Allbinos.com was right about this one - Vanguard Endeavor ED II 10x42 mm Binoculars

An incredible view, regardless of price.

The eyepieces have an apparent field of 65 degrees; the binocular shows virtually no pincushion, while correcting fully for field curvature—a given object remains in essentially perfect focus from center to edge of field. This by itself is extremely impressive. Yes, at the very extreme edge, there is a tiny degradation of the image—but the concept of "sweet spot" does not apply to this binocular: the entire field is beautifully sharp. Really, really sharp. This makes the already large field seem even larger somehow.

Glare is very well controlled. Okay, at certain angles to a bright source one will see a mild crescent toward the bottom of the field of view, but this is usually alleviated by a slight adjustment of one's pupil, and I do not get that horrible wash of light across the field that spoils the view in binoculars with poor baffling. I have been very untroubled by glare when using the binocular in the field.

The color saturation and contrast in this instrument take my breath away—just a drop-dead gorgeous view. Perhaps this is connected with the somewhat warm bias of the binocular's transmission curve, but I'll happily take it. Chromatic aberration is just about invisible at the center of the field: I can look at twigs against a bright cloudy sky and see, well, just twigs. I can make out true colors of birds perched on those twigs at a distance that would defeat my other binoculars, in which both bird and twigs would be softly glowing around the edges. Color is slightly in evidence at the edges of the field if one looks hard for it, but I believe this is largely a matter of eye position.

Depth of field seems much larger on this binocular than I am used to at 10 power—I find myself making focusing adjustments less often than before. The focuser is certainly very fast. There is a very small amount of slop, but it doesn't seem to be an issue in the field at all. I find it very easy to obtain best focus, even while tracking flying swallows—in fact, I much appreciate the speed of the focuser and the way I can correct for changing distances with a very small motion of my finger. At first, the focuser seemed to have a slightly sandpapery quality in spots, but these have gone away with use. Oh, and close focus is very good: with my glasses on, I measure about 5.5 feet.

The eyepieces, like most wide-angle, long-eye-relief oculars, require careful placement of the pupil to avoid blackouts. The eye relief, about 18mm, actually requires me to pull out the eye cups about a millimeter or so—less than the distance between stops, to use with glasses. These stops feel sloppy—no definite "click" is felt—but then I realized that's because the cups will hold adjustment between stops. This is great: I can set the cups at about that one millimeter, and they will stay put for a given session, unlike some other designs which fall down to the first available stop under pressure against one's brow.

Some at Bird Forum have mentioned the awkward balance of this binocular. If you try to hold it in a more-or-less traditional position, with both thumbs in the small indentations, it is unbalanced, with the weight toward the objectives. However, I found two satisfactory ways of holding the binocular. The first places the base of my right thumb in the indentation below the strap attachment, and stretching across to the far barrel; index finger on focuser, middle finger on the top hinge, draped over to the far side of the hinge quite comfortably, and remaining two fingers curled around the right barrel. Meanwhile, the left hand is offset from this, with the thumb a good inch-and-a-half below the other thumb, its tip also pressing against the far (right) barrel, pinkie resting on the lower hinge, and the middle three fingers resting, offset, on those of the right hand, with left index on top of right middle finger, etc. This turns out to be a very comfortable grip; the binocular balances easily on the offset thumbs, allowing me to relax the grip completely, and focusing is a breeze. For a steadier grip, I keep the right hand where it is but slide the thumb up under the eyecups, protruding so as to make contact with my cheekbone; likewise I shift my left hand into a similar position, and the middle fingers of both hands meet at the middle of the top hinge: now the binocular rests in the palms of my hands, while the solid contacts between thumb and face provide a very steadying influence on the rig. I don't do this very often, but when I do, it seems very effective. At any rate, I find the ergonomic complaints against this binocular to be of no consequence for my particular pair of hands.

This will be my primary birding binocular for a long time. I can't quite see how one could improve the view significantly, beyond somewhat improved baffling. I'm sure I could spend double or triple what I spent and not have an equally good birding binocular.