Wow, what a great deal on these binoculars! These have 4.5 stars on Amazon, and sell for $320. Everyone needs a pair of binoculars around the house at some point. They are very useful.
Oh, come now, these are not PRO binoculars. Just think about it. If I were a PRO, I would be right there with the animals, not watching from afar. PRO’s are RISK TAKERS, not timid voyeurs. PRO’s get stabbed in the heart by stingray barbs. PRO’s get mauled by polar bears and used as cub food. PRO’s get sunk by Japanese whalers and sued in international court.
In conclusion, if you want to be a PRO, buy some Kevlar clothing, an armed crew, a remote operated submersible vehicle.
If you want to be a well-equipped civilian nature watcher who wil live to see another day, buy these binoculars.
Steiner?
I’ll wait for the Marik binoculars.
are they phase corrected?
I’ll sneak one more in. $199.99 tonight.
B&H sold out, but 4 good reviews:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/312544-USA/Steiner_326_8_5x26_Wildlife_Pro_Binocular.html#costumerReview
Adorama $319.99 before it sold out:
http://www.adorama.com/ST8526WL.html
Optics planet: same price, but still available–one 3 star review saying difficulty with person’s aysmetric vision, couldn’t make the adjustments
General instruction manual for their binoculars:
http://www.steiner-binoculars.com/sites/default/files/Instructionmanual_Englisch_14_25.pdf
and service center
http://www.steiner-binoculars.com/service-center
By the way, not sure if this $30 rebate would apply to woot, but the purchasing deadline (per the form found on product website) is December 31, and submission by 1/31/13, they have to get by 2/15/13, needing the barcode and sales receipt
http://www.steiner-binoculars.com/sites/default/files/Cash_For_Glass_Rebate.pdf
Woot staff may want to check if the rebate applies.
Really need to go. Bye.
Right off the bat, 13mm is the shortest eye relief of any usable binocular. What this means is that those who wear glasses will not get to use these. Maybe that’s a benefit to some. “Sorry Granpa, these don’t work with glasses.”. So you get to justify bogarting the binocs.
At this price there are certainly other binoculars to consider. Also, ask yourself why you want them. If your ONLY use will ever be to watch birds from your balcony during the day, and not in the rain, and not wearing glasses, then these may be just fine. But for $200, you could have a waterproof, nitrogen filled, large aperture, long eye relief, pair that would take you from bird to boat to binary star watching.
The one good thing about these is that they are compact. But if that’s the goal, for the same money you could go even smaller.
These are the Hyundai of binoculars. Binoculars should be a once per lifetime purchase. Do you really want a Hyundai for life and as your legacy? 
PS: these are apparently waterproof, so belay that complaint. The two biggest problems are the extremely short eye relief and the small aperture. 50mm would be minimum for stargazing, IMHO. if you have $200 to blow on a niche use, these look fine.
What binoculars would you recommend?
Well, here is a good starting point (links below–obviously with a bias toward stargazing). I have gone through several pairs of binoculars, and always been happy with my terrestrial viewing, but then turned them toward the skies as night has fallen, only to be woefully disappointed.
As you might guess, I’m saving up for the Fujinon FMT-SX. Which, now that I think about it, aren’t as good for the terrestrial viewing, so in that case would cause me to desire two pairs, making these Steiners a reasonable choice for the daytime terrestrial viewing–except for the 13mm eye relief problem. 
edit: dammit woot! Please recode your BBS software to auto-tag URLs, IMGs, youtubes, etc. :-/
I’m a field biologist and a birder, so I spend a lot of time around binoculars. First of all, $200 isn’t super cheap for a decent pair of binoculars anymore. Second, while 8.5 is a good magnification for casual wildlife-watching, 26 mm is a very small objective lens. Translated: You’ll get the image nice and close but it will be too dark to see very well.
For less than $200 you can get Nikon Monarchs, a very popular pair of binoculars. Eagle Optics Denalis are probably a solid pair of binoculars for cheap. Both come in 8x42, which I recommend for beginners and casual observers. My bias here is for birdwatching.
The right pair of binoculars will directly impact your enjoyment of the outdoors, so get the best pair you can afford if you’re serious about the purchase.
PS: If you just want something that looks like binoculars and makes things bigger, I have about four pair (Pentax, Minolta, Nikon…) I’ll sell you, cheap! Maybe if I sell all of my old gear I can finally afford those Fujinons! 
Thanks for the comments and link above. As I only have a couple of days off for New Years I won’t be able to read the entire link 
So… what types of binoculars are you willing to part with and for how much?
As an FYI, there is a $30 rebate on this set. The link to the form is below. I did not see in the form where you had to purchase the set from the company hosting the form. It’s worth a try if you are buying these anyway. Maybe a form on Stiener’s site.
It needs to be written: if you are particular at all about your optics, it pays to go to a store and TRY OUT as many binoculars as you can. There are just too many variables to take into account for something that is designed to be with you for life. I’m all for saving pennies shopping online, but for this, I’ll gladly pay a bit more and support my local shop.
Binoculars are designed for different priorities. These are not for star gazing or optimized for stationary bird watching.
These are compact outdoor binoculars that are more suitable for hiking. Quality optics and only 11.6 oz.
http://www.steiner-binoculars.com/binoculars/outdoor/wildlife-pro-85x26
Long live Davion!
I already linked to it above in my post from Steiner. It’s not site dependent. Deadline for purchase Dec. 31, submission Jan. 31, arrival to them Feb 15 as noted above.
I have an asst. of Steiners, Fujinon (the good ones), Pentax etc. but my go to binocular is my Leupold Yosemite 6x30. They are an incredible value in the $100 range. They are light, bright, clear and stable. They also come in 8x30. My wish now is that someone would mnfg. a decent reasonably priced 6x40 so I could gather just a little more light. I moved to a 6x30 because they are easy to hold steady on a small boat when spotting fish. My wife is a birder and loves her 8x28 & 12x28 Steiner Predators .
Thank you and have a great day!!