Pentax 8.5x21 U-Series Papilio II Binocular suitable for watching objects both close-up and far away

These are a great value. They are good all around binoculars for the money, but the best part of them is they excel in their ability to focus close up. They can focus to about 18” and are great for observing your garden or other things in nature. They are also cool to take to a museum where you can look at amazing detail in a painting or sculpture. A bit like a long distance microscope. After I bought myself a pair I bought some for gifts. Everyone has been thrilled with them that I have given them to. I don’t believe there is anything else like them on the market.

Bought these primarily for close focus feature and have been happy with the performance. As sort of an amateur naturalist, I was trying to get closer looks at things like insects or tree leaves that were out of reach but close enough I couldn't focus on them with my other binoculars, and these did the trick. Given that they are small, lightweight, and relatively inexpensive I keep them in the car and carry them when I go walking in the parks just in case there's something interesting to look at.

Love the close focus capability and magnifying glass function of these binocs. Would be better if they were more water resistant.

Just not the optical quality of the B&L compact binocs I lost, and this was supposed to replace.Not a fan of the reverse-Porro design.

Exactly what I was looking for. My son is 7 and loves his bino pack but the heavy binoculars he had were really not working. I found these from John Muir Laws website and they are perfect. Lightweight, easy for anyone to use, great for observing nature around us!

These binoculars have made my walks take way longer. I got them because I was interested in looking at bugs and plants and other small things with the extremely close focusing distance. What I didn't expect was for it to not only do that extremely well (like seriously I have never seen tiny things in so much detail it's amazing) but to also kind of replace my regular birding nocs.Now let me be clear, these aren't going to do much for anything further than 50 yards maybe, but how light they are and easy to use with the single smooth focusing wheel, you can easily use these entirely single handed!(It's surprisingly good for casual backyard birding with a beer in hand, you can easily focus on a bird in a tree and effortlessly change focus to a bird that just landed on a feeder 4 feet away from you)For viewing small things I don't think it gets better than these. They make everything so interesting, every bug and flower and tiny thing just looks so amazing. The textures everything has is incredible to see, even looking into someone's eye blew me away.Now for cons if I have to give some, there isn't really any protection nor a cover for the front end sight piece, though it does come with covers for where you look through.Other than that though I guess it could have also come with a microfiber cloth for the lenses and the included strap is not the best.Overall I'd say these are excellent for the price and I would highly recommend them to anyone I know even remotely interested in the whole world around them, including the tinniest of details.

I wanted binoc's that allow close viewing, like 10' range. My Nikon 10 x 50 6.5 degree binoc's could not do it. I bought the Pentax Papilio11 8.5 x 21 Extremely close focusing 1.6'. They are perfect I can see the Hummingbirds in perfect color from my bedroom window sitting at my desk browsing the internet. Exactly what I wanted.

Very pleased with the binoculars. I was able to see more details of the recent lunar eclipse made a real difference!