I had the good fortune to try out both these bins. Unfortunately I tried them a week apart.
First off 10x42's were great ergonomically they felt nice and light and great in the hands, focus was perfect for my tastes. I brought my 10x42 Nikon SE's to compare them against. Sharpness was a tie they were both perfect. The color rendition on the new Ht's is WAY better than the FL's. colors are much more saturated and everything seemed perfectly true to life. The Nikons have always had great color. The Zeiss looked different on browns and greys like concrete. Almost a silvery look like a non dielectric. Keep in mind I am doing this test on Lexington ave in NYC, not the best test area. My final conclusion was that they were no better than my SE's and I had no real interest in them although I'd trade for them in a second. One thing that really bothered me was my FL 10x42 always seemed to have a bigger AFOV then all the other tens I had tried. The New Ht's seemed like a downright small circle compared to what I was expecting, like they aren't really 330ft. Probably just my perception but the FOV for 2 grand plus seemed a bit small.
Now the HT 54's are much bigger but look great and once again feel amazing in the hand, they feel light and well balanced. I was expecting a big view and as far as FOV I got it. It was way bigger than the 10x42, It was bigger by far than I remember my Fl Being I really liked that about it. Otherwise the image in the daylight looked exactly the same to me. Now you can never tell if the sun was a bit different that day or what but I struggled to find something they were better at, fine resolution, appearance of magnification (The old FL10x56 always seemed bigger than a ten to me) I was expecting some kind of visual difference but there seemed to be not a bit of difference between these two except the FOV is much bigger in the x54. Which is weird because both are listed at 330 when I just checked.
I guess well have to wait for the big guns to come out and A-B test using triplers and air force charts and the whole professional style review.
But in daylight to my eyes these bins looked just the same even in color rendition. FOV was the only difference I could see.
For now I'm waiting to see if the SF actually has a FOV of 360@1000 because I love that immersion. I expect them to have richer color too since they have 92% light throughput instead of 95%. I theorize that 3% went into more aggressive coating and a richer image, at Least I hope so.
First off 10x42's were great ergonomically they felt nice and light and great in the hands, focus was perfect for my tastes. I brought my 10x42 Nikon SE's to compare them against. Sharpness was a tie they were both perfect. The color rendition on the new Ht's is WAY better than the FL's. colors are much more saturated and everything seemed perfectly true to life. The Nikons have always had great color. The Zeiss looked different on browns and greys like concrete. Almost a silvery look like a non dielectric. Keep in mind I am doing this test on Lexington ave in NYC, not the best test area. My final conclusion was that they were no better than my SE's and I had no real interest in them although I'd trade for them in a second. One thing that really bothered me was my FL 10x42 always seemed to have a bigger AFOV then all the other tens I had tried. The New Ht's seemed like a downright small circle compared to what I was expecting, like they aren't really 330ft. Probably just my perception but the FOV for 2 grand plus seemed a bit small.
Now the HT 54's are much bigger but look great and once again feel amazing in the hand, they feel light and well balanced. I was expecting a big view and as far as FOV I got it. It was way bigger than the 10x42, It was bigger by far than I remember my Fl Being I really liked that about it. Otherwise the image in the daylight looked exactly the same to me. Now you can never tell if the sun was a bit different that day or what but I struggled to find something they were better at, fine resolution, appearance of magnification (The old FL10x56 always seemed bigger than a ten to me) I was expecting some kind of visual difference but there seemed to be not a bit of difference between these two except the FOV is much bigger in the x54. Which is weird because both are listed at 330 when I just checked.
I guess well have to wait for the big guns to come out and A-B test using triplers and air force charts and the whole professional style review.
But in daylight to my eyes these bins looked just the same even in color rendition. FOV was the only difference I could see.
For now I'm waiting to see if the SF actually has a FOV of 360@1000 because I love that immersion. I expect them to have richer color too since they have 92% light throughput instead of 95%. I theorize that 3% went into more aggressive coating and a richer image, at Least I hope so.
Last edited:
