Swift Derby

[Simon S]

I have just bought a pair of swift Derby 7.5 X42 binoculars from E**y and was wondering if anyone knew anything about there performance etc?

[Renze de Vries]

Well, the one really on the know about the Derby's performance is, of course, you.

I owned the central focussing equivalent of your individual focussing Derby, the 7.5x42 Osprey, for a while and found its coating somewhat obsolete (brightness notably worse than more modern binoculars). My greatest objection however was the narrow angle of view, resulting in the most pronounced tunnel-vision I've experienced in any binocular.
Center sharpness, build quality, looks and handling were really nice but unfortunately, they couldn't compensate for the drawbacks.

Renze

[Simon S]

Well, the one really on the know about the Derby's performance is, of course, you.

I owned the central focusing equivalent of your individual focussing Derby, the 7.5x42 Osprey, for a while and found its coating somewhat obsolete (brightness notably worse than more modern binoculars). My greatest objection however was the narrow angle of view, resulting in the most pronounced tunnel-vision I've experienced in any binocular.
Center sharpness, build quality, looks and handling were really nice but unfortunately, they couldn't compensate for the drawbacks.

Renze
Hi Renze de Vries.
Yes I have to agree with your finds here. Image brightness is good but its like looking down two smartie tubes:-O Sharpness is good and the click eyepice focus is absurd, but they do feel rugged and well built. They are also BK7 which was a surprise.

[Renze de Vries]

the click eyepiece focus is absurd, but they do feel rugged and well built.

The click-stop focus, in 4 steps (distances), is absurd for bird watching indeed, but maybe not for horse racing - where the Derby was developed for. Besides, according to a Swift brochure I have it is still possible to fine-focus by simply rotating the eyepieces (correct?).
The most notable feature of the Derby (and the Osprey) was the long eye relief of 19 mm. At the time these binoculars were made (early 1980's) this service to spectacle wearers was not at all common practice. However, my feeling is that it was exactly this long eye relief being responsible for the tunnel vision.

Since Swift made some superb binoculars for the birdwatcher - among the finest produced ever - I think it's a nice thought they also put their energies and imagination into developing instruments for other users.

Renze

[Simon S]

Renze, the click focus control works from well beyond the click positions and will focus from 20ft to infinity. The eye relief is huge, and folding the eye cups down results in bad image "dead areas" and does nothing to widen the view. The other design flaw is that with the rubber cups folded down, the focus will not pass past the far click, making it useless for people like me who want to see further than the far side of a race coarse.

[Sandra (Taylor)]

Oh, dear - I looked at the title of this post and thought "Wow, that's early for swifts in Derby" !! Doh................

[Simon S]

Oh, dear - I looked at the title of this post and thought "Wow, that's early for swifts in Derby" !! Doh................
Alas no Sandra! And If they where, you would never see them through a pair on Swift Derby's!:C