A great pair of binoculars expands your horizons, bringing faraway birds, plants, and landscapes into view.I’m a professional ornithologist, and I spent nearly 200 hours field-testing more than two dozen pairs of binoculars against my own $2,500 Leica Ultravid pair.After using my test pairs in the mountains and hills of Southern California, and then on research trips to the rainforests of southern Mexico and Costa Rica, I found that the Athlon Optics Midas ED 8x42 pair was the best of the group.If I were to lose my Leicas tomorrow, I wouldn’t hesitate to replace them with one of these picks.