Cameras and Lenses
"One-liner" reviews of all the bins you've bought and sold/returned
Here's a rundown for me so far:
1. Swarovski 8.5x42 EL : Very nice optics and ergonomics but slow, stiff focus wheel really sucks. They are way too bulky, mostly in length. Lenses rattle
2. Swarovski 10x42 EL : Smooth fast focus wheel is a huge improvement. The winged eyecup option is wonderful. They rattle and are on the large side.
3. Leica 10x42 BN : Built like a tank with fine optics and ergonomics but too heavy.
4. Leica 7x42 BA : Built to survive a nuclear winter but heavy as hell for a 7x
5. Zeiss 10x25 Victory. One hinge design is nicer for pupillary distance adjustment. The rubber armoring is a little thin and seems like it would rip and peel under heavy use.
my optic back catalogue as follows
[1] bushnell natureview plus 10+42 brought four years ago,rock solid bridge and a perfect focus wheel,so so optics but they were my first.miss em.
[2] opticron bga pc agn 8+42,my first quality bins,eyecups never stayed in place but very nice optics.
[3] leica trinovid 8+42 bn,everything i ever wanted in a pair of bins,rock solid everything,brilliant optics,lost my job=bye bye leica's 
[4]suffer the pain of having to go back to using [1] 
[5]can't live without leica,purchased secondhand 8+32 ba's,very nice except yellow cast and not enough eyerelief 
[6]purchased leica trinovid 7+42 ba sight unseen,quite yellow colourcast and not very bright,approx fifteen years old but could almost pass as new!,sent back for a refund
[7]purchased opticron imagic tga porroprisms,good optics but bridge is as loose as bur street on a friday night ,shortly to reside at the bottom of the local duck pond and be replaced by my first great love,leica bn trinovid 
matt
This is complicated as it covers over 50 years of hit and miss purchases (optics have always been a weakness of mine and I have bought and given away far more than any human should have), the ones that really stick in my memory are as follows:
1> A pair of Tower (sold by Montgomery Ward back in the 60's) 7x35 porros which I paid $5.00 for and one of my grandsons still uses. Not bad and the reason I got them for $5 was they had been returned by a customer due to a chip in one of the lens elements. I couldn't see any problems with the view then and still can't as of this day. You can see the chip if you look into the objective end of the bino's with the right light. They're probably the best buy in bino's I ever made.
2> A pair of Simmons 8x42 porros that were as heavy as a tank but had a reasonably decent veiw, just tooooooooooo! heavy to carry. Gave them to a couple that wanted to go birding a couple of times and didn't want or couldn't part with the money to get some of their own. They're still not fervant birders but do keep the bins on a window sill in the kitchen and now have several feeders in the back yard.
3> Numerous Bushnell's, Tasco's. Nikons, Pentax, etc. that all failed in some way to make me happy at the time, all given to grandkids, so called friends of the moment, etc.
4> Now some mention of ones over time that I found outstanding in some way or the other and remember fondly. A pair of Pentax 8x26's porros that were small, bright, lite and water resistant and used by my wife for several years.
5> A pair of Canon 8x32 roof's, little heavy but super bins for the price, about $109.00 at the time (approx. 10 years ago), carried them to Costa Rica, the Everglades and coastal Georgia and really enjoyed them. Still do but rarely use. They're my backup, backup bins today.
6> A pair of Eagle Optics 8x32 Ranger Platinums which are lite in weight, brite of view and optically compete with almost anything I have ever looked through. A very fine and excellent bin for the price, easy to handle and will take a lot of punishment and have a super warranty for the money (something that's often overlooked in Eagle Optics).
7> A pair of Leupold Wind River Pinnacles 10x42. Optically as good as they come, physically leave something to be desired but very enjoyable to use when you want a 10x bin.
8> A pair of the pre-SLCnew Swarovski 8x30 SLC's, the only semi-expensive bin I've ever owned out of maybe 30 or 40 pair over the years and I must admit that I would have been better off to have spent the price of a Leicas, Zeiss or Swarovski's way back when, would have been much less expensive in the long run. Lot's of inexpensive bins add up over the years. But then, if I had taken that route, lots of kids and young people would never have been exposed to birding with my old bins.
Jaeger near Chicago