The main reason for this is that not only was the Carson RD-8x42 comfortable to hold and well balanced when I held them up to my eyes, but the gap in between the barrels and the two hinges made for a secure place to hold onto them whilst walking about. However unless you are really planning on exposing yourself and your optics to the extremes, this should not be much of an issue for you. I just added it as many people ask what the difference is between cheap and more expensive binoculars and this is one of them! Considering that these do not have ED glass lenses which are supposed to reduce the aberrations that cause color fringing, I was impressed to see just how little fringing that I could see through this Carson binocular. The dimensions of the Carson RD-842, with the eye-cups twisted in and the hinge fully open is as you can see from the table above very regular for a 42mm binocular. These Carson binoculars use the helecoid twist up eyecups, that includes 3 fixed stopes to give you plenty of options to get the right amount of eye-relef for your needs. As you would expect they also have use a diopter adjuster that which can be used to allow for any differences in your left or right eyes to get the perfect focus for your vision.

The two thin hinges that span the barrels on the Carson RD 8x42 binocular look to be made from an some sort of metal ally, but most importantly they look and feel very robust and thus should keep the two barrels in perfect alignment, unless you were extremely rough on them!

The 8x42 Carson RD has an angle of view of 7.1° or, to put it another way the width of the view that you see at 1000 yards away is 371ft wide. At this price range, the focus wheel on these is truly up there with the very best and is in my experience is as good as that which you find on many, if not most mid to high end instruments. Carson Optical currently offer a wide range of binoculars suitable for most uses including travel, bird watching, wildlife observation, hiking and camping as well as hunting, sporting events. The binoculars are grouped into a "Series" covering a wide range of price points and vary in the quality of their optics, coatings and build quality. Currently their top of the range binoculars are the Carson 3D Series Binoculars. As with the vast majority bins made these days, the Carson RD's have a rubber amount covering almost all of the chassis underneath. So whilst I like it that they make it super easy to adjust your setting, It is a little overkill and makes accidental movement of your preferred setting more likely.

All Carson RD Series binoculars come with their "No-Fault Warranty" and whilst they don't stipulate a time frame, I assume it is a lifetime? The twist-up eye-cups turn just a little too easily for my liking. So whilst twisting them up is no problem, they do have a tendency to twist down again if you don't have them fully extended. Dielectrically treated prisms can have a reflectivity of more than 99%, which surpasses aluminium and silver treated ones by a long way. Coating ComparisonsAll of these are typical, perfectly functional and well within what I would expect to find at this price range.

This is perfectly normal at this price level as the are cheap to manufacture, lightweight and reasonably strong.Under the rubber the Carson RD 8x42 binoculars have a Polycarbonate plastic frame that forms the body shape and protects the optics and mechanisms within. These three features as well as the low geared mechanism (takes just over two turns to go from Min. to Max. focal distance) means that I found it super easy to very accurately focus in on an object even when I tested them with gloves on. This can be an important point to keep in mind if you plan on going out in winter.