SHOT SHOW 2009 News (1 Viewer)

I just came back from SHOT SHOW 2009 in Orlando, Florida. Here are some very quick observations:

Leica: Nothing new in terms of binoculars. They had a few samples of their new Televid 82 spoting scopes on display. I observed that the focus did not change (as happens in other brands) when the zoom was changed on the eyepeice. That's cool! They had a new line of riflescoope comming and they announced a new attachment to their rangefinding binoculars that would allow two parties to talk with each other using these laser-equiped binoculars. Ofcourse, it only works with direct line of sight.

Zeiss: No new binoculars. They had a prototype of a spotting scope which had a digital camera integrated in it. A few new models of riflescopes including one with long eyerelief for handguns.

Swarovski: A khaki-brown colored 8x32 EL. A couple of new riflescopes. Nothing else.

Nikon: Nikon EDG spoting scopes were cool. They come with a zoom eyepeice (not that good) and two new fixed power (20x and 30x I think) eyepieces. One of these eyepieces had a very large concave lense at the end. Very intersting thing! The EDG binoculars were cool too. I loved the 7x42 and 8x32 EDG models.

That's all for now

So that's the Big Four out of the way did you try any of the other new lesser bins?

Did you see the Nikon Premier (re)introduction? Any details?

I had no idea that Nikon was coming out with EDG spotting scopes. I recently made the comment that I did not understand how they could get away with selling excellent ED scopes for $1300 while their binoculars were costing closer to $2000. I am guessing these new EDG scopes will be closer to $3000 than $2000....

...should have kept my mouth shut.

Kevin Purcell said:

So that's the Big Four out of the way did you try any of the other new lesser bins?

Did you see the Nikon Premier (re)introduction? Any details?

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Yes, I looked at Kowa, Fujinon, Leupold, Docter, Meopta, Minox, Bushnell, Brunton and Optolyte products as well.

Bushnel elite's were great, very light and compact compared to other premium binos. Kowa had good quality binoculars too. Docter had a cool 8x58 model which looked pretty interesting, especially for hunting and low light viewing. This would be in the same league as Optolyt's new 8x56 roof which was also interesting.

I too heard from Nikon representatives that they will have the Premier series back. I am not sure if these are the LX (HG in Canada) or the LXL version. They are simply refered to as Premier in the 2009 catalog. Based on the weight information quoted in the catalog, I think they are the LXL model. Now, the quation is why on earth they are doing this?

Omid said:

Bushnel elite's were great, very light and compact compared to other premium binos.

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Is that the current model (which was only bumped mid last year) or do they have another upgrade (ED glass?).

Omid said:

I too heard from Nikon representatives that they will have the Premier series back. I am not sure if these are the LX (HG in Canada) or the LXL version. They are simply refered to as Premier in the 2009 catalog. Based on the weight information quoted in the catalog, I think they are the LXL model. Now, the quation is why on earth they are doing this?

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Exactly. That's why I asked!

Obviously they didn't make that clear at the show

For quite some time, Camera Land has listed the Nikon LX L's, E II's and SE's as the "PREMIER" line in their listing of Nikon binoculars.
Bob

ceasar said:

For quite some time, Camera Land has listed the Nikon LX L's, E II's and SE's as the "PREMIER" line in their listing of Nikon binoculars.
Bob

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Then they introduced the EDG.

And apparently they now have to reintroduce the Premier line which is why a lot of us are confused!

Of course their global web site (well, one of their many web sites ... I have that problem before playing "hunt the warranty statement") does have non-current bins across most of the world though I suspect they may still be current product in Japan though one might think they would be reading the Japanese Nikon site rather than tempting the rest of us with unavailible product

http://www.nikon.co.jp/
http://www.ave.nikon.co.jp/bi_j/products/binoculars/bird.htm

Or they could just be slow in cleaning up the site.

All I can say is that I look forward to seeing what, if any, improvements they did with the Premier line. If nothing else they represented an exceptional value versus the performance they provide. That is something that is harder and harder to come by when you consider the astronomical prices of the Alphas these days.