What a great pair of knockers ! (1 Viewer)

Hi just thought i would let you know that i went to view two diff pairs of bins.
Hawke Frontier 8x43 ED

Swarovski EL 8.5x42

I looked through both for sometime and found that i could not see much diff.
(but i am no binocular bofin)
The fov is better in the Hawke as was the close focus,and of course the hawke was £750.00p cheaper than the EL,s
So i bought the Hawke,s i would of been silly to pay the extra for mainly the name !
Im happy with what ive bought and at the end of the day thats all i wanted
Happy Birding
LW.

Thanks LW, I´m intrigued by these Hawkes, can´t try out a pair this side of the Little Pond but the reviews are great (one in the current issue of "Birdwatch" included). Being an FOV fan, I´m leaning towards Hawkes, but I like eye-relief too....is there enough in them compared to the Swaros? Ta!:t:

Sancho said:

but the reviews are great (one in the current issue of "Birdwatch" included).

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Can you give us more details of the review Sancho?

(By the way, most non-optics aficionados who compare binoculars such as the vortex vipers with Swaro's also find little difference.)

Best,
Jim

J. Moore said:

Can you give us more details of the review Sancho?

(By the way, most non-optics aficionados who compare binoculars such as the vortex vipers with Swaro's also find little difference.)

Best,
Jim

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"Birdwatch" magazine, issue 197, Nov. 2008. p.47. Not sure if I should quote for copyright reason, but all round a very favourable review, but says it´s well-worth the extra 100 sterling on the regular (non-ED) Frontier, and talks of an "exceptionally bright image with excellent contrast". (Oh what the hell, I will quote. "Colours are very natural and the overall tone is neutral". "Even under conditions of poor light intensity...performs well". Etc., etc., etc. They don´t make any direct comparisons, though, and the one on everyone´s mind is the Swaro 8.5x42. A half a degree wider FOV might be the "deal-breaker" for me.

Sancho said:

Thanks LW, I´m intrigued by these Hawkes, can´t try out a pair this side of the Little Pond but the reviews are great (one in the current issue of "Birdwatch" included). Being an FOV fan, I´m leaning towards Hawkes, but I like eye-relief too....is there enough in them compared to the Swaros? Ta!:t:

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Hi Sancho,
Im No binocular clever clog but it states 16.5 mm eye relief that any good?
LW.

Took my new Hawke's along to In Focus with me today to see how good a deal I got. IMHO, and that of the sales guy with, obviously, vastly more birding and binning experience than me, they are not very serious competition for the big three, and, frankly, neither should you expect them to be.

The more realistic comparison was with the Pentax DCF ED, and here, after some time, one had to conclude that the Pentax edged it. I found it brighter and preferred the ergonomics. But then the Pentax are £699 and I paid £269, so that it took any scrutiny at all to see the superiority of the Pentax confirms that I have a bargain.

A £1000 bin for £250? No. A bin for under £300 which pushes competition in the £500-£700 bracket? Yes. These are very, very good bins. I still prefer my beloved Nikon EIIs, but I don't think there's another roof I could currently afford which could come close to these Hawke's.

I'm not at all surprised that the OP could not see meaningful difference between these and the Swaro's. I think the step up from typical beginner bins is so great it's only once you are attuned to the subtleties you'd see why the Swaros are better.

Will update when I've done some more real birding with them.

Graham

The ED Pentax is still a puzzle to me. Local stores do not carry it. The SP Pentax is pretty good , but not a huge jump from 300 dollar binoculars.

bitterntwisted said:

Took my new Hawke's along to In Focus with me today to see how good a deal I got. ............Will update when I've done some more real birding with them.

Graham

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Thanks for that realistic review, Graham....unfortunately as we use our beloved EII´s as our optical "reference standard", it´s very, very hard for anything else to compete....

LW...16.5mm would be a lot of eye-relief for me, and greater er is one of the things I´m looking for these days (I´ve taken to wearing my specs while birding). 16.5mm is more than anything I´ve currently got, and I think it would be adequate for most spec-wearers. There are models with far more, though, and I´m no expert, so if you wear specs check the threads! Happy Birding!

Sancho said:

Thanks for that realistic review, Graham....unfortunately as we use our beloved EII´s as our optical "reference standard", it´s very, very hard for anything else to compete....

LW...16.5mm would be a lot of eye-relief for me, and greater er is one of the things I´m looking for these days (I´ve taken to wearing my specs while birding). 16.5mm is more than anything I´ve currently got, and I think it would be adequate for most spec-wearers. There are models with far more, though, and I´m no expert, so if you wear specs check the threads! Happy Birding!

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I have a Hawke ED Frontier and I have (reasonably close fitting) eyeglasses.

The 16mm ER gives me almost the full field. I can't see the field stop all the way round but only just. So it's close enough (but it does miss that solid edge which is useful for centering the pupil).

I don't find any problems with using eyeglasses with these bins but YMMV if you have thick glasses, glasses that it some distance down your nose and/or have deep set eyes.