The Alpen"s Compact Binocular Line

Compact binoculars can be very useful especially when you are going to camping and just need to bring small luggage.
You can easily put it in carry-on luggage or a glove compartment, or when birding with a younger birder for whom a heavier optic would be uncomfortable.
Alpen offers a full range of mini-binoculars in their Pro line, from 8x25 and 10x25 wide-angle models to 8x, 10x and 12x25 long eye relief compacts.
Here I will only tackle about the 8x25 compact binocular, let's see what it can offer.
Like most compacts, these feature a reverse porro-prism design.
Such designs usually cannot be sealed or nitrogen-purged, hence, they are not fog or waterproof.
The Pro 8x25 long eye relief are made with BAK4 glass and are multi-coated to optimize resolution and light transmission.
It has a 314 ft.
field of view at 1000 yards, which is just an average for a mini.
This optics is also tested to a quite impressive 64-inch minimum close focus which is excellent for any optic.
This means that this mini binocular might also excellent to the butter flying crowd too.
The Alpen Pro 8x25 long eye relief compact has a 16 mm of eye relief, longer than the 11 or 12 mm typical of mini binoculars as a class, but matching other minis with long eye relief.
Pro 8x25 long eye reliefs weighed 11 oz.
and like a feather-light! The widest part of the barrels is coated in pliable green rubber armoring which helps the grip but probably does not provide much cushioning if they are dropped.
It has nice little ridges on the barrels act like thumb grooves to help position the hands.
The rest of the outer housing is slick black plastic.
The black plastic lugs for the strap attachment fall right under the fleshy web between the thumb and forefinger so there is no potential for this to chafe a bit.
These aren't knocks against the Alpen Pro minis specifically they are just consequences of the small size and design constraints of mini-binoculars in general.
In the field, the Pro 8x25 long eye reliefs are about as bright as a 25 mm objective lens.
They are great under moderate to bright light conditions, but notably less so as ambient light drops.
The image quality is fairly good, with pretty sharp image quality, virtually no edge effect distortion, and no notable color aberration.
These may not be a top of the line birding binocular but if the need is for a low-cost, portable, small-sized, back-up pair, or if you want something lightweight to interest a younger brother or a friend in a morning's birding, or to take to symphony hall for a great look at the orchestra, these fit the bill quite nicely.