Dennis (aka Howie) :loveme: cops a lot of flak on this forum -- and rightly so ...... from his sometimes foggy and vague understanding of optic principles, the flip-flopping and pumping and dumping, to the unrelated and incomprehensible replies to posts - any posts, even his own, just to provide a platform for the verbal spillage of the time - it must be in some way cathartic - coz you sure as eggs :egghead: wouldn't want that stuff clogging your own mind! .............. :brains:
But I have to say, this time I see where Dennis is coming from, and the genuine concerns behind it. :t:
Dennis already has a very nice mid-size birding bin in the 8×32 SV --- you might say it's currently the ultimate within its given set of compromises. He even started a thread seeking answers to the ×42mm dilemma (size+weight v's performance and diminishing gains). What truly came out of that thread? - that the new Leica 8×42 HD+ may be worth a look within its given compromises, but really 42mm entails a bit of a step up in size and weight. So dennis's question then becomes is it worth it?? :cat: ..... All good natured jokes about lack of chest hair, girly arms and cricket bat shoulders aside, a conditional yes (given the faster than SV focuser, sharpish edges and huge FOV) on the weight and size front for the SF. But then there is the important question of moolah .......... :h?: :stuck:
This is a 2500 !! Dollar bin - or comparitively more if you live outside of the money printing consumer capital of the US of A. Quite frankly, the supply delays, early teething problems, lacklustre colours (compared to the SV - 50mm in particular, which positively sparkles!), undesireable blue-ringed edges, Wetzlar blurred rings, focus questions (I thought Brock! would have merrily weighed in on that one by now!
, and lack of sharpness?? (heck - my UHDTV absolutely smokes HDTV :smoke: and makes standard definition look like a later day Monet painting!
are just not acceptable.
I know enough about manufacturing to know that where there is smoke there is fire! The performance from Zeiss is sloppy and just not good enough. (I would politely ask Lee to refrain from weighing in with all the marketing fluff, quoted advertorial hyperbole, and usual one-eyed bunkum .... it does your rep no good at all - no matter what sort of cutesy humour, and quasi-balanced multi-brand history it is wrapped up in .... not having a go at you Lee - just firing a good natured pre-emptive shot across your bows, which is preferable to the case if I was Russian - where I would ram your goodship lollipop with my destroyer as a way of resolving escalating conflict!!
Several paying customers have now raised these issues. Zeiss has well and truly shot itself in the foot with the overblown claims, interminable delays, and dodgy early run quality. Several wise old owls called it early on - evolution of the benchmark at best - not revolution. We must ask serious questions about the design success when the focus issues reported arise, Wetzlar blurred rings feature (Tim - your eyes must be sharp as a tack. I've seen the same blurred zone in the Zen-Ray PrimeHD -- so am wary of that one), and now the central sharpness is called into question !!!! Really? The sharpness????! That fundamental quality of a bin that makes you pick it up in the first place!!!!!!!
Torview makes the good point that it is very worthwhile to A-B these bins with your sharpness/ contrast/ and colour representation standards. There is no such thing as "boosted" colors - just lack of transmission and imbalance. For the sake of some of the newbs and genuine early adopter information seekers out there, can we put that one to bed once and for all. :gn: The Swaro SV has been described as 3D-like due to its sparkling crystalline colour representation Wow! Personally I see it - particularly in the 10×50SV ..... If the Zeiss SF falls "flat" in comparison, then that's an issue for claiming top dawg status.
Really, questions of sharpness are very serious (enough for Dennis to snap his wallet shut). Globetrotter's observations were quite interesting. Customers should not be the final arbiters of Quality Assurance. I look forward to the much needed rigorous and quantitative resolution and star testing by Kimmo, and HenryLink, and Typo et all ......
Is this bin Sharp or not? Is this bin the sharpest thing since ZZ Top? Does it equal or exceed the sharpness of the Leica HD/HD+, or the SV? If not, then claims of the world's best are misleading at best - willfully scurrilous at worst. The Tested truth is out there .......
Btw. No kangaroos hopping down the main street were harmed in the making of this post ;P
Chosun :gh:
