Bargain Hawke Sapphires! (1 Viewer)

I broke my Hawke Frontier 8x43s not long ago. I was running with them zipped under my jacket and fell. I broke both hinges by landing on top of them and suffered a hair fracture in my sternum to boot!

But that is not what this is about. What it is about however is the fact that Hawke gave me 50% off any model of my choice if I sent the Frontiers back, which I did. Upshot is, I now have a nice new pair of Sapphire 8x43 EDs for £234.99 (+£15 P&P to France).

Have not field tested them yet, just been in the garden but they seem good. I will update when I have spent some time with them.

Initial thoughts on using for 1 afternoon.

Optically there seems little if any difference between these and the Frontier 8x43 EDs. They are slightly brighter but I have yet to test them at dusk, where the Frontier performed very well.

The one thing I found a little annoying is the eye relief for me as a glasses wearer, with the cups all the way down they are almost impossible to sit unobstructed on my specs. By the time you have sorted a position with a full FOV the bird has long gone. But give the eyecups quarter of a turn up and they are wonderful, top position first go every time. As the eyecups only have a two click positions and what I want is under half way before the first position, they tend to move. I have an idea to remedy this. I am going to put an o-ring between the eyecup and the body (on the eyepiece barrel) and turn the eyecups all the way down creating a spacer which should be about right. I will of course let you know how this fares.

They are a little heavier than the Frontiers and according to the specs close focus to the same distance 2m (6.6ft), I have not measured this for real yet but I will add my findings to the update.

My initial conclusion is this. If I had to spend the full amount on a pair of either the Hawk Frontier or the Sapphire (having owned both), I would opt for the Frontier. You are getting a lot of bin for your money at £80 less.

I will a do complete review after a month of use.

I agree. Try as I might to want to believe my Sapphires were a step up from my Frontiers I have gone back to the Frontiers where I think the image is slightly warmer. As for the eyecups, that is a trick I use on my target rifle scopes, putting a rubber seal (Aldi) between the body and the ocular and closing back the eyecup against the seal.

OK, I have the O-rings in place and it works a treat. Quite a neat solution I think?