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Swarovision 32mm - 1 may 2012 (1 Viewer)

Pricing on the new Swarovision 32s may be interesting--they just upped the price of the SLC HDs & the Swarovision 42 & 50s in the last two weeks & left themselves a 'window' of $250 between their 10x42 SLC HDs ($2,179) and the 8.5x42 ELs ($2,429). Got a feeling that the new 32 ELs will price 'in between' at $2,249 for the 8x32 and $2,299 for the 10x32. Ouch!
 
How much better are they actually gonna be than the existing 32 ELs though, which can be had on the sh market here in the UK for ~£700.
 
Pricing on the new Swarovision 32s may be interesting--they just upped the price of the SLC HDs & the Swarovision 42 & 50s in the last two weeks & left themselves a 'window' of $250 between their 10x42 SLC HDs ($2,179) and the 8.5x42 ELs ($2,429). Got a feeling that the new 32 ELs will price 'in between' at $2,249 for the 8x32 and $2,299 for the 10x32. Ouch!

Good guess on the pricing, and I second the "Ouch!" Ah well, we saw it coming.

Eye relief, field of view, and weight (20.5 ounces) are all tantalizing.

Can't wait to have a look,
Mark
 
Got a feeling that the new 32 ELs will price 'in between' at $2,249 for the 8x32 and $2,299 for the 10x32. Ouch!

Perhaps a smart move of Leica (with its surprise entry with a second tier line) and Zeiss to not competing with Swaro at that level, but rather go in where Swaro currently has a gap: moderately priced 42 mm bins. More offers in this price class may cause people think twice before shelling out 2000+.
 
Real big changes in eye relief for the 32mm's with the Swarovisions being much longer than the ELs. I Wonder if this means a major redesign of the oculars?

Nikon had a small improvement in eye relief with the 32 EDG's over the LX L's but Henry noted that the ocular's design had really not changed.

Bob
 
Perhaps a smart move of Leica (with its surprise entry with a second tier line) and Zeiss to not competing with Swaro at that level, but rather go in where Swaro currently has a gap: moderately priced 42 mm bins. More offers in this price class may cause people think twice before shelling out 2000+.

My question after having the 8.5x42 SV's is will they have rolling ball and will the focus be harder to turn one way than it is the other. If they use the same optical design as the 42mm it's sure to have rolling ball and that's probably what they will do since all they have to do is scale it down for the 32mm. The Nikon EDG is already ranked over the SV in Albino's and it doesn't have rolling ball. I can't see an 8x32 SV being better than the 8x32 EDG so why wait for the new SV and pay $2300.00 get the EDG II now and pay $2K. Smoother focus and better optics and less money. The only chance of anybody beating Nikon's EDG is Zeiss if they do a radical new design.
 
I talked to Swaro customer support today about the glasses I just had repaired, and asked about the MSRP for the new 10x32 SV EL's due out in May - he said $2411.00, and I hope he is wrong as I'm going to buy them one way or another (unless I hate them, which I doubt.)

John F
 
All -

Had the original 32 ELs been kept in the line, their 2012 MAP pricing in the US would have been approximately $2050 and $2150 for the 8x and 10x, respectively, up from $1999 and $2199 in 2011. The 32 EL SV will thus be less than $100 more, with the addition of HD glass, 20mm eye relief (each!) AND wider FOV (each!!), field flattener lenses, and closer focusing.

I'd say that is a pretty good deal, eh?

At the last notice, they are telling us that delivery to the US is still good for early May. Come see them at the Biggest Week in North American Birding on the boardwalk at Magee Marsh.

Clay Taylor
Naturalist Market Manager
Swarovski Optik N.A.
 
I'd say that is a pretty good deal, eh?


Ha! I wouldn't. Just because one extraordinarily high priced (relative to past alpha, relative to the mid priced and low priced competition) product doesn't cost much more than another extraordinarily high priced product, it doesn't equate to being a good deal. If the pricing were based solely on cost of production and development, a more advanced item _might_ be expected to cost more than the model it replaces. More often, the cost of production goes down so the new one can keep a similar price despite increased capability (as is the case with new digital SLR models with ever more sophisticated sensors). But I doubt this has much of anything to do with how Swarovski bins are priced. They are priced according to what buyers are willing to pay, and relative to other prestige/alpha competitors.

I've been living on an essentially fixed (raw dollar figure, so declining value) income since ~1996 when one could purchase a Leica 8x32 BA for ~$710 or a Zeiss 7x42 Classic for ~$800. A few years later, I bought my first Swarovski 8.5x42 EL, new, and not long after the model was introduced, for $1250, which was a full $300 more than any of the other alphas were selling for at the time (Nikon earlier failed to convince anyone to buy the LX/HG for $1200 and so the prices quickly fell to ~$900). The other alpha makers eventually followed suit, and things have never been the same in the world of alpha bin pricing. I know the value of the dollar has fallen a lot since 1996, but the cost of alpha bins has increased by a much larger percentage than have any of the other consumer goods that I pay attention to, including non-alpha bins and other optics. So I can't say that I'm impressed.

--AP
 
Ha! I wouldn't. Just because one extraordinarily high priced (relative to past alpha, relative to the mid priced and low priced competition) product doesn't cost much more than another extraordinarily high priced product, it doesn't equate to being a good deal. If the pricing were based solely on cost of production and development, a more advanced item _might_ be expected to cost more than the model it replaces. More often, the cost of production goes down so the new one can keep a similar price despite increased capability (as is the case with new digital SLR models with ever more sophisticated sensors). But I doubt this has much of anything to do with how Swarovski bins are priced. They are priced according to what buyers are willing to pay, and relative to other prestige/alpha competitors.

I've been living on an essentially fixed (raw dollar figure, so declining value) income since ~1996 when one could purchase a Leica 8x32 BA for ~$710 or a Zeiss 7x42 Classic for ~$800. A few years later, I bought my first Swarovski 8.5x42 EL, new, and not long after the model was introduced, for $1250, which was a full $300 more than any of the other alphas were selling for at the time (Nikon earlier failed to convince anyone to buy the LX/HG for $1200 and so the prices quickly fell to ~$900). The other alpha makers eventually followed suit, and things have never been the same in the world of alpha bin pricing. I know the value of the dollar has fallen a lot since 1996, but the cost of alpha bins has increased by a much larger percentage than have any of the other consumer goods that I pay attention to, including non-alpha bins and other optics. So I can't say that I'm impressed.

--AP
See page 31 (2nd page in PDF)
http://www.bls.gov/fls/chartbook/section3.pdf
 
Ha! I wouldn't. Just because one extraordinarily high priced (relative to past alpha, relative to the mid priced and low priced competition) product doesn't cost much more than another extraordinarily high priced product, it doesn't equate to being a good deal. If the pricing were based solely on cost of production and development, a more advanced item _might_ be expected to cost more than the model it replaces. More often, the cost of production goes down so the new one can keep a similar price despite increased capability (as is the case with new digital SLR models with ever more sophisticated sensors). But I doubt this has much of anything to do with how Swarovski bins are priced. They are priced according to what buyers are willing to pay, and relative to other prestige/alpha competitors.

I've been living on an essentially fixed (raw dollar figure, so declining value) income since ~1996 when one could purchase a Leica 8x32 BA for ~$710 or a Zeiss 7x42 Classic for ~$800. A few years later, I bought my first Swarovski 8.5x42 EL, new, and not long after the model was introduced, for $1250, which was a full $300 more than any of the other alphas were selling for at the time (Nikon earlier failed to convince anyone to buy the LX/HG for $1200 and so the prices quickly fell to ~$900). The other alpha makers eventually followed suit, and things have never been the same in the world of alpha bin pricing. I know the value of the dollar has fallen a lot since 1996, but the cost of alpha bins has increased by a much larger percentage than have any of the other consumer goods that I pay attention to, including non-alpha bins and other optics. So I can't say that I'm impressed.

--AP

:clap: Well, said. In fact, what you wrote is so spot on, it deserves another round of applause. :clap:

I sometimes think the Wizards of Absam live in world where the streets are paved with gold and money grows on silver maple trees.

The added surcharge from the increased gas prices will push the prices up even more.

I've tried both a 2009 8x30 SLCneu and a 2009 8x32 EL (WB), and while the EL was a bit sharper and had a slightly wider FOV, mainly what I liked about it was the open bridge design and the focuser near the EPs instead of near the objectives like the SLC. Oh, and unlike the other EL I tried and the SLC, the focuser turned smoothly in both directions.

Neither the SLC nor the EL was as sharp as the 8x32 SE I compared them with, but the EL did have more comparable 3-D effect than the SLC, and this impressed me since every other midsized roof I've tried has given Flatland views.

This isn't to say both bins weren't VG in their own right, but not good enough, IMO, to justify the high costs.

At the time, the SLC was selling for $899, the EL for btwn $1,799 and $1,899. Was the EL $900-$1,000 better than the SLC? In a word, nope.

Granted, Austria has the third highest wages in Europe and alphas use the best materials, but as Alexis said, the cost of alpha bins has increased by a much larger percentage than have any of the other consumer goods that I pay attention to (or buy), and I'll add "while the increase in performance hasn't kept pace with pricing."

Even with field flatteners? Isn't that a major breakthrough? The Nikon HG had those 12 years ago. The SE, 17 years ago. That's not a breakthrough in technology, that's catching up. Nikon's HG coatings were also a decade ahead of Swaro's, which also needed catching up.

So I don't think it's a "pretty good deal" either. I'm really rooting for the Prime ED. Hoping that pressure from below will get Swaro to price its bins more realistically instead of throwing us a bone with the CL. Even if they have to offshore production, which may already be the case with some components.

In case all this seems like two old farts on fixed incomes blowing hot air, check out the Optics Consumer Index Thread where a wider variety of consumers including alpha owners weigh in on how much they are willing to spend for new alphas. My take is that support for higher prices is dwindling.

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=217062

Brock
 
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Neither the SLC nor the EL was as sharp as the 8x32 SE I compared them with,

Brock,

maybe you chose a not so suitable test chart for this comparison. I use this one, which is a kind of brother in law of the well known siemens star:

Steve
 

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Any Online USA dealers taking Pre-orders for this one yet?

(that take PayPal, and are not located in New York, it would be nice to save the $200 from the taxman)
 
Slider, yes, our shop is in PA. We placed our order the first day possible for the 32 SVs so I'm hoping we're included in the first batch to make the U.S. If you want to PM me, I can give you shop info, etc. and can use Paypal invoice.
 
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