When you are looking for the best lightweight birding binoculars, most of us are trying to find a balance between weight, high quality optics, durability and value for money.
In this post, I am going to take a high level look at a variety of lightweight binoculars that will hopefully cover the needs of everyone from the garden birder to globetrotting twitcher.
All the binoculars covered are Roof Prism type designs which benefit from being compact, lightweight and easier to hold in comparison to Porro Prism type designs. See below.
I have broken the binoculars down into two main categories. The first is full-size binoculars, which benefit from larger glass elemets provinding better optics. The second is compact binoculars, which tend to be significantly lighter and more compact that full-size binoculars but usually at the expense of reduced optics.
Let’s start off by looking at lightweight full-size binoculars broken down into three price categories Value, Mid-Range and Premium. We will then go on to look at lightweight compact binoculars broken down into two price categories Value and Premium.
Lightweight Value Full-size Binoculars
At just 436g the Bushnell H2O Binoculars are by far the lightest (159g less that the Wingspan) and at only $99 they offer great value for money. Furtmore they have over 1,100 4.6 star reviews!
| CELESTRON OUTLAND X | WINGSPAN EAGLESCOUT | BUSHNELL H2O BINOCULARS | |
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| Weight: | 626g / 22 oz | 595g / 21 oz | 436g / 15.4oz |
| Magnification: | 10X | 10X | 10X |
| Objective Lens: | 42mm | 42mm | 42mm |
| Waterproof: | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Amazon Reviews |
664 Reviews 4.4 out of 5 stars |
1,639 Reviews 4.6 out of 5 stars |
1,102 Reviews 4.6 out of 5 stars |
| Price: | $62.99 | $74 | $99 |
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Lightweight Mid-Range Full-size Binoculars
For the Mid-Range Full-size Binoculars, the Vortex binoculars are the lightest but only by a small margin. At $169, over 600 reviews and an average star rating of 4.7, they also offer great value for money.
| VORTICS OPTICS DIAMONDBACK HD BINOCULARS | BUSHNELL LEGEND ULTRA HD BINOCULARS | NIKON MONARCH 5 BINOCULARS | |
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| Weight: | 604g / 21.3 oz | 626g / 22 oz | 612g / 21.6 oz |
| Magnification: | 10X | 10X | 10X |
| Objective Lens: | 42mm | 42mm | 42mm |
| Waterproof: | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Amazon Reviews |
603 Reviews 4.7 out of 5 stars |
843 Reviews 4.6 out of 5 stars |
616 Reviews 4.7 out of 5 stars |
| Price: | $169 | $218 | $296 |
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Lightweight Premium Full-size Binoculars
For the Premium Full-size Binoculars, the Zeiss binoculars are the lightest but only by 40g compared to Swarovski. At $499, they are also significantly cheaper than the Leica or Swarovski. Due to the low number of reviews make it difficly to draw any major conclusions for the Zeiss and Leica bino’s but it is pretty amazing for Swarovski to get 5 out of 5 star review even if it is just for 16 reviews. If you have every tried a pair of Swarovski binoculars you know that is hard not to be impressed!
| ZEISS TERRA ED BINOCULARS | LEICA TRINOVID HD BINOCULARS | SWAROVSKI SLC BINOCULARS | |
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| Weight: | 725g / 26 oz | 795g / 28 oz | 765g / 27 oz |
| Magnification: | 10X | 10X | 10X |
| Objective Lens: | 42mm | 42mm | 42mm |
| Waterproof: | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Amazon Reviews |
71 Reviews 4.3 out of 5 stars |
13 Reviews 4.3 out of 5 stars |
16 Reviews 5 out of 5 stars |
| Price: | $499 | $999 | $1,799 |
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Lightweight Value Compact Binoculars
For the Value Compact Binoculars, the Wingspan binoculars are the lightest but only by a tiny margin compared to Vortex. At $65, they are also significantly cheaper than Vortex. Based on the number of reviews, Compact Binoculars and especially Wingspan are a popular choise for many people.
| WINGSPAN OPTICS SPECTATOR | CELESTRON NATURE DX | VORTEX OPTICS DIAMONDBACK BINOCULARS | |
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| Weight: | 431g / 15.2 oz | 566g / 20oz | 436g / 15.4oz |
| Magnification: | 8 | 8X | 10X |
| Objective Lens: | 32mm | 32 | 32mm |
| Waterproof | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Amazon Reviews |
1,639 Reviews 4.6 out of 5 stars |
513 Reviews 4.6 out of 5 stars |
684 Reviews 4.7 out of 5 stars |
| Price: | $65 | $88 | $165 |
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Lightweight High-End Compact Binoculars
If you are looking for very small and lightweight binoculars then you are going to have to part with a bit of cash. If weight is all you are afterm then at just 255g the Leica binoculars clean up the competition but they don’t come cheap and don’t seem to have terrific reviews!
| ZEISS TERRA ED COMPACT POCKET BINOCULARS | LEICA BCR/BLACK ULTRAVID COMPACT BINOCULARS | SWAROVSKI CL POCKET BINOCULARS | |
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| Weight: | 310g / 10.9 oz | 255g / 8 oz | 349g / 12.3 oz |
| Magnification: | 8X | 8X | 10X |
| Objective Lens: | 25mm | 20mm | 25mm |
| Waterproof | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Amazon Reviews |
0 Reviews |
24 Reviews 3.8 out of 5 stars |
17 Reviews 4.4 out of 5 stars |
| Price: | $399 | $729 | $879 |
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If you have any suggestion regarding lightweight binoculars that you are using that we haven’t covered, please leave a comment below.
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