Athlon Binoculars

Athlon describes itself as a US sports optics company that designs its products and has them built by partner factories with their own cleanrooms, CNC machining and lens coating. Its binocular range has seven families, from Neos G2 HD at the bottom through Talos, Argos and Midas to the Cronus G2 UHD flagship, and three of them are compared on this site: Argos G2 HD ($225 to $237), Midas G2 UHD ($375 to $387) and Cronus G2 UHD ($600 to $850).

The jump from Argos to Midas is where the glass changes. Both use phase-corrected, dielectric-coated prisms, but the Midas G2 UHD adds ED glass and a magnesium chassis, widens the 8x42's field from 371 ft to 426 ft at 1,000 yds, and halves the close focus from 13 ft to 6.5 ft. Cronus adds a longer eye relief (19.3mm on the 10x42) and, on the 15x56, field flatteners for tripod glassing. Athlon also sells an Argos G2 UHD, so check the suffix: HD and UHD are different glass.

Owners treat the Argos G2 HD 8x42 as a sound first binocular with a smooth focus wheel, and fault its plasticky housing, loose eyecups and lens covers that slip off. Midas G2 UHD 8x42 owners rate the wide field and edge-to-edge sharpness as the best value under $400 for birding; low-light performance is the one point of disagreement, with one test finding detail fading at dawn and dusk while most owners describe the image as bright. Cronus 10x42 owners praise sharpness to the edge, color correction and eye relief, and say the short eyecups can cause blackouts until you learn the right eye position. Cronus 15x56 owners report units that vary, so inspect yours early.

Athlon's warranty is lifetime and transferable, needs no receipt or registration, and covers accidents such as falls, excluding deliberate damage, misuse, theft and lens caps. Before choosing a 10x, compare eye relief: the Midas G2 UHD 10x42 has 15.2mm against 17.2mm on the 8x42, a drop owners who wear glasses notice.