Please remember that all that follows is based on only one sample of each bino and what my eyes see. I suspect that our eyes have a greater effect on why we like a particular bino more than the differences between the binos themselves. Take my opinions with a grain of salt.
I was able to get a pair of demo Zeiss FL's for $1299. Most of my findings were very positvie. I was looking for something a little sharper to replace my 8x30 Swarovski CL's. The Zeiss almost did it.
The bad. I just could not get the diopter to work. The right barrel was never in focus no matter how many times I reset it. I am sure the diopter adjustment was pulled out all the way. I would alway focus the left barrel, pull out the diopter adjustment, and then focus the right barrel. It always looked good, but the minute I would refocus on an object one barrel was never in focus. I finally looked through the left barrel while adjusting the diopter and saw that it was changing the focus there. It seems that the diopter never quite fully disengaged from the overall focus. I have not had this issue with other Zeiss binos in the store or any of the binos I have at home.
The good. Aside from this glitch, everything else was great! The balance for me was better than the CL's. The CL's are a little front heavy compared to the FL's. The Zeiss also fit my hands better. The binos were sharper than the CL's (when I looked through only one barrel at a time!). I may have liked the color a bit better in the CL's. I thought the Zeiss was a cooler color/blue tint vs the warmer/red tint to the CL's. I do believe the Zeiss did a little better pulling in detail in the shade. The FOV was better in the Zeiss, but was not as big a factor as I would have thought based on specs. I thought the Zeiss was sharper further out in the FOV. Close in focus was much better in the Zeiss. In short, no surprises based on what I have read.
I may have been able to send them to Zeiss for an overhaul and I thought about it. In the end, I was just not sure what kind of abuse they may have been through and decided to send them back.
I guess the CL's will work for my all weather compact binos for now. Besides, I have the Nikon SE 8x32 when I want sharp binos.
Mike
I was able to get a pair of demo Zeiss FL's for $1299. Most of my findings were very positvie. I was looking for something a little sharper to replace my 8x30 Swarovski CL's. The Zeiss almost did it.
The bad. I just could not get the diopter to work. The right barrel was never in focus no matter how many times I reset it. I am sure the diopter adjustment was pulled out all the way. I would alway focus the left barrel, pull out the diopter adjustment, and then focus the right barrel. It always looked good, but the minute I would refocus on an object one barrel was never in focus. I finally looked through the left barrel while adjusting the diopter and saw that it was changing the focus there. It seems that the diopter never quite fully disengaged from the overall focus. I have not had this issue with other Zeiss binos in the store or any of the binos I have at home.
The good. Aside from this glitch, everything else was great! The balance for me was better than the CL's. The CL's are a little front heavy compared to the FL's. The Zeiss also fit my hands better. The binos were sharper than the CL's (when I looked through only one barrel at a time!). I may have liked the color a bit better in the CL's. I thought the Zeiss was a cooler color/blue tint vs the warmer/red tint to the CL's. I do believe the Zeiss did a little better pulling in detail in the shade. The FOV was better in the Zeiss, but was not as big a factor as I would have thought based on specs. I thought the Zeiss was sharper further out in the FOV. Close in focus was much better in the Zeiss. In short, no surprises based on what I have read.
I may have been able to send them to Zeiss for an overhaul and I thought about it. In the end, I was just not sure what kind of abuse they may have been through and decided to send them back.
I guess the CL's will work for my all weather compact binos for now. Besides, I have the Nikon SE 8x32 when I want sharp binos.
Mike
