Leupold Binoculars - Comparing Compact Leupold Binoculars
When a company like Leupold has a 100 years of experience with manufacturing a wide range of optics like binoculars, range scopes, spotting scopes and more, you can expect them to have a solid lifetime warranty on all of their products. Leupold engineers have refined optical components and purged the interior with nitrogen to ensure the highest quality lenses available.
I like compact binoculars because I have small hands and often carry my binoculars far into the field or woods on hiking or backpacking trips. That makes the lighter weight and smaller sizes more appealing to me. The Olympic Compact Dual Hinge Series is less than 15 ounces and only 4.3 inches long. It can fold very small for easy packing.
By comparison, the Katmai Compact binoculars offer full-size features and weigh only 18.9 ounces plus they are only 4.1 inches long. Both have fully coated lenses to provide the best clarity, light transmission and good contrast. Both have rugged and waterproof casings. I learned that all Leupold binoculars are fog-proof and waterproof and all of them have had their internal parts purged with nitrogen to ensure the best visibility and highest quality optical preparation.
The Olympic Compact Dual Hinge Series comes in black or with mossy oak tree camo colored casing. The Katmai is available in black. The Olympic series comes as either 8X25 or 10X25. Both of these sizes fit the compact criteria I apply. I prefer 8X25 because it is easier for me to scan the field at that magnification than it is at 10×25. That is a personal preference.
Leupold makes so much information easy to find at their website and in their printed materials that you can compare binoculars very easily. I found specs and potential applications very quickly at their online site.
Leupold’s Katmai binoculars are awesome for me. They fit perfectly for my small hands. They have full-size components and a much wider range of possible applications. Both the Olympic and the Katmai binoculars have an interpupillary distance that is almost identical, ranging from about 60-70 mm. Both binoculars give good eye relief for long periods of use. The Katmai has an exit pupil that is less than 1 mm. larger.
With the closer focus range of 4 feet for the Leupold Katmai binoculars, I could easily magnify flowers along the footpaths. I like that. The Olympic series gives close focus range only up to 8 feet which is fine for birding.
I like the full-size eye cups that the Katmai binoculars have. That is especially helpful if you wear glasses. I do. The Katmai Compact Binoculars are available in 6×32, 8×32 or 10×32 magnification. My choice is 8×32. The magnification is familiar to me and the binoculars are comfortable and sturdy in my hands. I expect them to become my first choice for all of my upcoming trips. Leupold makes such precision binoculars that I cannot wait for my new ones to finally arrive. They are worth the wait and cost.
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