I had very light ones, dirt cheap, Bushnell brand I think, from Wal Mart I liked for a while until I stepped on them.

Then I got some for like $200. Nicer, but not necessarily worth it for my purposes.

I don't use them for backpacking. I use them a little for hunting and a little for tourism.

Good for examining architecture, like medieval churches for example, inside and out, and believe it or not, very useful for looking at paintings in crowded museums. Twenty feet away from something, it's like you can shove your nose into the paint, which wouldn't be a good idea otherwise. Also it creates some weird, flat perspective that can be interesting.

Stick with 8x & don't get 10x, expecially for looking at art, whether you get high or low quality or whatever.

They're nice enough for just gazing at the landscape, but sometimes they don't actually reveal very much more than otherwise.

One winter in Jersey City by Statue of Liberty, a bunch of birdwatchers were going nuts over something. I aimed my 10x $200 binoculars over there, and saw --- like maybe a seagull?

Then they let me look through their spotting scope. It was a snowy owl. Very nice.