Questions about the quality of Swarovski focusers have been raised from time to time and perhaps this is not surprising given that there have been not only complaints from individuals but also reports of multiple units suffering from poor focusers. One of these latter reports was from myself.
Anecdotal accounts are rarely the best basis for arriving at a conclusion so I contacted a main UK dealer who sells nearly 20 brands of binoculars including all three alpha brands to ask if they could outline what their experience has been in this regard.
The dealer, who describes his customers as 95% birders and general users, was quite clear that while the level of complaints that he receives about Swarovski focusers is not quite as good as one other alpha it is at least as good as, and perhaps a little better than the other alpha*. To put it another way I interpret this as Swaro being average amongst the alpha brands.
Significantly, my contact put a number on it. He estimated that less than 0.5% (i.e. less than 1 in 200) Swarovski binoculars sold resulted in a complaint about the focuser.
This is highly significant because in the UK our cultural practice when we receive faulty goods from a dealer is to take this up with the dealer. We don’t want our faulty unit mending by the manufacturer, we want another unit that functions as it should and we go back to our supplier to sort this out. When I asked the dealer if some of his customers might contact Swarovski directly he answered with a strong ‘no’. In any case from his estimate, Swarovski does not stand out from the other alphas as having a different level of problem.
So there we have it. Testimony directly from a long-established dealer clearly indicating that Swarovski does not have a problem with their focusers.
Lee
*The dealer did name the brands but to do so here would just be a distraction from the principal point of this post.
Anecdotal accounts are rarely the best basis for arriving at a conclusion so I contacted a main UK dealer who sells nearly 20 brands of binoculars including all three alpha brands to ask if they could outline what their experience has been in this regard.
The dealer, who describes his customers as 95% birders and general users, was quite clear that while the level of complaints that he receives about Swarovski focusers is not quite as good as one other alpha it is at least as good as, and perhaps a little better than the other alpha*. To put it another way I interpret this as Swaro being average amongst the alpha brands.
Significantly, my contact put a number on it. He estimated that less than 0.5% (i.e. less than 1 in 200) Swarovski binoculars sold resulted in a complaint about the focuser.
This is highly significant because in the UK our cultural practice when we receive faulty goods from a dealer is to take this up with the dealer. We don’t want our faulty unit mending by the manufacturer, we want another unit that functions as it should and we go back to our supplier to sort this out. When I asked the dealer if some of his customers might contact Swarovski directly he answered with a strong ‘no’. In any case from his estimate, Swarovski does not stand out from the other alphas as having a different level of problem.
So there we have it. Testimony directly from a long-established dealer clearly indicating that Swarovski does not have a problem with their focusers.
Lee
*The dealer did name the brands but to do so here would just be a distraction from the principal point of this post.
