Most of what follows below will not come as news to those of you who peruse the web looking for deals, nor especially to those of you with an interest in Zen Ray binoculars. But it's been a while since I posted, and I'd like to share my impressions of the Atlas version of this 7x36 ED binocular.
These were on sale, perhaps on final clearance at Eagle Optics, for $149. List is $299, and typical sales price $249, while the Zen Ray version, sporting dielectric prisms, retails at $375 or thereabouts. Anyway, I couldn't resist that price, seduced by the 9-degree fov and the promise of a possibly very nice 7-power binocular. Unfortunately, after 3 days of trial, I am sending them back.
This binocular has a lot going for it. Excellent color correction, for starters, at least as good as my Leica UVHD 10x42 (my primary birding binocular), and quite a lot better than my Conquest HD 8x32, which puts up a bluish haze at the edge of the field in certain light conditions, and shows significant fringing on high-contrast objects, such as white fence rails in full sun. The Intrepid showed those fence rails with no visible fringing, and seemed to have no significant CA at the edges either (but it was hard to tell about that, because the edges are otherwise so strongly degraded, mostly due to field curvature). It has beautiful, I might even say, luscious color rendition, a little warmer than the Zeiss, kind of reminiscent of the Leica. Greens are particularly saturated, and red-green contrast striking. Very nice color contrast in general, which helps to create an overall impression of sharpness. I really liked the center of the field. The 7 power yields a huge depth of field, with very little refocusing necessary at typical birding distances. The binocular also gives a strong 3-D impression, compared to my other pieces. And it's true what is often remarked about 7 power: it is easy to hold steady, and so provides a very calm binocular experience. Finally, on the plus side, I thought the Intrepid had quite a wide sweet spot (70% or so), although it degrades very rapidly at the edges (this is from field curvature rather than astigmatism, judging by the fact that I could refocus the edges into a decently sharp image).
The Intrepid has an interesting way with scattered light. The exit pupil generally shows a strong bright ring, which in daytime is typically not seen by one's much smaller entrance pupil, but which shows up (much dimmed) in twilight, when one's own pupil opens up. (This has been commented on by Holger Merlitz in his zen-ray 7x36 review, one of the pieces that led me to try this bin.) In sunlight, one might see a small crescent at the bottom of the field, which can often be avoided by shifting the binocular downwards. Most impressive, however, is that the rest of the field stays very clear, rather than washing out: I was able to point the binocular to within 10 degrees of the sun and still have a very useful, detailed image, whereas my UVHD and Conquest are both pretty much useless anywhere near this close to the sun. This was a very strong point in its favor.
So I really wanted to like this binocular, but I just couldn't get on with it. First of all, I want a binocular to be comfortable in the hand. The Intrepid kept finding a way to poke me with sharp metal bits. The strap lugs are inexplicably level (almost) with the bottom of the focuser wheel, so that no matter how hard I tried, the sharp corner of the right-hand lug inevitably dug into the web between my thumb and index finger. Also, the upper hinge (with another sharp metallic corner) always seemed to dig into my right-hand middle finger, no matter how I might try varying my grip. After a while, picking up my Conquest felt downright soothing by comparison, like a well-worn baseball glove.
Secondly, I really like to be able to see the field stops of the eyepieces without blackouts. Many wide-field eyepieces will black out during the daytime, when one's pupil is contracted, before one is able to see the whole field. This problem often goes away at night, with a larger entrance pupil, so it's no big deal for astronomy eyepieces to do this. But binocular makers have to choose an eyepiece with a lot of care to avoid this problem. The UVHD and Conquest both present a clean field stop without blackout. Sure, you have to be careful to set the eyecups just so, but in general, one easily sees the entire field. This makes them very comfortable to pick up and bring to the eye without a fuss. But the Intrepid did not allow this, no matter how I set the eyecups. The result was that the usable field was barely larger than the 420 feet (at 1000 yd) of my Conquest, rather than the 477 feet advertised (8 degrees, rather than 9), meaning the afov was down around 56-60 degrees or so. Even so, I could live with this, and the pokey bits, if not for the last problem.
Pincushion. I've never seen pincushion this strong in a binocular. Maybe I've just not been around the block that many times, but this was really bad. Panning up and down, it looked like the world was flapping its wings. Horizontals start bending immediately as one pans up or down from center. The worst bit is when moving the binocular up and down to center the exit pupil (or avoid the pesky light crescent): in this situation, a strong fun-house experience of trees or whatnot bending upwards as the binocular moves down, or downwards as the binocular moves up, really made me a bit queasy.
So I tried to like it, I really did, but back it goes. Still, I am totally sold on the 7-power experience. I wish there were more offerings available. Maybe a Zeiss fl 7x42 will come up (I can hear my wife now, "you did what?"), or maybe I'll try the ZR 7x43. Can't afford the Leica 7x42, nor the Nikon EDG. But a good 7x35 or even 7x42 would be a wonderful complement to my 10x42...
Thanks for reading!
--Geo.
These were on sale, perhaps on final clearance at Eagle Optics, for $149. List is $299, and typical sales price $249, while the Zen Ray version, sporting dielectric prisms, retails at $375 or thereabouts. Anyway, I couldn't resist that price, seduced by the 9-degree fov and the promise of a possibly very nice 7-power binocular. Unfortunately, after 3 days of trial, I am sending them back.
This binocular has a lot going for it. Excellent color correction, for starters, at least as good as my Leica UVHD 10x42 (my primary birding binocular), and quite a lot better than my Conquest HD 8x32, which puts up a bluish haze at the edge of the field in certain light conditions, and shows significant fringing on high-contrast objects, such as white fence rails in full sun. The Intrepid showed those fence rails with no visible fringing, and seemed to have no significant CA at the edges either (but it was hard to tell about that, because the edges are otherwise so strongly degraded, mostly due to field curvature). It has beautiful, I might even say, luscious color rendition, a little warmer than the Zeiss, kind of reminiscent of the Leica. Greens are particularly saturated, and red-green contrast striking. Very nice color contrast in general, which helps to create an overall impression of sharpness. I really liked the center of the field. The 7 power yields a huge depth of field, with very little refocusing necessary at typical birding distances. The binocular also gives a strong 3-D impression, compared to my other pieces. And it's true what is often remarked about 7 power: it is easy to hold steady, and so provides a very calm binocular experience. Finally, on the plus side, I thought the Intrepid had quite a wide sweet spot (70% or so), although it degrades very rapidly at the edges (this is from field curvature rather than astigmatism, judging by the fact that I could refocus the edges into a decently sharp image).
The Intrepid has an interesting way with scattered light. The exit pupil generally shows a strong bright ring, which in daytime is typically not seen by one's much smaller entrance pupil, but which shows up (much dimmed) in twilight, when one's own pupil opens up. (This has been commented on by Holger Merlitz in his zen-ray 7x36 review, one of the pieces that led me to try this bin.) In sunlight, one might see a small crescent at the bottom of the field, which can often be avoided by shifting the binocular downwards. Most impressive, however, is that the rest of the field stays very clear, rather than washing out: I was able to point the binocular to within 10 degrees of the sun and still have a very useful, detailed image, whereas my UVHD and Conquest are both pretty much useless anywhere near this close to the sun. This was a very strong point in its favor.
So I really wanted to like this binocular, but I just couldn't get on with it. First of all, I want a binocular to be comfortable in the hand. The Intrepid kept finding a way to poke me with sharp metal bits. The strap lugs are inexplicably level (almost) with the bottom of the focuser wheel, so that no matter how hard I tried, the sharp corner of the right-hand lug inevitably dug into the web between my thumb and index finger. Also, the upper hinge (with another sharp metallic corner) always seemed to dig into my right-hand middle finger, no matter how I might try varying my grip. After a while, picking up my Conquest felt downright soothing by comparison, like a well-worn baseball glove.
Secondly, I really like to be able to see the field stops of the eyepieces without blackouts. Many wide-field eyepieces will black out during the daytime, when one's pupil is contracted, before one is able to see the whole field. This problem often goes away at night, with a larger entrance pupil, so it's no big deal for astronomy eyepieces to do this. But binocular makers have to choose an eyepiece with a lot of care to avoid this problem. The UVHD and Conquest both present a clean field stop without blackout. Sure, you have to be careful to set the eyecups just so, but in general, one easily sees the entire field. This makes them very comfortable to pick up and bring to the eye without a fuss. But the Intrepid did not allow this, no matter how I set the eyecups. The result was that the usable field was barely larger than the 420 feet (at 1000 yd) of my Conquest, rather than the 477 feet advertised (8 degrees, rather than 9), meaning the afov was down around 56-60 degrees or so. Even so, I could live with this, and the pokey bits, if not for the last problem.
Pincushion. I've never seen pincushion this strong in a binocular. Maybe I've just not been around the block that many times, but this was really bad. Panning up and down, it looked like the world was flapping its wings. Horizontals start bending immediately as one pans up or down from center. The worst bit is when moving the binocular up and down to center the exit pupil (or avoid the pesky light crescent): in this situation, a strong fun-house experience of trees or whatnot bending upwards as the binocular moves down, or downwards as the binocular moves up, really made me a bit queasy.
So I tried to like it, I really did, but back it goes. Still, I am totally sold on the 7-power experience. I wish there were more offerings available. Maybe a Zeiss fl 7x42 will come up (I can hear my wife now, "you did what?"), or maybe I'll try the ZR 7x43. Can't afford the Leica 7x42, nor the Nikon EDG. But a good 7x35 or even 7x42 would be a wonderful complement to my 10x42...
Thanks for reading!
--Geo.
