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Future for Better View Desired? (1 Viewer)

dogfish

dogfish

Well-known member
Does anyone know if the Better View Desired optics review site will continue under a new reviewer following Stephen Ingraham's departure to work for Zeiss? It would be a great shame if it was abandoned as it has been one of the two best sources (along with Alula magazine) for intelligent reviewing of bins and scopes in recent years.

Sean
 
I agree Sean, its a shame. I was a subscriber to his newsletter before the BVD site went up. The site has been dead since March and updates were getting less frequent before that. It was Steve's baby and what happens to it is up to him. I would of thought that he would at least post notice of his new employment, and apparent hiatus of any updates, while he leaves the site up awhile for archival purposes.
 
Bill Atwood said:
I agree Sean, its a shame. I was a subscriber to his newsletter before the BVD site went up. The site has been dead since March and updates were getting less frequent before that. It was Steve's baby and what happens to it is up to him. I would of thought that he would at least post notice of his new employment, and apparent hiatus of any updates, while he leaves the site up awhile for archival purposes.
Click to expand...

I communicated with Steve via email he's leaving the site up but he's told me he's officially done with it. I assume Zeiss has got their reasons. It sad that he no longer will be around.
:C
 
It's a great shame that this excellent site is now defunct. Following various threads it's a shame that some of the more knowledgable contributors can't set one up. Henry Link, for example, always writes interesting, insightful and intelligent notes. Mind you,if anyonecan persuade all those various optics firms to send me their goodies to play with I'd do it! John
 
Cloudy Nights has some pretty knowledgeable people, plus Henry Link visits there once in a while. Does anyone know of other sites with equal knowledge at this point in time?
 
Bill Atwood said:
I would of thought that he would at least post notice of his new employment
Click to expand...
I thought it was stated somewhere at BVD, though maybe it wasn't particularly prominent.


Not wishing to 'blow our own trumpet' but birdforum has developed into the foremost bino/scope discussion site in the world with many of the contributors now coming from non-birding activities (differing priorities causing slight conflict every now and again ;) )
The individual reviews are all tucked away on the forums but would possibly be better if they were duplicated in the 'equipment reviews' section for easier access.
 
Bird Forum is rather more useful than BVD in the sense that subjective and idiosyncratic remarks are challenged by others. Most Forum members admit the subjective needs of individulals while stating their opinions. BVD seemed to ignore such aspects. Grip, handling, weight, and the choice of optical compromises in design seem to get well discussed here. The PM's even allow a little more candid opinion to be expressed between members. Of course, it is more tedious to wade through everyone's opinion, but then we get a fuller picture. Hunters and astronomers do bring another dimension to considering optics.

Many thanks to Henry Link for his clear and well considered remarks.

Happy bird watching and nature observation,
Arthur Pinewood :scribe:
 
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John Cantelo said:
It's a great shame that this excellent site is now defunct. Following various threads it's a shame that some of the more knowledgable contributors can't set one up. Henry Link, for example, always writes interesting, insightful and intelligent notes. Mind you,if anyonecan persuade all those various optics firms to send me their goodies to play with I'd do it! John
Click to expand...

John,

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I think I'll pass along your compliment to Kimmo. His birding optics reviews for Alula are IMO the best available in English, at least as good as anything that ever appeared in BVD.

For myself, I agree with the above posts from John Traynor, Andy Bright and Arthur Pinewood. This is really the place to be if you are interested in birding optics. No single person's website could hope to match the wealth of knowledge and experience available here. (Of course if any optics firm wants to set me up and send me some nice goodies to play with, I never said that.)

Regards,

Henry
 
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henry link said:
John,

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I think I'll pass along your compliment to Kimmo. His birding optics reviews for Alula are IMO the best available in English, at least as good as anything that ever appeared in BVD.

For myself, I agree with the above posts from John Traynor, Andy Bright and Arthur Pinewood. This is really the place to be if you are interested in birding optics. No single person's website could hope to match the wealth of knowledge and experience available here. (Of course if any optics firm wants to set me up and send me some nice goodies to play with, I never said that.)

Regards,

Henry
Click to expand...

Henry,

Your evaluations have always been among the very best. I think you, Kimmo, Leif and a few others are owed a debt of gratitude from all of us who have learned so much from your many contributions.

Thanks!

John
 
Pinewood said:
Bird Forum is rather more useful than BVD in the sense that subjective and idiosyncratic remarks are challenged by others. Most Forum members admit the subjective needs of individulals while stating their opinions. BVD seemed to ignore such aspects. Grip, handling, weight, and the choice of optical compromises in design seem to get well discussed here. The PM's even allow a little more candid opinion to be expressed between members. Of course, it is more tedious to wade through everyone's opinion, but then we get a fuller picture. Hunters and astronomers do bring another dimension to considering optics.
Click to expand...

While I agree that BF is a great and diverse resource, and value the majority of opinions here, I still think its a shame that BVD appears to be gone. I also think that Steve (for one individual) did a great job of addressing the subjective needs/desires of others. He often noted what he liked about particular items in regards to size/wt/ergonomics and indicated that others may feel differently.

However I do believe that in the last couple of years his reviews got pretty lazy/sloppy, even approaching Porter territory.
 
Where is this place?

henry link said:
John,

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I think I'll pass along your compliment to Kimmo. His birding optics reviews for Alula are IMO the best available in English, at least as good as anything that ever appeared in BVD.

Is this somewhere online Henry? I'd really love to visit it if it is.
Click to expand...
 
dogfish said:
Does anyone know if the Better View Desired optics review site will continue under a new reviewer following Stephen Ingraham's departure to work for Zeiss? It would be a great shame if it was abandoned as it has been one of the two best sources (along with Alula magazine) for intelligent reviewing of bins and scopes in recent years.

Sean
Click to expand...

I spoke to the man at the British Birdfair this year and he said that "they" were looking for someone to continue the site. Presumably they means Simpson's Optics, so I guess it's up to someone to volunteer their services in the USA.
On a slightly different tack can it be too long before we see some Zeiss porro bins now that he's on board?
 
That would be great

dipped said:
On a slightly different tack can it be too long before we see some Zeiss porro bins now that he's on board?
Click to expand...
Hmm, interesting. Do you thing that Steve will be able to convince Zeiss to do that?
 
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