Victory B 56mm models - any users (1 Viewer)

Victory B 8x56 10x56 12x56

Anyone used these (8x56 / 10x56 /12x56) ? I'm thinking of changing my 7x50's for the 8x56. I don't mind the weight as they'd be mainly used for low-light birding and astronomy.

The only review I can find is this one which seems pretty positive:
http://www.optics4birding.com/RevZeiss8x56Victory.aspx


Thanks
John

Here we go: The Victory 8x56 was the first high class binocular that i bought, at the onset of my addiction. They are gone now.
Briefly:
Focus is smooth and quick, but the focuser is in a somewhat awkward position and it takes time to get used to.
Weight: you don't want to know.
Handling: actually not bad, well balanced
Optics: clear yellowish golden tint and color fringing reminiscent of the Classic C.
70-75% of the field of view is nice, but the edges degrade rapidly in some distortion.
I see absolutely no reason to buy one of these again. There are better binoculars for astronomy, and at sunrise and sunset all you need is an exit pupil of 3-3.5 mm to watch birds. To put it bluntly, it's a too expensive toy for what it gives in exchange. The image quality was not much better than today's Zeiss Conquest.

Hi Luca,
I wonder if you had the original Victory ? It seems that the Victory line was revised after the initial introduction. According to this article by Stephen Ingraham the revised line-up was significantly better:
http://www.betterviewdesired.com/zeiss/Victory.html
Does this sound likely ?
Thanks
John

solentbirder said:

Hi Luca,
I wonder if you had the original Victory ? It seems that the Victory line was revised after the initial introduction. According to this article by Stephen Ingraham the revised line-up was significantly better:
http://www.betterviewdesired.com/zeiss/Victory.html
Does this sound likely ?
Thanks
John

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Yes, i think mine were Victory I, they were quite new on the market, i can't remember the year.

Luca said:

Yes, i think mine were Victory I, they were quite new on the market, i can't remember the year.

Click to expand...

Sounds like these are the old Victories to me and NOT the new version with the Advanced Optical System.
Steve.

Steve Napier said:

Sounds like these are the old Victories to me and NOT the new version with the Advanced Optical System.
Steve.

Click to expand...

Actually, the large aperture Victories were a totally different animal from the 40 mm versions (8 x 40 and 10 x 40), and were essentially somewhat lighter (if you can believe it) versions of the predecessdor Night Owl series. All Victories were Abbe Koenig prism glasses with super apochromat objectives, and thinner and lighter lens elements (i.e., the Advanced Optical System). The Victory II in the 40mm series had revised strap lugs and supposedly improved baffling,although I could never detect a noticeable optical difference between the two versions. For some reason, the 10 x 40s in both I and II versions were less well regarded than the 8s. As has been said so many times before, try the binocular before buying. This is especially true of 50mm objectives, which can take some getting used to in order to achieve true potential.