Who Makes The Best Binoculars For The Money

Most Popular or Best Binocular Brands? — The Most Popular Binocular Brands – Which is Best?

A type of question I often get asked is something to the effect of "What is the best binocular brand" or "Who makes the best binoculars" and so I thought I would attempt to answer this once and for all.

At first thought, this may seem like a relatively easy question to answer and I would just need to supply you with a number of popular, well-known optics and binocular brand names like Swarovski, Leica, Zeiss, Vortex and Bushnell and leave it at that, but the more I thought about it, the right answer depends on many factors. and what is best for some is certainly not best for others.

Like Cars
Binocular brands are a lot like those of cars: Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes, Porche… there are undoubtedly a number of key players that most people know and wouldn't argue against the fact that they make great cars. But as to deciding who makes THE BEST, there really is no single answer as different types of cars will suit different people and even then everyone has their own particular style or brand that they like or dislike for whatever reason.

So, what I have decided that in order to answer this question in more depth than simply listing the "top 10 best binocular brands" for click-bait, it would be of more help to a wider range of users if I were to break it down into a number of categories, some of which I hope you will be able to identify with.

Below are my selections of the Best Binocular Brands and to prevent arguments they are all in alphabetical order and not preference!

Alpha Level Binoculars

The Best of the Best
If you simply want the best of the best and are prepared to pay a premium to get it then there are the top 3 very established brands that are widely considered to be those who make the very best binoculars that money can buy:

Leica
Swarovski
Zeiss

Historically these top three binocular brands are responsible for many optical breakthroughs and would only focus on producing the very best binoculars almost without compromise when it came to cost. However they do now also offer more affordable lines, but even these are still top-end products.

I guess in the car world, these top 3 binocular brands above would be Ferrari, Porche and Mercedes-Benz.

Very High End

The New World
It is hard to compete with more than 100 years of tradition, history and experience, but there are also a few modern optical brands that are innovative, have developed a number of technological advancements and also produce instruments that I consider to be at the same level as those above.

However, in most cases they also produce a wide selection of mid-range and even cheap binoculars, so I would say whilst the brand is not "alpha", their flagship series is or extremely close to being at what I would describe as being at an alpha level.

Going back to the car analogy, think of these brands as being like BMW, Audi, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar and perhaps Lincoln?

Kowa
Minox
Nikon
Steiner
Vortex

These brands make a wide variety of binoculars, but their flagship series is a very high-end, high performance instrument, that many would say is not quite at the alpha level, but is very close. The advantage here is that they are also usually far less expensive.

In the language of cars, we are talking about Ford, Acura, Cadillac, Lexus, Volvo and Tesla:

Bresser
GPO – very new, but so far so good!
Hawke
Maven
Opticron
Snypex

Great Value for Money Brands

These brands have a particular reputation of making some more affordable binoculars that have a great performance to price ratio:

Bushnell
Celestron
Hawke
Vanguard

Camera Brands making Binoculars

Canon
Fujinon
Leica
Minox
Nikon
Olympus
Pentax

Specific Niches

Whilst there will be many others that I have not included, the brands I have listed in each of these sub-categories or interests have a particularly high reputation and or is very popular amongs users and those "in the know" within the particular niche:

Astronomy

Celestron
Fujinon
Orion
Zhumell

Birding

Whilst most brands offer binoculars, usually with an 8x42 or similar configuration that are suitable for birding. The brands below are in my mind at least specifically popular within the birding world.

Hawke
Kite
Leica
Kowa
Opticron
Swarovski
Swift
Zeiss

Hunting

This is a huge niche and like most of the others, there are particular sub-sets to it, for example, the binoculars you would use hunting from a hide in very low light, will be very different to those that need to travel long distances tracking. However, the brands I have listed below have a particular strength or good reputation amongs hunters. Please let me know if you think I have missed any.

Athlon
Bushnell
Leica
Minox
Vortex
Steiner
Swarovski
Tract
Zeiss

General Outdoors

These are the Landrover, Jeep or even Toyota brands of the Optics world. They have a very high reputation for producing a tough, take anywhere binocular that excels in a wide range of outdoor environments and won't let you down no matter where you are:

Bushnell
Steiner
Vortex

Military & Security

Minox
Snypex
Steiner

Marine

Fujinon
Minox
Steiner

Travel & Safari

Bushnell
Steiner
Vanguard

Image Stabilized

Because of their experience in producing image stabilization in their cameras and lenses, this sector is dominated by the camera brands who also make binoculars:

Canon – Canon IS Binoculars
Fujinon – Fujinon Techno-Stabi
Nikon – Nikon StabilEyes Binoculars

Night Vision

Armasight
ATN
Flir
Luna Optics

Conclusions

So as you can see as to Which Brand is Best for Binoculars and Who makes the best binoculars, it really does depend on your area of interest and requirements. No matter how great the Leica Ultravid HD-Plus, Swarovski EL, or Zeiss Victory SF are, they simply won't be the best in every single situation or scenario.

I have done my best to be as comprehensive and objective as possible, but I will be the first to admit that whilst I have many years of experience in this area and have used and tested many, many binoculars, I most certainly do not know everything. Not by a long shot!

So, I am sure that I have missed out some brands by mistake and am even more sure that there will be many omissions and opinions that you do not agree with. As long as it is constructive, I would love to hear about them and will certainly update this list over time, so please feel free to contact me.