Steiner Predator 8x42 Binoculars

Still-hunting a timbered ridge at first light, the hard part is not seeing far. It is picking a bedded deer out of brown leaf litter and gray deadfall before it picks you out. The Steiner Predator 8x42 is built for that problem. Its Predator Diamond coating tunes the image to push browns and reds forward while muting the green and gray of the background, so an animal that would blend into cover stands out a beat sooner.

That contrast tuning is the reason to choose a Predator over a general-purpose binocular for hunting. It will not turn mid-priced glass into alpha glass, and Steiner does not claim it does. What it does is bias the view toward the colors that matter when you are separating game from foliage in flat, low light.

The 8x42 is the wide, forgiving member of the Predator line. Its 375 ft field of view at 1000 yards is the widest of the family, which helps when tracking a moving animal through timber, and its 5.25 mm exit pupil is the largest, so the image holds up as legal light fades. Long 17.25 mm eye relief keeps the full field visible for eyeglass wearers, and at 26.6 oz it carries all day on a harness.

The build is standard Steiner: a rugged NBR rubber-armored body, nitrogen filling against internal fog, and full waterproofing for hunts that turn wet. The Fast-Close Focus wheel moves quickly from close range to infinity, so a deer that steps out at 40 yards is sharp before it clears the trees.

Key Features

• Predator Diamond contrast coating: biases the image toward game-revealing browns and reds against green and gray cover, the line's signature hunting advantage.
• Widest view in the line: 375 ft at 1000 yards plus a 5.25 mm exit pupil for tracking moving game and glassing into low light.
• Fast-Close Focus: quick traverse from close focus to infinity, for game that appears with no warning.
• Built for weather: NBR rubber armor, nitrogen fill against fog, and full waterproofing.

Who It's For

• Timber and heavy-cover hunters who value a wide field and a forgiving exit pupil over raw magnification. If you hunt open country and want reach, step up to the Predator 10x42.
• Dawn and dusk glassers who need the largest exit pupil in the line for the last minutes of legal light.
• Eyeglass wearers, thanks to the long 17.25 mm eye relief.

For long-range, tripod-based glassing of distant slopes, the Predator 15x56 is the big-glass member of the family.