic. But here's one thing that's even more astonishing. My son dropped the binoculars in our back yard, and the eye cup cracked, and got some sand in it. I called up Vanguard to ask how much it would cost to repair, and they said they have a lifetime warranty, and that I just needed to cover the cost of sending them back to Michigan. I sent the binoculars out with a check, and got.... a brand new pair back about two weeks later. I think, realistically, they knew it would cost more to repair the binoculars than to just comp me a new pair, but that's still phenomenal customer service, and a real statement about how cost-efficient their production is. Thank you! Small criticism--the print on the eye cups and metal logo fade with time, and the eye cups don't lock particularly well in place. It's quite common for me to raise the binoculars to my eyes, just to find that one of the two eye cups has popped into a lower position. Really, a very minor thing, but I think worth considering when they next update the mode.

The Quality of the image is second to none.... you would hardly see the difference against $1000 plus glass. Love the pouch and caps, great eye relief can wear with normal sized vision glasses, great weight for the quality of image.

Optics are great and fits hands well One thing that happened with mine was a screw came loose under the focus adjustment...re-tightened and alls well

I recently purchased these 8x42 binoculars. First, I think these are quality binoculars. Very well made, high end optics. Open bridge design is nice. Vanguard makes an excellent product at an unbelievable price. However, in making a direct comparison to the Nikon Monarch 7 8x42, the Nikons win. The Nikons have a significantly larger field of view. The images are brighter with the Nikons, and the colours are more natural. I found that the colours with the Vanguards were a little washed out by comparison. For example, I viewed a distant cabin across Howe Sound. With the Nikons, the red metal roof of the cabin was clearly red, even from a great distance. With the Vanguards, the roof looked brown. Also, views with the Nikons seemed more vivid, 3 dimensional and lifelike when compared to the Vanguards. As far detail is concerned, both binoculars were very close. But with the superior colour rendition, wider field of view, brighter and more vivid image, I chose the Nikons and returned the Vanguards. I should point out that the Vanguards look and feel slightly better made, have a magnesium body instead of polycarbonate, a much nicer carry case, better quality and more functional lens protectors and a better warranty (lifetime vs 25 years). But, to me, it's all about the optics, and the Nikons' optics are clearly superior. Having said all this, the Nikons were $150.00 more expensive. Are they worth it? To me, yes. But that's for you to decide as both these binoculars offer very good value for money.

Compact enough for a day pack, excellent near focus, easy secure dusk caps, very clear image. I cannot think of anyway to improve these binoculars.

These binoculars have very good optics and are easy to focus. Would recommend for bird watchers. Comes with carry case and neck strap.