Kevin Purcell
Well-known member
Vortex seems to be available in the US and the UK (do they sell Stoke branded gear in the UK?).
Hawke seems to be a UK only company.
I recently stumbled across this at The Sportman's Guide, a sort of low end US hunting outfitters.
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=373203
Hawke® Endurance® Close Focus
8x25 mm Binocular
* F.O.V.: 357 ft. @ 1,000 yards
* Near focus: 4.9 ft.
* Eye relief: 0.6" (15.24mm)
* Weighs approx. 10 ozs.
And realized that the picture looked exactly the same as the Vortex Stokes Meadowlark. And the specs seem to back this up.
http://www.vortexoptics.com/binoculars/view/stokes_meadowlark_8x25
http://www.eagleoptics.com/index.asp?pid=4602 (on sale for $60)
Field of View 357 ft./1000 yds.
Eye Relief 16 mm
Close Focus 5 ft.
Weight 10.2 oz.
Dimensions (HXW) 4.0 x 4.6 in.
Weatherproofing Waterproof/Fogproof
EDIT: It also seems that the Vortex Spitfire 8x25 is the same bin too (same specs, slightly different armoring).
In some ways not a bad spec for a compact: lightweight, single hinge, OKish FOV, maybe OK for eyeglasses eye relief. But no phase-correction and it's limited in physical size by the separation of the eyes so it's not tiny. And being a single hinge it can't get much smaller.
So this seems to be one concrete example of Vortex selling a "pre-designed" OEMs product rather than designing from scratch (no shame there, just an interesting point).
And I think, like Hawke, they have other products that are not duplicates of each other so either they're from different OEMs or they're doing their own designs (in part or in whole). In fact as both Vortex and Hawke seem to have products that aren't the same as anyone products I'm pretty sure they're doing at the very least exclusive designs with OEMs.
This would also be of interest to those interested in the Hawke Frontier ED (OK, both of us ) and if they might be available in the US perhaps under a different name (my guess, probably not).
Hawke seems to be a UK only company.
I recently stumbled across this at The Sportman's Guide, a sort of low end US hunting outfitters.
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=373203
Hawke® Endurance® Close Focus
8x25 mm Binocular
* F.O.V.: 357 ft. @ 1,000 yards
* Near focus: 4.9 ft.
* Eye relief: 0.6" (15.24mm)
* Weighs approx. 10 ozs.
And realized that the picture looked exactly the same as the Vortex Stokes Meadowlark. And the specs seem to back this up.
http://www.vortexoptics.com/binoculars/view/stokes_meadowlark_8x25
http://www.eagleoptics.com/index.asp?pid=4602 (on sale for $60)
Field of View 357 ft./1000 yds.
Eye Relief 16 mm
Close Focus 5 ft.
Weight 10.2 oz.
Dimensions (HXW) 4.0 x 4.6 in.
Weatherproofing Waterproof/Fogproof
EDIT: It also seems that the Vortex Spitfire 8x25 is the same bin too (same specs, slightly different armoring).
In some ways not a bad spec for a compact: lightweight, single hinge, OKish FOV, maybe OK for eyeglasses eye relief. But no phase-correction and it's limited in physical size by the separation of the eyes so it's not tiny. And being a single hinge it can't get much smaller.
So this seems to be one concrete example of Vortex selling a "pre-designed" OEMs product rather than designing from scratch (no shame there, just an interesting point).
And I think, like Hawke, they have other products that are not duplicates of each other so either they're from different OEMs or they're doing their own designs (in part or in whole). In fact as both Vortex and Hawke seem to have products that aren't the same as anyone products I'm pretty sure they're doing at the very least exclusive designs with OEMs.
This would also be of interest to those interested in the Hawke Frontier ED (OK, both of us ) and if they might be available in the US perhaps under a different name (my guess, probably not).
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