LAST EDITED ON Jul-27-04 AT 03:02PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Jul-27-04 AT 02:57?PM (MST)
LAST EDITED ON Jul-27-04 AT 02:56?PM (MST)
While there are some good binos in the Leupold Wind River line, I'm not sure the Cascade's would be my first choice. The reason being, I don't think they're "phase corrected", which is pretty much a necessity in roof prism binos. Maybe I'm wrong about the Cascade's, but when I checked Leupold's web-site, I didn't see any mention of the Cascade's being phase corrected. Without phase correction, the light waves will be left distorted when bouncing of the refracting lenses and you'll loose image quality and brightness.
I realize you might not have a ton of money to spend, but I'd at least look for a phase corrected roof prism, several of which can be had for about what you paid for the Cascade's. Some examples are the Minolta WP and the Audubon Equinox from Eagleoptics.com. IMHO, if you don't get a phase corrected roof prism, you'd be better off with a porro prism bino, which doesn't require phase correction due to the lens construction.
By the way, I prefer 10x.
Just my .02$