Now let me start off with honesty; I’m not the first guy in the office to go around preaching about Leupold. I know that they are a huge company with a large following…I’m just not one of them.
However, I just had the opportunity to test out the new Leupold Golden Ring Switch Power binocular and I was surprised. I liked it. And I don’t think that I wanted to like it.
I thought that I would pick it up and just hate it from there. The binocular felt like quality construction. I thought it would be gimmicky and have shotty construction. It didn’t.
The 10x/17x model that I held not only felt like a solid piece of optics but weighed considerably less than the other brand’s switch power bino.
I used the other guy’s bino a few months ago and it was confusing because the switching happens independantly on each barrel. The Leupold center switch was very easy and effective. Next I thought that I wouldn’t be able to see anything at the high power because of the lower exit pupil. I was really surprised that the bino did not seem to dim.
If I had been looking at them at lunch I would have thought that the sun’s brightness was compensating, but it was twenty minutes until dark and the switch was seamless. Visually they were great with crisp focus, perfect contrast and beautiful color. The Leupold Golden Ring Switch Power binocular is a great binocular and is everything that they say it is. My world crumbled.