• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Review: Tract Toric 8x42 (1 Viewer)

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=337693

Which links to:

http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=3507301&postcount=517

Which is a single post on pg 21 of currently 44 here:

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=3507301#post3507301

Certainly an existing winning formula would find favour amongst others. Not that I have knowledge of such, yet a broad brush easily paints the possibility if not probability of 'borrowing' the same.

ETA: I'm not sure if the thread is the same as you recall. I merely note the mention of the twain.
 
Last edited:
Nice review, Steve. I enjoyed reading it.

It was on my list to check the FOV of the Tract while I had it but I didn't get around to it. I actually thought the Maven B.1 8X42 had more FOV.

BTW...I had no problems with the Tract while using eyeglasses.
 
Nice review, Steve. I enjoyed reading it.

It was on my list to check the FOV of the Tract while I had it but I didn't get around to it. I actually thought the Maven B.1 8X42 had more FOV.

BTW...I had no problems with the Tract while using eyeglasses.

The Maven B1 does have a little wider fov than the Toric;) Check your B1 and PM me if you still have it.

I had no issues with glasses either, but eye glass wearers on the whole seem favor being able to get closer than 5 mm.
 
Last edited:
A quality balanced review as always Steve, the Toric does look remarkably similar to the new Opticron BGA VHD which also punches well above its price, anyone else suspect they may be the same binocular ?

I see what you mean about the similarity. I have not seen the BGA VHD nor the Verano HD. I did do a review on the double hinge DBA VHD, which I thought was a really nice binocular. That is pretty similar to where these fit optically.
 
Pretty simple actually. I place a white cloth measuring tape across a wall. I then measure off 30 feet from that wall. Place the center of a tripod at the 30' mark. Mount the binocular to the tripod. Focus on the tape and adjust until the tape is centered in the horizontal center of the field. Place the edge of the tape just at the edge of the left side of the view. Read how many inches are visible on the right side. With my Toric I can read 48 and a half inches. Convert that to feet, in this case 4.04' which is at 10 yards. Move the decimal left two places and you have 404' at 1,000 yards.

Don't try to read too much tape. With most binoculars the fov measured like this is within a couple of feet of the specification.


Trying it several times, I could read right at 48", but not more than that. Looks like that would put mine at 400'@1000 yds.
 
A wider than specified real field could be caused by a lower than specified magnification. The only way to eliminate that possibility is to measure the magnification. The AFOV can also be directly measured.
 
Trying it several times, I could read right at 48", but not more than that. Looks like that would put mine at 400'@1000 yds.


That is close enough to what I got. That is only 8' difference and that is likely within normal variation.

I was just happy to see yours wasn't really 377'.
 
A wider than specified real field could be caused by a lower than specified magnification. The only way to eliminate that possibility is to measure the magnification. The AFOV can also be directly measured.

As near as I can measure the actual aperture and the size of the EP, this one is too close to right on 8x to matter.
 
As near as I can measure the actual aperture and the size of the EP, this one is too close to right on 8x to matter.

Steve,

Measuring the EP from the back and the objective lens from the front won't help because the actual clear aperture may be smaller than the diameter of the objective lens. If there is a combination of lower magnification and internally vignetted aperture the EP may look fine.

Nix,

The true magnification (at 30') can be measured with a camera using the same measuring tape that was used to measure the FOV. Photograph the tape with the camera mounted on a tripod so that the lens is 30' from the tape. Now place the binocular on the tripod with its objective lens 30' from the tape. Now photograph the tape through the binocular eyepiece. Download the photos and compare the width difference between the marks on the tape with and without the binocular in front of the camera.

One thing to keep in mind is that both the camera and the binocular will have distortions that cause the magnification to change over the FOV, so use only a small relatively undistorted crop from the center for comparison.

Essentially the same thing can be done visually with a small low magnification telescope (I use a 5x25 finder scope). First measure how much of the tape extends across the field of the scope at 30', then align the scope behind the eyepiece of the binocular placed at 30' and measure how much of the tape now extends across the FOV of the scope.

Henry
 
Henry,
Thank you so much for a simple explanation/example that even I can understand. I suppose if the EP was uniformly vignetted, say in an oval, w/long and short measurements averaged then one could figure close to power.

Even w/perfectly round ep, on 8x40, if they were 0.5mm too large the 8x would become 7.27X. Would appear not a lot of room for error twixt 0.5X-0.75X in a 8x40. Or 8x42/5.25 EP being being 0.35 larger becoming 7.5X42. Besides being perfectly lined up I'd require a loupe and calipers to measure somewhat accurately.

"white cloth measuring tape"

Steve-O,
How many feet back can you read/distinguish the 1/16" marks w/o bins?
 
Steve,

Thank you for your time in performing and writing this review. If any member has any specific questions, always feel free to shoot me a PM or post it on the boards.

Thanks again

Trevor
TRACT Optics
 
"The Tract Teoka needs to be evaluated here too."

I bought the Tekoa a few weeks ago and really really really like it. I would like to know apart from FOV and construction material what the image difference is between the Tekoa and the Toric.

Checkout the OutdoorLife Best Binoculars of 2017 review.

"The handsome granite-gray bino finished near the top of this year’s value standings, our benchmark for Great Buy award recognition."

Score: 76.2

http://www.outdoorlife.com/best-binoculars-2017
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot_20170815-132334.jpg
    Screenshot_20170815-132334.jpg
    63.7 KB · Views: 154
  • Screenshot_20170815-133136.jpg
    Screenshot_20170815-133136.jpg
    58.1 KB · Views: 157
Last edited:
About 200 simoleons ...

But a Simoleon is a medieval wind instrument consisting of 4 pairs of pipes (so 8 pipes in total). You blow down one of a pair and a sympathetic tone half an octave deeper is created in the other pipe. Finger holes on the blown pipe allow an octave and a half to be covered. The 4 blown pipes are set a tone and a half apart allowing you to select a suitable pipe to accompany a vocalist to at what is for them a comfortable pitch.

But what has this got to do with optics apart from the hot air we all blow on Bird Forum from time to time?

Lee
 
The difference in the Tekoa to me is being roughly 2/3 the price of the Tract. Certainly there are other differences though w/o SXS viewing comparison those may prove subtle and hard to appreciate.

The Tract is a steamy tart filled w/creme cheese and fruit du jour.

The Tekoa is a day old doughnut.


Both filling and tasty though the tart is about 200 simoleons more.
 
What's the actual FOV? [and / or mag.?]

Hi James,

While we tend to want to agree with the factory and their "fail safe" testing. We have begun to get independent testing done to verify the FOV and make sure everyone knows what the true measurements are expected to be. I'll update as soon as Ive given the confirmation.

Trevor
TRACT Optics
 
Warning! This thread is more than 6 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top