• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

swarovski SV 10x42 or SV 12x50 (1 Viewer)

Hati

Active member
Hello, I want to know which of the two binos will give me more pleasing and detailed views. I know that SV 10x50 is the best, but what is the difference between sv 10x42 and 12x50 in terms of clarity, contrast, brightness, sharpness and wow effect? Thanks in advance!
 
Hello, I want to know which of the two binos will give me more pleasing and detailed views. I know that SV 10x50 is the best, but what is the difference between sv 10x42 and 12x50 in terms of clarity, contrast, brightness, sharpness and wow effect? Thanks in advance!

No doubt both the 10X50 and 12X50 are both optically better than the 10X42 showing more detail, brightness, and sharpness. But less face it...it's not an overwhelming improvement. Which one do i USE the most? The 10X42 is far and away the most used.
 
No doubt both the 10X50 and 12X50 are both optically better than the 10X42 showing more detail, brightness, and sharpness.

Chuck, I must respectfully disagree; as long as ambient light is sufficient to restrict the user's entrance pupil to 4 mm or less, there will be no difference in brightness among the three binos you mentioned. Also, in my experience, the SV 10x42 will show every bit as much detail and sharpness as the 10x50 and 12x50; all three are superb instruments, and I've never found a detectable difference in optical quality among them.

Just my 2 cents.

Best regards,

John
 
Hello, I want to know which of the two binos will give me more pleasing and detailed views. I know that SV 10x50 is the best, but what is the difference between sv 10x42 and 12x50 in terms of clarity, contrast, brightness, sharpness and wow effect? Thanks in advance!
We have the 10X50, 8.5 and 8X32 SV's. The 10X50 shows a bigger picture due to increased magnification BUT handshake can be a real problem as it disturbs small details that are easily seen in the 8X's. The 10X50 and 12X50 are, IMHO, specialized instruments not needed by most users. Their weight alone is challenging during a long day of birding.

Handheld, I love the 10X50 SV for high-flying moving targets and distant objects. Stargazing is only enjoyable when the 109X50 is mounted.

Without a doubt, the all-purpose choice is the 10X42.

PS
The 8X32 SV is surprisingly bright and crystal sharp. It works in about 98.5% of the situations one normally encounters while birding.
 
Last edited:
I recently tried all of the swarovski field pro models and honestly they are all excellent. As for which one gives a more pleasing, detailed view thats very subjective. Initially like you i was intending to purchase the 10x50 but after trying all of them i end up with the 8x32. You can't go wrong with any of them to be honest and your really splitting hairs to see any real difference. I was really surprised how bright the 8x32 was and in the end the size and smaller form factor made them the best fit for me.
 
Last edited:
"More pleasing" would probably mean ten different things to eight people you asked to define it.

To look through them is the only way to tell which one fits your very own definition of the term.
 
I recently tried all of the swarovski field pro models and honestly they are all excellent. As for which one gives a more pleasing, detailed view thats very subjective. Initially like you i was intending to purchase the 10x50 but after trying all of them i end up with the 8x32. You can't go wrong with any of them to be honest and your really splitting hairs to see any real difference. I was really surprised how bright the 8x32 was and in the end the size and smaller form factor made them the best fit for me.

Good to hear, after getting the Swarovskis CL25 pocket, I about to jump the gun and add to the family the Fieldpro 32's. But still on the border with the Leicas UVHD+.
 
The 12x50 definitely will be obviously brighter and you will see more detail at dusk and dawn than the 10x42. That is why people buy these bigger aperture and higher magnification binoculars. You will see more detail at 12x than you will at 10x under all conditions. The twilight factor of the 10x42 is 20.5 and the 12x50 is 24.5 so quite a big performance gain. If you can hold a 50mm it will always outperform a 42mm. The 12x50 would be much better than the 10x42 for owling or detecting game animals under low light. That is why they make binoculars like the Steiner Shadow Quest 8x56 for low light. Here is what Field and Stream said about them and a link to buy them on Amazon.com.

Steiner Shadow Quest 8x56
Score: 88 • $1,199
Ralph Smith
Buy
Specs:
8x56 7.8x8.3x2.7" 38.5 oz Eye relief n/a 7mm exit pupil 441' FOV

The only porro-prism binocular in this year’s test, the ShadowQuest is made to perform a very specific task: to help you methodically pick apart the landscape and find distant critters at the very edges of daylight. And it does a heck of a job of it. This was the only binocular to notch a perfect score for low-light performance, and it also finished near the top in resolution. What’s more, no amount of soaking, freezing, or thawing significantly obscured the image. It has *individual-​eyepiece focusing, so you can’t refocus quickly, but that’s not what the ShadowQuest is made for. You get yourself a good vantage point, you set the focus (which will then be sharp from 20 yards to infinity), and then you start searching this binocular’s huge field of view to spot animals you might well miss with other models.


https://www.amazon.com/Steiner-8x56...ag-20&linkId=bea26f35a99d51e62c7b69ef5b0dfccb
 
Last edited:
I have the 10x42 SV, but not looked through the 10x50 or 12x50. I imagine the latter two might provide a brighter and "better" image in certain conditions, subject to the qualifications John Frink has set out above. But I'm elderly and couldn't possibly use 12x because of hand shake. Nor could I manage the increased weight (998g for both 10x50 and 12x50, 840g for the 10x42). Younger, fitter people would have less of an issue with the weight.

For anyone who hasn't used Swaro bins before, it's worth mentioning that their design gives rise to a variable degree of "stiction" in the focusers, which use some sort of spring system rather than grease. I think (possibly wrongly) the idea was to allow the bins to be used in extremely low temperatures. I find it doesn't prevent quick and accurate focusing, but it can feel sort of "rubbery", which some will find tiresome. They're still very fine bins and I won't be changing them for anything else.
 
Last edited:
I'd steer clear of the 12x unless you're absolutely sure you can hold them steady enough to benefit from the excellent view. I couldn't when I tried them, and I'm not that elderly. Also x42 is fine for the vast majority of situations. Their bigger siblings are not very popular in the UK
 
"For anyone who hasn't used Swaro bins before, it's worth mentioning that their design gives rise to a variable degree of "stiction" in the focusers, which use some sort of spring system rather than grease. I think (possibly wrongly) the idea was to allow the bins to be used in extremely low temperatures. I find it doesn't prevent quick and accurate focusing, but it can feel sort of "rubbery", which some will find tiresome."

Exactly! I gave up on Swarovski's because of the "stiction" in their focusers. I have tried the newer models also and they are the same design with same sticky focusers. My Tract Toric 8x42 has a way better focuser than any Swarovski I had. It is a shame such good optics and a lousy focuser spoils them.
 
Dennis, post 12,
It seems that we are living in different worlds. I have used many Swarovski's over the past decades and the spring mechanism in the focussing construction prevents free play completely and I have never, I repeat never had any problems with it.
Gijs van Ginkel
 
About the Swarovski focusers, it has been said before, you can find "sticky" difference from one bino to another
(I noticed it trying different unit of the same model of Binos, and on their spotting scopes too.)
But the precision is really good though.

This can be said in the other direction, I personnaly really didn't like the Zeiss Victory (HT and SF) focusers.
It was too easy/too loose to move.
I'm sure it's useful for birders tracking birds flying, but I was too often going over
the point of focus before comming back so at the end, I found a Swaro unit with a
smooth focuser and bought it.
 

So do I, the employee of an optic shop made me try the 32 SV after I tried the 42 and I was amazed how much I prefered them.
Less bulky, and the picture was better to my eyes (and brain).

At the end, I didn't buy them because they were too light.
I'm so used to heavy Binos (50 and 56) that I couldn't "feel" the 32 in my hands and ended up Getting a shaky picture (I now, it's often the opposite;) )
 
Hi to all! I have written a short review (in italian, use google translator please) about the 12x50 swarovision. At the end of the review there is also a little comparison with my swarovision 10x42. I have found my 10x42 a little bit sharper.

http://www.binomania.it/stelvio-il-...-compagnia-dello-swarovski-swarovision-12x50/

I've seen that google translator makes little mistakes in the translation.. in the 12x50 - 10x42 comparison the right translation is "slight better sharpness" in the 10x42 (instead of "lighter clarity"); "pupillary extraction" is "eye relief".
 
Last edited:
Unlike your 12x50 vs 15x56 tread, this is a fairly easy recommendation. The 10x42SV will accomplish a huge percentage of all imaginable binocular tasks and do it with flying colors! The 10x50's larger pupil exit might be slightly more comfortable for extended tripod viewing but when it comes to "clarity" there really is no difference and when it comes to brightness, there's very little practical difference. I also consider the 10x50 a slightly specialized binocular.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 7 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top