Steiner Discovery owners and people who tried them (1 Viewer)

Hello,
i post this thread for one main reason. I am interested in these (and i guess more people probably are), and i can't find many reviews, comparisons and generally opinions for these on the forum or the web.
So i would like to see opinions, reviews etc. preferably from people who own or tried them.

I will start with my personal opinion after trying both formats (8x44 and 10x44) at the BirdFair last August.
Unfortunately i didn't have the chance to test them against other 'top' brands side by side. Only mark of refference was my Genesis 8x33, which had/has a great view, comparable with the best available binoculars nowadays.

So, the view through the Discoveries was top i would say. Excellent sharpness and color representation. Very relaxed view and very well balanced, despite the fact it's a bit heavy (834g the 8x44 and 854g the 10x44 according to the manufacturer).
Focusing wheel very smooth and easy to use.
Great eye relief but as far as i remeber it had no eyepieces 'stops'. I didn't care about that since they were perfect for me when fully extended.
The side eye flaps were a plus for me.
Construction wise was probably the best i 've seen.

Would like to hear some more opinions. Or how do you compare it with other top binos?

Regards,

George

P.S.: I would appreciate if the known people and others who don't know personally and they are just based on 'others' people reviews to get their own conclusions for this particular pair to not take part in this thread.

George - I was also quite impressed with Steiner 8x32 Skyhawks at the Bird Fair and bought a pair for £280 which also included the optional harness thrown in free of charge. So far I have been very pleased with my purchase and they seem quite as good as the more popular makes, some of which cost considerably more than what I paid. They do seem to be well built and with excellent optics in this price range.

The Discovery is called the Peregrine XP here in the US.

Here is a link to a review by a forum member:

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=142051

Mark

Hello everyone,

Geoff thanks for your input. Unfortunately i didn't look through the Skyhawks at the BirdFair, to see directly how they compare to the Discoveries.
I had a look (maybe a year ago?) through a 10x42 Skyhawk, for a few minutes, but it was in late afternoon.
Of course they were dinstictly less brighter than my FLs (8x42s). The image was nice, above average, but definitely lower than the Discovery and the FL.
I liked the ergonomics, size, weight and construction though.

Mark, thanks a lot for the link, i never read that one! Finally there are some opinions on the Discovery (or Peregrine XP whatever!).

George

George, it's over four years since I participated in that thread and I still have my two pairs of Steiner Discovery 10x44. I'm still totally happy with them each time I use them.
Can't think of any I'd swap them for because ergonomically for me they are great. Zeiss/Leica/Swaro may have very slightly better optics but it's negligible in terms of practical use.

Hello Charley,
thanks for your opinion.

Zeiss/Leica/Swaro may have very slightly better optics but it's negligible in terms of practical use.

I agree with you totally.

My question is... why 2 10x44s? Why not 1 8x44??
Did you have the chance of comparing them with any Swaro/Zeiss/Leica?

Thanks again,

George

Yes I compared them to all three and more, lucky to live in London which provides all temptations.

I found the ergonomics of the Steiner best for me. Swaro I liked least of the top five in this respect (I include Nikon and Steiner as producing some alpha bins)

I tend to like Zeiss best for pure view, Nikon least.

As for 10 versus 8 magnification...
I compared them side by side at Infocus. Found them so close in terms of light gathering, and the 10x quite holdable. Bought one pair of 10x at Infocus, then as I remember, later that week bought an 8x mail order, then swapped it for a second 10x. When I go birding with one of my daughters I know we are looking at the exactly the same view.


Of course the way I see it, my Steiners are an all round compromise; given an unfettered choice, I'd have a 7x42 dialyt (such a pleasant view), an 8x56 Victory (tried the older version, they're so clear & bright) and a 15x56 Swaro (in your face but still holdable).