Evey now and again a pair of binoculars will come along, and no matter how hard you try, you can not find a fault. The Opticron Aspheric WA 8×40 binoculars come in this category.

They come packaged in a quality hard case. First impressions of the binoculars is the build quality. They feel very solid. All the controls are silky smooth without feeling loose. The twist eye cups are of a very high quality. The eye relief seems longer than the stats suggest. Although I found when not wearing glasses, the best setting for the twist cups was around a quarter way out.

Handling is superb. Not the lightest in class, but this is mainly due to the build quality. As the W/A suggests that you get a picture window wide view. This is very true. The flat field gives a bright and crisp image across the whole panorama. Colours and contrast are well on par with many roof prism 8x42s costing £150.

Although they will not focus as close as many modern roof prisms, they are excellent for bird watchers and general use. The wide field of view, good depth of field, long eye relief and easy handling makes them very user friendly

Recently these binoculars won a best in class award for 8×40 binoculars for astronomy. I used these to look at the Moon. Apart from a little reflection (ghosting) they gave a superb view. The craters were easily visible, and all this while hand holding. The Moons of Jupter were easily seen. I can imagine these will give superb wide field views of rich star fields from dark skies.

At £89.00 the Optcron WA 8×40 represent excellent value for money. As already mentioned, I could not find any faults. OK the eyepiece covers were a little tight to remove at first, buy hey, that,s really scrapping the barrel to find something wrong.

Top class binoculars, that wont disappoint