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Does any one have experience with new Steiners (1 Viewer)

scalkins

New member
Does anyone have experience with the new Steiner 8x44 Peregrine XP Binoculars? Amazon.com has then on sale for $750 and Steiner is offering a $50 dollar rebate. Seems like a very good price for something that list at $1600 dollars
 
There is a shortage of Peregrine XP reviews.
Here's a pretty lame one of the 10x44:
http://www.shootingtimes.com/optics/ST_steiner_200801/index.html
and a much more in-depth one that I'm in the process of reading now, here:
http://featheredgeoptics.com/productreviews_peregrinexp.htm

I'm dying to try this thing out for $750, and have it in my shopping cart. I just wish the 10x were available since I'm not sure I need another 8x...

I'm not finding much about the lenses. Steiner's website is vague, stating they use "index matched glass, and coatings using rare-earth formulations of titanium, flourite, and other mineral substrates".
Ok, it does say "High Definition" on the objective end...

btw, link to Steiner's page on them:
http://www.steiner-binoculars.com/binoculars/peregrinexp/804.html
 
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So much for that. Must have been a limited time offer. I went back to order after double-checking the return policy, and the price had changed to $1545 :C
 
There is a shortage of Peregrine XP reviews.
Here's a pretty lame one of the 10x44:
http://www.shootingtimes.com/optics/ST_steiner_200801/index.html
and a much more in-depth one that I'm in the process of reading now, here:
http://featheredgeoptics.com/productreviews_peregrinexp.htm



btw, link to Steiner's page on them:
http://www.steiner-binoculars.com/binoculars/peregrinexp/804.html

Hi Owen,Thanks for the link. I just read this review and what makes me worry is that out of three samples there was only one good one. I did like their "Road Test" especially dropping from 5 1/2 ft. to the floor and then throwing the binocular 100 ft. to land in the grass. I don't know why anyone on here doesn't do this to test their binoculars.:-O Come on Henry Link and Surveyor try this test.;)

Thinking some more on this, moreorless maybe that is what happened to the two other samples of this binocular, they didn't pass this "test".:)
Regards,Steve
 
Yeah, I'm thinking that I might build a giant slingshot to launch my binoculars across a parking lot with. Got to make sure they can stand up to hanging around my neck and bouncing off my chest....
About eleven years ago, I did actually take my Steiner 8x30s by the strap and bash them into a boulder after a friend asked me how durable they were. They also spent an hour at the bottom of a swimming pool to confirm that they were indeed "rainproof". I was still using them until earlier this year when they developed some kind of issue that was going to require me to pay for repair or replacement, at which point they were deemed expendable.
The Steiner M-22 7x50s that we had on our HMMV when I was in the Army looked like they'd been dragged behind the vehicle for most of their life, but still worked fine.
One of the reasons I was interested in the Peregrine XP(aside from getting to try a $1600 binocular for $750) was that I really do trust Steiner to make a very durable product. Shame two of those samples in the review were bad. That's just unacceptable, in my opinion.
 
I too had my first experience with Steiners in the military in the 70s. The Bundeswehr 8x30 Steiners were excellent. Since then I've accumulated quite a few pairs. We walk trails here that are on the edges of very rocky washout erosion canyons. The honey locust trees/bushes that grow on the top edges are extremely thorny and with greenbrier and wild roses added you get trails requiring the flexibility of a fakir and the surefootedness of a goat and when the choice comes down to risking your personal safety or your binoculars most people let go of the binoculars to save their own skin (a few Zeiss FL owners have broken arms to save binoculars???).

The 8x30 Steiner IF porros get rave reviews for being sturdy and water/mud resistant. The enormous depth of field that Steiner promotes as "Focus it once and then use it all day - focus-free" for their IF bins isn't perfect but it is good enough to acquire an object and then while viewing, fine tune the focus with the forefinger and thumb of the hand holding the binocular. Their varied coatings for different skewed color spectrums are also very useful. I use a military/marine model 8x30 with coatings that block more of the blue end of the spectrum when viewing on very overcast days or viewing over snow or lake water (all color-reflective coatings block some narrow color bandwidth and only water-white zirconium oxide coatings block all colors perfectly equally). I find the Hunting 8x30 is best to use with dark green and brown backgrounds, especially with birds like red winged blackbirds. Steiner makes at least 5 models of their 8x30 with the same lens sets but different coatings for viewing things over desert sand, water, etc.

That being said I dislike all the new full-sized Steiner roofers. I have the marine 7x50, the military/marine 10x50 (an incredible value at #350 incl shipping from Sportsman's Guide), the 10x26 Safari and 7x22, the older 8x25 and 10x25 minis, and various 8x30s. Steiner knows how to make a good binocular because when I compare the Zeiss 7x50 Classic Marine BGA*T with the best Steiner Military/Marine 7x50 (both IF models), the Steiner and Zeiss haven't a hair's difference between them. I find the new roofers from Steiner grossly overpriced and none of my visitor friends use them (and often they try the binocular "flavor of the month" only to dump an item after a month). I'd like to get a pair of both older model Steiner 7x35s and 6x30s someday, and the 15x80 and 20x80 Senators are stupendous when used on a tripod. But even for $700, none of the better Steiner roofers seemed worth the money to me (especially not vs their own 10x50 military/marine model at $350), although I know from experience that the dozen Steiners I have now are excellent performers and good values.
 
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