Compact Binoculars (1 Viewer)

brocknroller said:

...I can't hold compact roofs steady even at 8x, too little weight and too little "real estate" for my hands, and they also give me tunnel vision with their smallish FsOV. I have an 8x23 Nikon Venturer compact porro. Bigger than compact roofs and a bit heavier, but still not as easy and satisfying to use as my 8x30 EII.

I think if I were looking for a compact today, I'd buy a Bushnell 7x26 reverse porro. According to Stephen Ingraham, it beats the alphas (also some good info on the pluses and minuses of compacts):

http://betterviewdesired.com/compact-binoculars-bvd.php

I'm surprised no-one, particularly Dennis, has mentioned the Swaro 8x30 CL - a "compact" bin in a midsized format.

The CL is small and lightweight but not too lightweight to give you the DTs like compacts, and the horseshoe body design allows you to wrap your fingers around the barrels.

...
Brock

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I guess I've never noticed the "DTs" with compacts, at least compared with mid-size binoculars. Once you get maybe 23 ounces or more, the inertia seems to help somewhat. Below that I can't say as I notice much of a difference.

I think the CL would be quite large for a "compact," and not really a substitute for a real compact. Plus, from what I hear Swaro ships it with that darn bloated field case made for the 8x32 EL. My guess is you could put four, in-the-case 8x20 Ultravids inside that. You can put three of them inside the 8x32 FL case. It's a big difference in size.

I also think you can wrap your fingers around something like the 8x20 Ultravid just fine. It feels great to me at any rate. It's definitely the coolest compact going. The design is genius, like something Apple would do.

Used 8x20/10x25 Ultravids pop up on Ebay quite often, generally like new, and often go for under $500. A little patience helps. $582 for a refurb strikes me as pretty high. I got mine new for something like $600 in NYC. Sales tax on top of that of course.

The Sightron does indeed look a little "squinty" but Nixter let us know. For a $100 it looks interesting.

Mark

The Sightron SIII 8x24PC arrived yesterday along w/ SIIBL8x32. Loved the view from the BL. Looking through reminded me of the ZR 7x36 ED2. Some, but not as much pincushion, yet the up & down scan rang a more familiar tune. It's light w/hard plastic barrels and doesn't have the armour of the ZD. Comes w/one piece hard plastic objective lens covers that snaps on the inside of the barrels, better than nothing, and the one piece ocular hard plastic cover/trough just lays on top. Still, for around 200 clams shipped it shows a lot of value and a nice view.

The SIIII 8x24PC is double hinged/closed bridge compact and will collapse and fit in a shirt pocket. Singular ocular covers are a soft plastic and stay on nicely, but the similar objective covers are loose fitting. The twist up ER is a straight tube, not a one piece w/rounded edges, that leaves the rubber spectacle pad w/lens. Maximum eye relief leaves the rubber pad if you bump bifocals and the lens is 2MM below the pad.

The twist up ER adds 5mm and 8mm to the 2mm under the rubber pad. With your sockets up to the tubes there's 10mm of ER and I could back up a couple MM from there w/o losing any fov. The focus turns CW to infinity and it's fairly fast w/about 1 3/8 turn end to end smooth and easy. Barrels are a smooth firm rubber and FOV is 328'.

The diopter adjustment uses a spring loaded detent and ball. Seven setting, plus or minus, on either side of zero and they click in place. You'll not accidently move/bump the setting if you wanted. It's different than freewheeling a stiff adjustment or zeroing in before locking a ring as every move is a click. Still it's a nice touch and a nod to the made in Japan craftsmanship and label above the serial number.

For what it's worth I press the glass against double pane door and set the diopter as it allows a steady bin. I'm looking at limbs and whatnot about 100 yards off. W/both the SII & SIII my settings were almost to the plus sign virtually the same setting even though the SII is CCW to infinity and the SIII is CW.

The pic is nice and flat. Not to the edges, but more so than the SII or the ED2 w/o all the pincushion and the somewhat funky up & down scan movement. There's curvature at the edge and you can peek over there and adjust the focus if you didn't wish to turn your head.

Laying on top of an old camera tripod both SIII and the SII could pull out three moons of Jupiter. The ED2 at 7x could barely pull the third/faintest/washed out by Jupiter moon and of course the Viper at 8.5x50 pulled out the three w/more light and separation.

For around a hundred bucks the SIII 8x24PC, though discontinued in 07, will fold in your pocket provide at least 12mm ER, a nice somewhat narrow view and three moons of Jupiter, w/a rest, for less than it cost Sightron to manufacture. Maybe not the best thing since sliced bread, yet the price is right. Granted a 3MM ep is tight and as others I would prefer a 7x in a compact, but I'm keeping two, so I can have a spare, and giving one as an xmas gift.

It isn't apple to apple as 7x36 w/ED vs. 8x32, but the SIIBL holds it's own in the view category. The extra 1x helps the Sightron and it draws in better colour from farther out to boot. One could conclude that the SIIBL needed the extra power boost to stay w/7x36 ED2 in closer ranges. Still for a 7.5*/420' @ 8x it afforded quite a bit of real estate.

The Bushnell Custom Elite 7x26 came in the following day. Not as much pincushion as the SII, but way too much eye relief. W/cups all the way out I can't come close to approaching my eye sockets. Brighter than the Papilio 6.5x21 though doesn't hold a candle to the SIIBL. It does give up 1x and 6MM. Slow CW focus to infinity. Real nice case that has a zipper and a magnet for quick entry.

If I relax my eyes and pan & scan quickly I get the same sensation as the ED2 and to a lesser extent the SII though not as intense as either. I don't notice that affect w/narrow FOV Viper, 305', or the little SIII, 348',so there must be something. If I actually stay focused on the center it's not noticeable. I'm not hardly seeing any pincushion, however I think part of that is due to the smaller objectives. It is small if not compact and though better picture than the Papilio weighs more.

Compared to the SIII 8x24PC it showed a lot more fov and the reds seemed a bit brighter, but I don't care for the fishbowl view. I'd rather look through the SIII w/more neutral colour even w/3MM ep. Once again, on the Elite, it's not bad if you focus on the center 2/3. If size constraint was an issue and you needed a lot of er then the Elite would seems to be a good fit, but if room is available I'd look to the Sightron SIIBL 8x32.

The first time you see and hold the SIIBL you'll think cheap Chinese because of the slender hard plastic tubes that have no rubber armour. If you have small to medium hands the open bridge/twin hinge is nice to hold and they're light.
And it really needs some aftermarket soft rubber lens covers/rain protectors. That being acknowledged if you will spend your time looking through them, as opposed to looking at them, you might be pleasantly surprised at the view 200 bucks shipped will purchase.

I'm only qualified to give my opinion and it isn't worth much. I'm not familiar w/lot of the terminology and try to explain what I see and how I feel to the best of my limited ability

Even though I saw three moons w/SIII 8x24PC it was early and they were bright w/full moon close by. They didn't resolve Jupiter to a round pinhead, but for an 8x24 compact resting on a tripod I thought they did well. The small ep requires somewhat exacting ip setting, but still a solid bin for it's size.

Even though the 8x24 was discontinued in 2007 the SIII line was and still is the top of the line in Sightron scopes & bins.

ETA:
Four moons available early and all far enough away from Jupiter to prevent being washed out. Extra clear skies and the E2 had no problem picking up all four from the tripod. I could almost hand hold the 8.5x50 vipers and the little SIII 8x24 again had no problem and Jupiter was clearer than last night. However, the Elite, even w/slow focus had problems. It took me quite a while and I adjusted the diopter on the tripod. I finally could see all four, but Jupiter was hard to bring in w/o flare or spike.

Granted, none of these are astronomy bins and even though I had problems rendering Jupiter clean along w/four moons using the Elite it showed a bright pic during the day.

I wish to revise after stepping outside fresh and looking only w/right eye. A slight pincushion in the SII and the Custom Elite E2 had just a bit more that was somewhat compounded by the fish-eye effect if you were looking at long distance.

It's possible in looking through all of them earlier that I had tired eyes or I was tired as I was looking through a bunch of bins. Probably what I see as fisheye is the E2 trying to cram as much view as possible in the small 26MM objective. This was noticeable much more in a cluttered/woods/foliage view at distance and when looking at birds in the backyard I didn't notice the curvature.

I'm trying to be fair and objective as to what I see through these binoculars.

CliveP said:

I went for 8x56 Hawke Pro-Stalk ED. (attach smiley here)

They are pretty compact for a 56mm.

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Yep - they are compact like holding two pieces of cut off drain pipe up to your face :smoke:

I've just got a pair of 10x and they are certainly glorious to look through though - put my weights on Ebay.

Chris Oates said:

Yep - they are compact like holding two pieces of cut off drain pipe up to your face :smoke:

I've just got a pair of 10x and they are certainly glorious to look through though - put my weights on Ebay.

Click to expand...

Chris:

Do you mean cast-iron drain pipe? How about how the view, tell us,
over in the US they are not available, what do they weigh?
Grams, I need a calculator, usually oz. is good, but I suppose you will need
lbs. and oz. in this case.

Thanks, Jerry

NDhunter said:

Chris:

Do you mean cast-iron drain pipe? How about how the view, tell us,
over in the US they are not available, what do they weigh?
Grams, I need a calculator, usually oz. is good, but I suppose you will need
lbs. and oz. in this case.

Thanks, Jerry

Click to expand...

Yep - cast iron.
The view is excellent for a 10x bin the image circle is huge and not distorted - I use them for sea watching and like a wide angle to scan a large area - I was expecting some tunnel vision but not so.

They weigh 1.1 kilos - if I tell you what they weigh in pounds & ounces I'll be shot by the European Police.

(2.42 lb or 38oz)

Send flowers to funeral please.

Chris Oates said:

Yep - cast iron.
The view is excellent for a 10x bin the image circle is huge and not distorted - I use them for sea watching and like a wide angle to scan a large area - I was expecting some tunnel vision but not so.

They weigh 1.1 kilos - if I tell you what they weigh in pounds & ounces I'll be shot by the European Police.

(2.42 lb or 38oz)

Send flowers to funeral please.

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Chris:

Thanks for the reply, that is not heavy by many standards with the big
10's. Your conversion is helpful, and don't worry, I will not turn you in.

I do know a large objective 10x50-56 type is very much to be enjoyed.
The large open view, is not available in the smaller types. Good to hear
you like these.

Jerry

Yes! And if someone complains that these are off the topic of this thread, they are compact too----compared to these 10 x 50's! I note it is the last one and is discounted. Maybe I should post this in the binocular bargains thread?

http://www.bigbinoculars.com/markiii.htm

Bob

ceasar said:

Yes! And if someone complains that these are off the topic of this thread, they are compact too----compared to these 10 x 50's! I note it is the last one and is discounted. Maybe I should post this in the binocular bargains thread?

http://www.bigbinoculars.com/markiii.htm

Bob

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Wow only 105lbs, must be the L version. A great hiking bin.
Ger.

Nixterdemus said:

...

The first time you see and hold the SIIBL you'll think cheap Chinese because of the slender hard plastic tubes that have no rubber armour. If you have small to medium hands the open bridge/twin hinge is nice to hold and they're light.
And it really needs some aftermarket soft rubber lens covers/rain protectors. That being acknowledged if you will spend your time looking through them, as opposed to looking at them, you might be pleasantly surprised at the view 200 bucks shipped will purchase.

I'm only qualified to give my opinion and it isn't worth much. I'm not familiar w/lot of the terminology and try to explain what I see and how I feel to the best of my limited ability

Click to expand...

This rings true for me as well. Thanks for the review and info. The SIII seems interesting.

I have been practicing lately holding my 38 oz 8x56's one handed and am getting pretty good at it.

Flowers, funerals, back pain, chiropracters - what was Popeye's buddies name?

"The first time you see and hold the SIIBL you'll think cheap Chinese because of the slender hard plastic tubes that have no rubber armour."

I need to revise this statement. The Sightron SIIBL 8X32 does have rubber armour just not a lot as some others and due to the light covering they give somewhat of a resemblance to hard plastic tubes. The coating isn't sticky or particularly soft, but smooth to the touch.

My apologizes for my mistake. They are slender and though not hard plastic they are firm w/probably somewhere in the vicinity of 2MM of rubber coating.