Great purchase very tight competition - Leupold BX-5 Santiam HD 8x42mm Roof Prism Binoculars

Well it was either these of the Vortex Razor HD 8x42. I was totally locked up in the pre-purchase decision making process. Read everything I could. Bugged the heck out of both manufacturers not to mention the wonderful customer service of OpticsPlanet. Then one day a special came through so I ordered both. In the end almost kept both too. Both are spectacular units. A friend and I spent several hours looking up down and across golf fairways in all light conditions at distance as far as we could see anything (probably out to 2,000 yards) with and without rain with and without sun. I didn’t tell him which cost more or which I was leaning towards. Just wanted his neutral opinion. In the end I bought the Leupold and the reasoning was at a distance and in low light near dusk the Leupold had slightly crisper edges AND the field of view was in our estimation wider (which is very weird because the specs say the Vortex FOV is wider) That was it. Both have spectacular clarity, comfort, handle relatively narrow pupillary distance well, have wonderful light transmission, and are a pleasure to handle. Almost kept the Vortex just because but it would be stupid to keep two pair. Frankly if I hadn’t gotten 15% off the Leupold during a sale likely would have bought the Vortex. Bottom line: Leupold has made a spectacular and highly competitive top end product and I could not be happier but don’t underestimate the Vortex Razor either.