Jacob MurphyWhen it comes to buying high-end binoculars, there are a couple of brands that are the usual suspects – Nikon, Zeiss, Leupold, etc. However, there are other brands that aren’t as popular in terms of brand recognition, yet have excellent products. A great example of such a brand is Snypex. Their Knight series of binoculars has continuously received extremely positive feedback from users, and the reviews are great too. That’s one of the reasons why today we have a review of the Snypex Knight 8×42 laser rangefinder binoculars. It’s an excellent all-round pair of binoculars, one that should be suitable for a lot of various use cases. Without wasting any more time, let’s dive into the review.
Let’s kick things off with the build quality
Like with any outdoor product, the build quality is a crucial aspect of the product. With the Snypex, you’re more than covered. The whole body is made using a magnesium and aluminum alloy – two materials that are durable, sturdy, and lightweight. To make things easier to grip on the outside, you’ll find a rugged rubberized cover. Regardless of whether your hands are dry or wet, or slippery, you’ll have a secure grip. If you’ve ever been caught out in bad weather conditions, you’ll know how important this is.
The rubberized grip does another thing, too. If you do happen to drop the binoculars or hit them against something, it will absorb quite a lot of the impact. This makes the chances of you damaging the binoculars by accident really slim.
The last crucial thing when we’re discussing build quality is weather resistance. At some point, you will get caught out in the rain, and you’ll want to be covered.
The Snypex Knight is completely sealed. There are O-rings all around it, to make sure that no moisture, dust, or other kinds of debris can enter the inside. This ensures that you’ll be safe with it, regardless of the weather conditions. It’s filled with nitrogen as well, which will make sure you don’t have issues with internal fogging.
Oh, there’s one more important thing here. The Snypex is compatible with a tripod, using a tripod adapter. Even though at 39.3 ounces some actually consider it lightweight, you may want to put it on a tripod every once in a while.
Magnification and Objective Lens Diameter
With binoculars, the name has two numbers. The first of them is the binoculars’ magnification factor, and the other one is the objective lens diameter of the front lens. With the Snypex Knight, we’re reviewing, we have an 8x magnification factor and a 42mm objective lens diameter. If you’re looking for binoculars for general, all-round use, an 8 times magnification factor is excellent. The field of view is 122m, or 7 degrees if you prefer the angular measurement. Unless you want to get really close to your subject, this is a great number. The 42mm objective lens diameter is completely sufficient in terms of light transmission. You’ll certainly be getting a clear, sharp image with plenty of brightness and contrast.
Let’s discuss the glass itself
When it comes to binoculars, it’s not just the size of the objective lens that impacts image quality. The lenses themselves, as well as any coatings that are applied to them, or the prisms, have a lot of impact too.
In the case of the Snypex Knight, you get the best there is. Bak-4 prisms are standard on all good binoculars, and that’s what you’re getting here. The roof prisms have phase correction coatings and are fully green multi-coated on four sides. The optics themselves are all fully multi-coated with phase correction coatings as well. This combination will ensure that the image is bright and sharp. You won’t notice any issues such as chromatic aberration or fringing, which is excellent.
This is not a regular pair of binoculars
As we mentioned in the introduction, the Snypex Knight is actually a pair of laser rangefinder binoculars. Rangefinder binoculars are especially useful when hunting or target practicing, as they give you accurate measurements of your target’s distance. The Knight has an excellent rangefinder system with a lot of features. For starters, it offers measurement from 16.4 feet to 1.12 miles, which is quite an extensive range. The laser is classified as an Eye-Safe Class 1 Technology Laser. This makes it completely safe for normal use under all conditions. There’s a digital display that is superimposed over the image you’re looking at in the right half of the binoculars.
Operating the Binoculars
Operating the laser rangefinder is really easy. All you need to do is keep the target centered in the display while you touch and release the “RANGING” button you’ll find on the binoculars’ top right side. The display will instantly give you the distance of the object you’re aiming at, either in yards or meters. The accuracy is +/- 1 meter, which is honestly, impressive.
If you hold the ranging button, you’ll activate the scan mode. This is another nifty feature that allows you to continuously measure small objects or moving targets. After 15 seconds, this mode will switch off in order to preserve battery.
What’s interesting is that this is also an angle measurement rangefinder, which allows for up to 90 degrees of measurement. There are some advanced features such as Rain mode, Reflective mode, and >150m mode. Rain mode lets you measure targets in rainy conditions, beyond 60 meters. Reflective mode measures distances in heavy steam or thin fog conditions and >150m mode measures targets further than 150 meters when you have electrical wires or tree branches in your field of view.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, the Snypex Knight is an excellent pair of rangefinder binoculars. If you treat them as regular binoculars, they have excellent build quality, great optics and all the features you would need. Add to that the rangefinder functionality, and you’ve got an excellent pair of optics on your hands.
