dannybgoode
Well-known member
I wanted something a bit more compact and in 8 x 42 configuration than my Nikon Aculon 10x50's for birding and at this stage I did not want to spend more than £400 and ideally £2-300 but even in that price range there is a huge choice.
I looked at more reviews then I care to think about, studied specifications, asked for opinions on here etc and then finally went out to a couple of store to try a few pairs out having narrowed down the options I would test.
The Visionary Freebirds were a late addition to that list - I had not considered them at all and thought I would pop them on as a comparator (one of the online birding mags had given them a pretty good write up so I thought I would at least give them a go). I also took along my Aculons as a known quantity to compare against.
The guy at the store handed me the Freebirds first as they were technically the lowest of the various bins I was going to try. First look through and I was pretty impressed. Nice and bright, easy to use with glasses on, tight focussing, natural colours - they were ticking all the boxes.
I worked my way through the various binoculars right up to the Hawke Sapphire HD and Bushnell Legend Ultra but nothing came close to these even without factoring price in so promptly handed over my card and bought a pair.
I have now had chance to use them properly a few times I the more I use them the more impressed I am. I feel I get sucked in to and become part of the scene, almost forgetting I am looking through binoculars. They are incredibly well built, the finish is good, the supplied pouch and lens covers of decent quality, The body is nicely shaped and they are comfortable to hold with the focus wheel falling nicely to fingertip when required (I have large hands and I do not have any issues with them).
The anti-reflective coating is very effective and the exit pupils do not seem to be truncated. The field of view is reasonably wide - 388ft at 1000 yds and is sharp for at least 65% of the frame, may a bit more. Chromatic Aberration (colour fringing) is well controlled and only visible if really looking for it in very high contract scenes (think white window frame with the sun bouncing off it against very dark brick work).
Resolution is excellent - fine detail on birds is easy to discern and the colours are very natural. They are very bright as well and work well in reasonably dense woodland in the early morning and heading toward dusk.
I have also had chance to take them up to Old Moor and put them up against the RSPB 8x42 BG PC's and they were very much alike except these are £200 cheaper.
As a bonus they make a great set of sky-scanning binoculars for astronomy. The fact they are so bright helps and the wide field of view that is nice and sharp makes taking in large areas of night sky a joy.
There could be an explanation as to why they are so good as it would seem that the Visionary Freebird may be the same binoculars as the original Bushnell Legend (i.e not the Ultra / HD ones).
Regardless, for £130 and considering they are non-ED glass (although they are phase corrected) they are an astonishing buy. Highly recommend anyone in the market for some good quality, reasonably priced bins to give them a go even if they were think ED would be the way to go.
I looked at more reviews then I care to think about, studied specifications, asked for opinions on here etc and then finally went out to a couple of store to try a few pairs out having narrowed down the options I would test.
The Visionary Freebirds were a late addition to that list - I had not considered them at all and thought I would pop them on as a comparator (one of the online birding mags had given them a pretty good write up so I thought I would at least give them a go). I also took along my Aculons as a known quantity to compare against.
The guy at the store handed me the Freebirds first as they were technically the lowest of the various bins I was going to try. First look through and I was pretty impressed. Nice and bright, easy to use with glasses on, tight focussing, natural colours - they were ticking all the boxes.
I worked my way through the various binoculars right up to the Hawke Sapphire HD and Bushnell Legend Ultra but nothing came close to these even without factoring price in so promptly handed over my card and bought a pair.
I have now had chance to use them properly a few times I the more I use them the more impressed I am. I feel I get sucked in to and become part of the scene, almost forgetting I am looking through binoculars. They are incredibly well built, the finish is good, the supplied pouch and lens covers of decent quality, The body is nicely shaped and they are comfortable to hold with the focus wheel falling nicely to fingertip when required (I have large hands and I do not have any issues with them).
The anti-reflective coating is very effective and the exit pupils do not seem to be truncated. The field of view is reasonably wide - 388ft at 1000 yds and is sharp for at least 65% of the frame, may a bit more. Chromatic Aberration (colour fringing) is well controlled and only visible if really looking for it in very high contract scenes (think white window frame with the sun bouncing off it against very dark brick work).
Resolution is excellent - fine detail on birds is easy to discern and the colours are very natural. They are very bright as well and work well in reasonably dense woodland in the early morning and heading toward dusk.
I have also had chance to take them up to Old Moor and put them up against the RSPB 8x42 BG PC's and they were very much alike except these are £200 cheaper.
As a bonus they make a great set of sky-scanning binoculars for astronomy. The fact they are so bright helps and the wide field of view that is nice and sharp makes taking in large areas of night sky a joy.
There could be an explanation as to why they are so good as it would seem that the Visionary Freebird may be the same binoculars as the original Bushnell Legend (i.e not the Ultra / HD ones).
Regardless, for £130 and considering they are non-ED glass (although they are phase corrected) they are an astonishing buy. Highly recommend anyone in the market for some good quality, reasonably priced bins to give them a go even if they were think ED would be the way to go.
