Egleton Birdfair Optics yesterday, 22/8/09 (1 Viewer)

I enjoyed my first visit to Birdfair for many years yesterday. The Optics Marquees seemed well staffed; and with one side open for viewing, the environmental conditions were fine. (Not so in the totally enclosed marquees which were over-warm and very humid, and soon had me exiting!) The weather was sunny with little heat haze or shimmy to spoil the viewing at moderate ranges, although both were evident viewing the old church/museum at ~3 miles range.

I had with me for comparison my ageing Minolta Activa 7 x 35s, and expected to easily find a binocular which would cause buying lust. It didn't happen. Yes, I saw many with brighter and clearer views, but when I checked on angle of view, my old Porro prisms won every time. It seems as though 7x bins are now out of fashion. (I did ask...) I do own several different bins, but it's the old Minolta pair that gets used most.

I also came across very different stiffnesses on nominally identical hinge mechanisms, and one pair which were simply out of alignment. They should have taken them to the Zeiss stand for adjustment!

Must say I really enjoy these exhibitions / fairs where there's masses to try out, and no pressure to make a rash purchase, just because you're embarrassed at taking up too much of the salesman's time!

Malcolm,

Thank you for sharing your experiences at the birdfair. Pardon the language but I would "kill" to have such an event here locally. We are going to have something similar, for the first time since I have gotten into birding, up at one of the local conservation organizations, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary on the 5th of next month. I am not sure how many representatives are going to be there but I am excited about it. I wish there were more of them in my neck of the woods.

As for those Minoltas, I was not familiar with them so I googled them to see what they looked like and what their specs were. Pretty impressive on both counts. Physically they almost look like the Pentax PCF-WP IIs I had once. The specs though are what really caught my eye. For a porro prism bin that 9.8 foot close focus is very respectable as is the 24 oz. weight. The field of view is, at 9.3 degrees, is exceptionally impressive. I would be curious about what the level of edge distortion looks like in that model. Usually the wider porros suffer from some level of poor edge performance but it is the amount an degree that separates the good from the average.

Having said that the only two bins I can think of off the top of my head that would be comparable (Field of view and magnification/objective size) would be the Nikon 7x35 Action EX and the Zen Ray Zen ED 2 7x36. I don't have your Minolta model anywhere locally otherwise I would be happy to do a comparison for you.

Sorry for getting off track but that is how my mind works sometimes.



Thanks again.

Edit: Scratch my comment about the physical similiarities with the Pentax model. They actually look more like the Nikon Action EX I mentioned.

Hi Malcolm

Thanks for sharing your views on the optics at the fair. Out of interest did you see any new models? Usually it's the place where new stuff gets introduced.

Nev

Sorry Nev,
I'm probably the worst qualified person to comment on new bins. (I'm more at home with cameras and long lenses.) I gave up waiting to get hands on at the Leica stand, and I didn't try the Swaroski(Sp?) stand - the other stands seemed to change punters at a more reasonable rate. I had hoped to check out the Pentax Papilio close focusing bins, but Pentax weren't there.

So, from a declared position of ignorance(!) what I did notice was that most bins on the Zeiss stand were marked "Fl". Somewhat cheekily I asked the girl what the "Fl" tag meant, and got a reasonable reply. (I've known about the benefits of fluorite in top end camera lenses for years, and own several of Canon's long teles which benefit from the technology.) On other stands the very great majority of bins on demo were roof-prism types, and as I've noted earlier, most of these were 8x and upwards, and the one 7x I did find was significantly narrower angle than my old 7x35 Porro prism bins. In general I was surprised at how heavy they mostly felt. Perhaps the use of magnesium hasn't spread that far yet.

One thing I did come across was the Hoodman HoodLoupe - designed to shield the new 3" camera LCD screens from extraneous light. At a casual glance, it looks similar to a simple slide viewer, but slide viewers have around 3x to 5x magnification. This device is specifically designed not to magnify the pixels, but rather to allow comfortable in-focus viewing from about 3" away. (All this is on the website.) I'm a bit puzzled as to how they do it.

Jacobs were demoing Canon's latest long tele, the EF 800 f5.6L IS USM with both 2x and 1.4x extenders behind it, all mounted on an EOS 1D MkIII. As expected the view was dim, but Wow...

OK thanks anyway Malcolm.

Swarovski used to do a 7x30 slc, not sure how wideangle it was but it was discontinued.
Just found the specs 126m at 1000m so not that wide. Oh well the search goes on...

Nev

my brother uses the 7x30 slc and they are superb!

I looked through a few pairs of bincoulars, I fell in love with the leica hd's, I could not believe the views they gave, truly awesome! The image just wanted to jump out the bins at you,

I really like the canon 10x42 L is, the optics on these were great, plus the is works really well, standing on a vibrating wobble board proved that, i certainly reccommend them for people with a bit of an unsteady hand.

One pair of binoculars which were brilliant, in my eyes, was actually unsuspected! The meopta 8x42, superb sharpness, brightness and contrast with a great field of view.

Didnt really look through many other bins, I did not have enough time, with wanting to look at the big scopes.

I visited the Rutland Birdfair when it opened on Friday morning, mainly to see and try the binoculars available. Intent on being as impartial as possible, and basing my assessments on 'first acquaintance', 'feelgood' and 'wow' factors, the Swarovski 7x42 impressed as a brilliant all-rounder, but at a price I couldn't justify even to my sympathetic self, never mind my wife. However, the Meopta 7x42 seemed just as good to my eyes at about half the price (£600+). There were lots of superb Leica, Zeiss, and Nikon too, but my abiding memory of the day was that Meopta, nice ergonomics and sharp, clear, bright optics...

I didnt actually look through the 7x42 meopta, but as I said I did look through the 8's, and agree with your comments, i mentioned that i liked them and was very impressed, i was told they were designed to be exactly like the swarowski, for the price, perfomance and value for money these were certainly rated number 1

James Bean said:

I visited the Rutland Birdfair when it opened on Friday morning, mainly to see and try the binoculars available. Intent on being as impartial as possible, and basing my assessments on 'first acquaintance', 'feelgood' and 'wow' factors, the Swarovski 7x42 impressed as a brilliant all-rounder, but at a price I couldn't justify even to my sympathetic self, never mind my wife. However, the Meopta 7x42 seemed just as good to my eyes at about half the price (£600+). There were lots of superb Leica, Zeiss, and Nikon too, but my abiding memory of the day was that Meopta, nice ergonomics and sharp, clear, bright optics...

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Good thing there are some 7x choices out there. I bird mostly at 8x, but who knows, with worsening eye sight, I may prefer 7x some day. Or my hand starts to shake. I still need a scope most times, but I prefer that size to be mounted.

Interesting to hear, I have ordered the Zen ed2 7x36 but if I don't like it I will buy Meopta 7x42 or 8x42. Did you find it heavy around the neck? Feel free to post more impressions of it.

michael23 said:

I didnt actually look through the 7x42 meopta, but as I said I did look through the 8's, and agree with your comments, i mentioned that i liked them and was very impressed, i was told they were designed to be exactly like the swarowski, for the price, perfomance and value for money these were certainly rated number 1

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Hi Kristoffer, i didnt think they were too heavy, there were no straps on them so not 100% how they would feel, the body certsinly fitted well in my hands, felt very comfertable. Also the comfort in looking through them was great too,
The binoculars I use are bushnell 8x43 elites, which are great in there own right. But the quality of the meoptas were noticeable over mine. Lovely contrast, sharp and bright image even into the lower light in the shade. I looked at trees which were strongly backlit and noticed no flare, nor did i detect any colour fringing, and the images were just impressive right to the edge of view. I wish i had looked through the swaros now as well, but never mind. The quality just spoke for its self, they are one of the best 8x42 binoculars i have ever looked through.

Sounds very reassuring
Rumours have it that the new Meoptas got a overhaul with new coatings and better ergonomics, Frank D sent his in for service and got a new and improved bin back. I think you looked through the new version. What is the current price for them at the fari?

michael23 said:

Hi Kristoffer, i didnt think they were too heavy, there were no straps on them so not 100% how they would feel, the body certsinly fitted well in my hands, felt very comfertable. Also the comfort in looking through them was great too,
The binoculars I use are bushnell 8x43 elites, which are great in there own right. But the quality of the meoptas were noticeable over mine. Lovely contrast, sharp and bright image even into the lower light in the shade. I looked at trees which were strongly backlit and noticed no flare, nor did i detect any colour fringing, and the images were just impressive right to the edge of view. I wish i had looked through the swaros now as well, but never mind. The quality just spoke for its self, they are one of the best 8x42 binoculars i have ever looked through.

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Im pretty sure they were £699 (gbp), i was told something along these lines, the optics used were same as the swaros technology, or very close to it. They were designed to offer the same quality as the swaros at an affordable price.

Rumours have it that the new Meoptas got a overhaul with new coatings and better ergonomics, Frank D sent his in for service and got a new and improved bin back. I think you looked through the new version.

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Keep in mind that I have not seen anything official regarding an upgraded Meopta Meostar. I can only say that the optical performance of the new unit I received was better than the old one in several areas. That could be quality control or it could several subtle upgrades in coatings or something else over the years. I cannot say.

They did receive accessory upgrades which I am glad to see.