With high definition (HD) glass being all the rage in binoculars of late, it was going to be refreshing to see how standard binos would stack up after using HD glass for the past two years.

First Impressions

The new Konus 10X42 units felt good out of the box; they come with a sturdy case with a carry strap, and the binos themselves have a separate strap so you can hang them from your neck if you choose not to use the case. They also come with a lens cloth and full set of instructions for personal set up.

The moving parts had a positive feel with the bayonet-style eye cups feeling solid and comfortable to use. The dioptric regulation and focus wheel were very easy to use and set up for my viewing range; these all worked very well within the confines of my nice warm house – obviously the true test would come from a day on the hill!

Testing

The day dawned a cracker, so once I had the daily life chores out of the way, I started my walk into my hunting area at about 2pm; this would put me in prime country at the right time of day to hopefully see animals starting to move about as the light reduced for the evening.

Once in place, I perched myself on a large rock and started glassing a nice sunny face where I’d seen animals previously; it didn’t take long for me to pick up three deer at 530 yards that had mooched out of the cover of the bush. The picture I was seeing was very clear and sharp; this is where I chose to compare them to my personal set of binos. The comparison was very similar apart from some slight blurring on the edges of the picture; I half expected this because of the difference in build quality and price. There was also a noticeable weight difference with the Konus feeling a lot lighter in the hand.

We all know a good quality set of binoculars earn their money when the light starts to fade, so I was interested to see how the Konus would perform. The original three deer had materialised into five as two more hinds made their way from the safety of the bush to join the others in the open tussock. As the sun dropped below the mountains behind me, it made it harder to distinguish colours and shapes, and I found myself adjusting the focus wheel quite a lot especially when the viewing distance changed considerably.

At this point, my own personal HD binos came into their own; I could make out with the Konus what I thought were animals but had to confirm this with my binos. This happened twice: once as I thought I was looking at a deer’s backside at about 1000 yards and again with a chamois buck out on a scree slope.

In this instance, I was still pleased with the performance of the Konus as I remained seeing the animals; I just had to wait until they moved to guarantee it was in fact an animal in the fading light. There was still about 45 minutes of shootable light left, so I stayed until dark. All up, I sighted 10 deer, a black boar and a lone chamois buck – all found with the Konus 10X42 at varying distances from 500 yards out to well over 1000 yards.

Conclusion

The Konus performs visually as well as other known brands’ entry-level products, but I can’t attest to their quality on a long-term basis as I only used them on two different occasions. This being said, they do come with a limited two-year warranty against manufacturing defects.

Obviously, I wasn’t comparing apples with apples in this case as I was using my HD glass as the benchmark; with a $1200 price difference, I was hoping there would be a considerable quality difference and there certainly was.

The Konus performed very well in the bright light while the sun was still on the face I was glassing. As they’re an entry-level set, they’d suit someone new to hunting who’s on a budget or someone who’s mainly a bush hunter who dabbles in some open country hunting from time to time. 

RRP

$299.00

more info

www.konus.com