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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Docter 15x60 B/GA vs Swarovski SLC 15x56 (new) vs Zeiss Conquest HD 15x56 ! (1 Viewer)

Thanks so much for posting this excellent review!! I see Mark has an excellent binocular for the night sky, the Nobilem 15x60. I had a chance to try the "old" Swarovski SLC 15x56 and liked it I think I would like the newer model even better.
 
binomania said:
Hello from Italy
I just posted a comparison between three excellent binoculars: the SwarovskiSLC15x56 new,the ZeissConquest HD 15x56
and the timeless NobilemDocter15x60B/GA.I hope that you will understand via google translate.Good reading and good weekend to all.
http://www.binomania.it/wordpress/?p=6018
Piergiovanni
Click to expand...

What a great review Piergiovanni, thank you.

However, it is puzzling that, more than once, you refer to doing some of the test in April.

Over here in the UK, we are still in March :smoke:

Ciao bello.

Lee
 
I notice Piergiovanni tested for resolution by reading an unseen news paper. I have mentioned this method before on here and been pretty much ignored. In my mind there is no better test.
 
bh46118 said:
I notice Piergiovanni tested for resolution by reading an unseen news paper. I have mentioned this method before on here and been pretty much ignored. In my mind there is no better test.
Click to expand...

BH

Its not that your test method has been ignored, but the rest of us find it hard to think of a newspaper whose political views we want to read at 15x :-O

Lee
 
Playboy could be substituted for the news paper, and pictures could be the target instead of the text. Definitely more interesting than Dennis's DVD covers.|:D|

Troubador said:
BH

Its not that your test method has been ignored, but the rest of us find it hard to think of a newspaper whose political views we want to read at 15x :-O

Lee
Click to expand...
 
Hi to all! Thanks for the comments. Troubador yu're right! :) I had prepared a draft citing April, because I was going to publish it in the next month, but I have had many inquiries after my preview of Binomania and for this reason I decided to give priority to this comparison.:)
I find that the observation of characters is very useful, better than USAF chart, because the brain does not know what to expect from pages with characters that are always different. Then I think you can also use Playboy, the important thing is that there are subtitles to be analyzed :)
Good evening to all.
Piergiovanni
 
Hi Piergiovanni

To my mind, that is logical thinking at its simplest and finest. If you haven't seen the text before, and with binocular A you can't read it but with binocular B you can read it, at the very least it proves that binocular B is a better match to your eyes.

 
bh46118 said:
Hi Piergiovanni

To my mind, that is logical thinking at its simplest and finest. If you haven't seen the text before, and with binocular A you can't read it but with binocular B you can read it, at the very least it proves that binocular B is a better match to your eyes.
Click to expand...

This undoubtedly reveals interesting comparisons but it can't be the whole story.

Black-ish print on a white-ish background is the highest of high contrast targets. Perhaps more revealing is what happens when you try to see medium brown marks against a darker brown background or substitute any medium colour against a darker shade of the same colour. What I am getting at is that low-contrast performance is at least as important. IMHO of course.

Lee
 
Piergiovanni clearly implies, without further explaining, that he hand-holds these bins. In the video linked he also depicts it (with the Docter), and there gives a commentary but, unfortunately, my Italian is not good enough to make out a ref. to this matter. No-one in the posts above refers to it. How many of you can hand-hold any 15x bin steady enough to watch birds? (Pg., did you also hand-hold to read those newspapers?) Thanks.
 
pompadour said:
... How many of you can hand-hold any 15x bin steady enough to watch birds? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Hello Pompadour,

I cannot hand old a 15x60. I cannot even steady one on a monopod.
10x is my limit, and then only for short periods of time.
Happy bird watching,
Arthur
 
Last edited:
pompadour said:
How many of you can hand-hold any 15x bin steady enough to watch birds? Thanks.
Click to expand...

With 10x and above I need both elbows resting on the bonnet of my truck !

My rule of thumb is that if I can't hold it steady in one hand it's not for me for general use, my maximum comfortable handling magnification in low light is 8.5x.

Still happy to use a tripod as time allows.

And great reviews, Piergiovanni, many thanks.
 
pompadour said:
Piergiovanni clearly implies, without further explaining, that he hand-holds these bins. In the video linked he also depicts it (with the Docter), and there gives a commentary but, unfortunately, my Italian is not good enough to make out a ref. to this matter. No-one in the posts above refers to it. How many of you can hand-hold any 15x bin steady enough to watch birds? (Pg., did you also hand-hold to read those newspapers?) Thanks.
Click to expand...

A resolution test requires the binoculars to be perfectly steady, otherwise it would test only the amount of handshake. Also, one has to be aware of the fact that the exit pupils of these binoculars are 3.7mm, but the newspaper-resolution test requires plenty of light, so that eye-pupils are well below 3mm. What is measured here is then the resolution of stopped down binoculars. The situation would be different if a booster were used, or if the test were done in the night using double-stars.

Great report, thanks a lot,
Holger
 
Optically, Holger is right as usual. Duh, make that always! But Pier's assumption that it is likely not optical quality differences, but differences in the holding steadiness of these 15x binoculars that dominates their de facto resolution, does not seem implausible.

Ron
 
Pg, BTW, I have not expressed my thanks for your fine comparison - like everyone else has - because its usefulness to me will depend on the point I have brought up! And Holger, thanks for spoiling the fun - as usual though not always.
 
There is another factor that influences the results of the newspaper reading test results, and that is the significantly greater parallax error of the Docter porroprism model compared with the two roofs. At the relatively short distance used, the letters being read will not be centered in the image circles in both tubes, and in most binoculars visible resolution is somewhat (if only slightly) compromised already a rather small distance from the dead center of the image.

Kimmo
 
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