Light, light gathering compact quality binos?

[Tenguns]

Looking at new lighter binos without giving up on quality...

Leave for a whitetail hunt in about a week so down to the wire and can't really compare due to local availability.

Primarily for bowhunting out west & N-eastern whitetails - want to lighten the load on the neck and scale down on size without loosing the light-gathering capability. Light weight, light gathering with the clearest resolution I can afford. Seems like those features don't necessarily come together. Lieca' and SW all look heavy.

Currently have a pair of Bushnell Legends. Good glass for the money at the time but after too many hours looking for something easier on the neck. Also - a bit less bulky.

Must be water-proof, super clear, with good light gathering and somewhat tough. Only have looked through the Pentax but in a 10x40. Very clear for the money.

So - from my narrowed down list - what's do you think is best for clarity and light gathering.... realize we're talking about small objectives...
Zeiss Conquest 10x30s
Zeiss Victory FLs 10x30s
Leopold Katmai 10x32s
Pentax DCF XP Binoculars 10x33s
Minox??

In a light weight bino - under 20 oz.. with decent glass this is the lineup. Just want to get the best for the money and keep the weight down? Looked at the Stieners too...on line - but not much feedback on clarity, quality- durability... and their not that light either..

Who makes the best light compact out of these? Any help appreciated.

Second - anyone have experience with the Conquest 12x45s for the long-ranger version? Seem light - and assume that's thinner objectives or something- but what are you loosing relative to the high dollar big three?... Again - even here - I'm likely to hike in with them at some point and need a single bino with reach, WP, not too heavy & want best quality glass I can afford that will put up with my relative abuse?

 

[flyingbrass]

I got the Zeiss COnquest 10X30 and I can't imagine binos could be better. These are real clear. I ain't had any others so what do I know. ALso, I got them on clearance since they are being discontinued.

 

[REDDOG]

this may be too late, but the swaro 10x32 EL's are awsome

 

[fatrooster]

Sounds like you need a harness for your binos. Don't use a standard neck strap because your neck soon tires. A harness puts the weight on your back and shoulders instead of on your neck. I personally like the "bino manager" made by "Innovative Products." Goodluck. fatrooster.

 

[Tenguns]

I ended up with the Zeiss Conquests for my little glasses. Light enough and small enough for either whitetail hunting in the East (which I'm doing now) or archery Muley' in the West... Got 2b NM coming up. Also picked up a pair of 10x ABKs for the western "truck" binos.

As for the strap - I tried bino-buddies once but didn't like them. Seems like arm fatieg with long hours of glassing was too much. Couldn't seem to get them adjusted to where they didn't give me too much resistance. I'll stick with these two until one of them fails or something comes out ligher, clearer, better.

Thanks for your feedback.