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The best binoculars for birds, nature, and the outdoors
By Daniel S. Cooper This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer's guide to the best technology. Read the full article here. To find the best binoculars, we had a professional ornithologist spend over 100 hours field-testing 17 pairs against his own $2,500 Leica Ultravids. After using our test pairs in the mountains and hills of Southern California, then on a research trip to the rainforests of southern Mexico, he found that the Athlon Optics Midas ED 8×42 pair was the best of the group, offering performance comparable to his Leicas for a fraction of the price and the widest field of view out of all the binoculars tested. This means you'll see more, and it will look better.
IRL: Evernote, Netgear N900 and FiiO's E17 headphone amplifier
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Best of the best, best of the worst and best thing we didn't need. Those are some ringing endorsements we've got for you in this week's IRL. On the more enthusiastic end of the spectrum there's Darren, who finally found a dual-band router with strong enough range to service all three floors of his new home. Terrence is closing in on his fourth year using Evernote, the "least bad" note-taking app of the bunch. As for James, well, has he ever met a piece of audio equipment he didn't like?
