Hawke Panorama ED 8.5x42 (1 Viewer)

The Hawke Panorama ED has finally arrived in the UK! I briefly tried it at BirdFair a few weeks back and was sufficiently impressed to want to give them a more thorough workout. It's a 'flat field' design, clearly aimed at those that hanker after a Swarovski ELSV but at a very much more affordable price of £539.95 (already discounted to £475). Unfortunately I wasn't able to arrange a loan model until stock levels are higher but last week I tried out the Panorama ED 8.5x42 for a couple of hours courtesy of Cley Spy. Nice shop, nice people! They also provided a Swarovski EL SV 8.5x42 and SLC HD 8x42 for comparison but more about that later.
http://www.deben.com/panorama-ed/hawke-panorama-ed-85x42-binoculars.html

The Panorama is a big solid binocular. The spec. says 870g (30.7oz) but that's probably stripped of all accessories. Not quite in the Kowa Genesis league but a lot more than I'm used to. Once up to the eye it actually seemed lighter, rather well balanced offering a good steady view. I probably should have had a look at the 10x as well but was rather pressed for time. It might well have a 'lightweight magnesium alloy body' but it seems that's offset by a lot of glass.

I liked the way the Panorama sat in my hand. Two fingers naturally rested on the oversized focus wheel which felt a little unusual but worked very well. The focus is anti-clockwise close to distance. It's just over one full turn from 1.2m (4ft)close focus to 6m (20ft), but only about a quarter turn from there to infinity so fairly fast but with the diameter of the focus the level of control seemed very good to me. The focus smoothness on this demo model was not as good at the sample I tried a few weeks ago at BirdFair. Turning rapidly about a quarter turn or more led to progressive increase in turning resistance, though small adjustments were smooth with just a little play. I should say that overall it was still better than the particular demo ELSV that day, which was easily the worst Swaro focus I've tried.

I gathered from Deben that the most recent delay in the arrival of the Panorama was caused by implementation problems with the dioptre adjustment. I've not seen this design on another binocular. A small locking button needs to be depressed on the centre adjustment wheel for a free moving adjustment. Works beautifully with just a finger tip operation!

The demos were fitted with the clip in, tethered objective covers. The soft rubber made an easy secure fit, while a quick firm flick with the finger removes them. Very nice! I didn't check out the rain guard , strap or case.

Unfortunately I didn't bring a ruler so I can't give the dimensions, but the oculars are on the large side. With my 63mm IPD they weren't a problem without glasses, however with my facial features the eye cup did not extend quite far enough. Probably only a millimetre or so short. A slight frown was all that was needed to get the correct ER. They list 23mm ER which didn't seem right. With my glasses on I normally need about 15mm, and I needed to just needed to twist out the eye cups about 3mm so I'd guess there is about 18mm available. In fact I found the eye positioning fairly finicky. A little disconcerting at first, but no problem after a few minutes of use.

Again I made no attempt to verify the FOV, but 389ft (7.4*, 63* AFOV) seemed right. There was a hint of softening at the edges, a very mild field curvature, and minimal pincushion, but for all practical purposes I wouldn't dispute with Hawkes claim that it has a flat field of view. Certainly flatter than the Nikon EDG with sharper edges and impressively close to the ELSV standard. I got a little sensation of magnification distortion when panning, but I didn't find it troublesome on the day.

Forum regulars will realise from my posts that I crave razor sharp optics. I didn't quite get it, but it almost matched the ELSV but both fell a bit behind the SCL. I'd judge it above average for the price.

Though occasionally there was a hazy glare at the edge of the view at angles close to the sun, on the whole it did pretty well. It wasn't a good day for revealing CA. I could find a trace towards the edges or with off centre viewing, but generally the CA control seemed very good.

Colour balance is a little tricky to judge as in my experience impressions very much depend on the light conditions at the time. That morning the sky was a strong blue. The ELSV for comparison made the pale straw colour of dry thistle heads look an unnatural white. The Panorama deepened the straw colour slightly and darkened the sky suggesting a reduced blue transmission compared to the ELSV resulting in a yellower balance. However, just looking at the finches and sparrows on the feeder they seemed rather closer.

We know the other mid-price contender, the Zen Ray Prime, initially had a number of complaints about dust on the internal surfaces. I saw none on either of the Panoramas I've tried.

Obviously opinions on the forum are split on the desirability of flat field binoculars, and I don't intend to churn up that particular debate. If the feature is high on your wish list then I'd suggest Hawke is really a very good binocular. No it's not the equal of the Swarovski ELSV, but it's a lot closer than you might expect for less than 1/3rd of the price.

In the UK the Panorama HD is about the same price level as models like the Vortex Viper HD, Nikon Monarch 7 and Opticron Verano HD. I've not done a direct comparison, but the Panorama is obviously heavier and larger than those by a margin, but the reward is a sweet spot that none of the others get close to matching. Based on the Cley Spy sample, it may be the sharpest too.

David

Thanks Typo!

At last a first good review of this binocular!

Anders

Thanks for your review.

Is that the model with dielectric coatings? I remember briefly trying a few pairs whilst in the Hawke display tent, and I recall some brightness differences - would the Panorama ED have been one of the brighter pairs?

Malcolm,

Hawke had two versions of the Sapphire ED and the Panorama ED on the stand that have dielectric prism coatings and the Frontier ED which probably doesn't. There were other more basic pairs as well. I'm not sure it's strictly brightness differences I noted, but the Sapphires do seem to have cleaner, brighter colours than the Frontier. The Panorama I thought had better colours than the Frontier, but curiously the blue end of the spectrum did not seem to be as good as the Sapphire, which might give the impression of less bright view.

David

David,

Thanks for the write-up. Encouraging for Hawke that you regard the sharpness highly after the issues which forced Zen-Ray to abandon the basic design and go for the Prime HD instead (only going by memory, but I recall problems with the diopter, and possibly a mention of 'not playing nice' between the eyepiece and the prisms? - pomp will have to check that one!)

The (A)Fov <=> ER equation sounds pretty similar to the Prime /McKinley twins, considering mag., maybe just a smidge less, but possessing that same 'packed with glass' feel. The colour rendition sounds similar too as far as the straw goes, though the blues were also equally as saturated.

I terms of sharpness, how would you rate it against the Vortex APO Razor HD, and the Meopta Meostar HD (I believe your 2 reigning champions - not sure how they stacked up to the new SLC's)? Also, how does the brightness compare to these 3 + SV ?

With the Prime, I saw edges pretty much as you describe them, although I noted a distinct 10% super sweet spot (which in reality, is really how I'd like the sharpness of at least 90% of the field), and also (I hate to use the word) 'ring' of softness somewhere in that 60-80% of the field (the exact figure I gave will be in my Zen posts) - do you also see the same thing with the Panorama? (can't recall offhand if your in the SSS club with me, James, ronh, and ?)

The weight sounds pretty hefty, being 2oz heavier than the twins, and close to the Meopta, although it's probably concentrated around the centroid like the twins, so pretty good if your hands fit.

Interesting to see how this one goes ......



Chosun :gh:

Chosun,

I wasn't able to compare other models side by side for sharpness, but my feeling was that neither of those Swaros or the Panaorama was as good as that Razor 10x I tried. I thought the SLC was about the same as my cherry Opticron and the ELSV and Panaorama just a little behind. Still pretty good though. A comparison to the Conquest HD would have been interesting.

In terms of field softening the Panorama was really very close to the ELSV. I needed to study the view very hard to give the ELSV the advantage, definitely no sudden step changes. You need to shift the eye position off centre to directly view the edges and appreciate the differences. Something most are unlikely to do in normal use.

It was a sunny day and there was no way I could judge brightness differences. I suspect some would suggest the Swaros were brighter due to the better blue transmission, but that's something different in my book.

Cheers,

David