Optically great, a few minor misses - German Precision Optics PASSION ED 10x42mm Prism Schmidt-Pechan Binocular

I use binoculars for bird and wildlife watching. I compared the GPO Passion ED 10X42s in the field and in store against several competitors, including Athlon Optics Cronus Gen II UHD 10X42, Bushnell Legend Ultra HD 10X42, Kowa BD II XD 10x42, Zeiss Conquest ED (in store only) and the pair of Nikon Monarch HG 10X30s and Vanguard Endeavor ED II 10X42s that I already owned. I watched a very thorough YouTube video that compared the Athlon Cronus, GPO Passion EDs and Kowa BD IIs, and they ranked them in that order optically (the review included many others as well). I disagree, I found the GPOs to be very slightly superior to the Athlons, though there were certain times when the Athlons seemed very slightly better. Optically, I'd say you can't go wrong with either one. The Athlons are larger and heavier than the GPOs, which is ultimately what pushed me towards the GPOs. The biggest thing weighing against the GPOs to me was the fairly small amount of eye relief (just 15mm). They work for me, but just barely, and I think they would work better for me with another couple mm of eye relief. So for me, low eye relief is the biggest miss on these binoculars. I also don't care for either the eye piece covers or the objective lens covers. I swapped both out for lens covers that I had from other pairs of binoculars since these are now my primary binoculars. I should add that the first pair of GPOs that I ordered had a stiff spot in the focusing wheel, so I returned them for another pair that don't have that problem.

I already mentioned that the GPOs and the Athlons are nearly identical optically. I have a Kowa spotting scope that is amazing and I honestly REALLY wanted the Kowa BD IIs, but the GPOs were brighter in dark patches and had a slight edge on clarity. The Kowas felt better in the hand and I think are slightly smaller. The GPOs are noticeably superior to the Bushnells in every way, but they are also significantly more expensive. Frankly, the Bushnells punch of above their weight for the price. (In fact, I used my Optics Planet bucks from the GPOs to get the Bushnell's for free when they were on sale and they are now my "always in the car" binoculars.) Likewise, the GPOs were superior in every way to the Vanguard Endeavor ED IIs except for eye relief. What surprised me is that, at least in the store, the GPOs also optically equalled or out performed the Zeiss Conquest EDs. I would have loved to have compared them in the real world in low light, but I didn't feel like buying them to make that comparison since I also wasn't really looking to spend $1000 for binoculars. My Nikon Monarch HG 10X30 binoculars are amazing and compact, but the 30mm objective lenses just can't bring in light like the 42mm objectives of the GPOs.