I can't remember who, but at least one member if not more than one did predict that Zeiss would make its own version of the SV EL. After all, what else could Zeiss do with the EDG and SV EL nipping at its heels?
What I wished for back in January sounds like the SF:
"If someone made a bin with a 'tangential and sagittal surface normalizer' that would produce a reasonably sharp image even at 80%, and also had an extra wide FOV (70* AFOV) w/out 'side effects' such as RB, that would be the ideal bin for me. But that seems to be a rather tall order since I'm not aware of any bin that has that combination of characteristics."
Zeiss SF?
Given that the AFOV of the 8x42 SF is 67.7* and 68.5* for the 10x42 SF, and no reported RB so far, my wish might have come true, or as close as it gets, except I left out the part where the bin should be priced $1000 or less.
Swarovski already lowered the price on its SLCs, which were priced too close to the SV ELs. I don't think they are going to limbo any lower on the Swarovisions. Heck, they were the ones who broke the $2,400 price barrier to begin with, and then they hiked the price twice over the past few years since the SV EL debuted and took the SV EL's prices to where no optics company has boldly gone before - into the exosphere. If they lowered their price in response to the SF, the SV ELs would look like Children of a Lesser God.
Besides, it's clear that SV EL fans don't give a doggone about the price, they will pay whatever Swaro tells them to pay and relish the whip marks that "hurt so good."
In any case, it's too early in the game to speculate about how the SF will fare against the SV EL except to say that Swaro and Nikon got there first, so most users will likely be holding on to what they've got.
Only those who simply must have the "latest and greatest" and those who wanted to buy an SV EL but couldn't use it because of the RB will be applying for high atmosphere SF testing. A third category might be FL owners who didn't upgrade to the HT and who would like a bigger sweet spot and/or an open bridge design.
So while there are buyers for the SF, I think it's going to be a tougher sell for Zeiss than it was for Swaro's SV EL.
The EDG was first out of the gate, but its stumble with the faulty and litigious EDG I, and it's spotty reputation for customer service, repairs and short warranty period in Europe will have would be Euro buyers with deep pockets who didn't buy an SV EL taking a serious look at the SF.
We first need to see a shoot out between the SV EL and Zeiss SF to find out which one is more "sponge worthy." If the SF doesn't produce RB, and there are no slip-ups like the 54 HTs, then it will provide an alternative to those who wanted to buy an SV EL, but couldn't tolerate the side effects from the mustache distortion, and for those who prefer the blue shield over the Peregrine falcon.
My blood doesn't run blue, so my interest is purely academic.
Brock
