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Zoom binoculars have around for long enough , but can anyone tell me about a REALLY good one ?

I haven't seen one yet.

Kenny,

Have you tried a NIkon 8-16X40 XL Zoom? It's the best zoom binocular I've tried, larger FOV than most zooms (5.2*), exceptionally sharp to the edge (nearly on par with the Nikon 10X42 SE at 10X, on par at 12X), lightweight, pebbly vinyl old style body, but surprisingly easy to hold steady. I can hold it about as steady at 16X as I could the Nikon 12X50 EX, which was heavier and not as well balanced, though more ergonomic.

There are two design flaws, one inherent to all zoom lenses, be they EPs or bins, the AFOV is narrower at low power than at high. IOW, you get more tunnel view at 8X than at 16X. The other is a pecularlity to THIS zoom -- overlapping barrel shadows from 20ft-30ft. I see these shadows at close focus in all my porros that focus closer than 15 ft. since the width of the barrels is wider than the width of my eyes, but to see this over a range of 10 ft. is a puzzle. I've talked with other XL Zoom owners, and they've seen the same thing. I called Nikon recently and twisted the arm of a technical support person to ask a binocular technician about this (last time I talked with the support person, who I later found out was NOT a technician), and he wrote me an email saying that although zooms are "finicky", the XL should not show any overlapping shadows at close focus. So back they go to Nikon ($17.50) for repairs. If they can fix the problem this time, they will move up on my list of my most favorite bins.

For stargazing, the views are tack sharp nearly to the edge. There is no eyestrain at any distance, from 20ft to infinity, so if it is a miscollimation problem, it's something peculair to zooms since I know if a bin is miscollimated as soon as I hold it up to my eyes (or in some cases, when I pull it away from my eyes and feel my eyes strain to refocus). But not with these.

The other thing I mentioned elsewhere is the need to refocus at different powers when you zoom in, so that's makes them a bit "finicky", but you'd have to do this if you used different power bins. Zooming out does not require refocusing, so that's a plus.

The XL Zooms have premium optics unlike most zooms, which have some of the worst binocular optics I've seen, hence the bad rep that zoom bins have gotten. But on this one, Nikon "almost" got it all right, and if they can eliminate the close focus shadows, they'd be equally good for birding and stargazing. Very good reviews by outdoors writers and XL owners (check excelsis.com).

As great as the Duovids must be, I could never hold a roof that narrow steady, and the eyecups look like the Pentax PCF V bullet-head eyecups, which I don't like. They also cost twice as much as the zooms. The dual power design would be very appealing to me if they applied it to a porro, imagine a 8.5X,12X44 SE!

Brock

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