Samolot
Well-known member
Hi all,
Been a while since I posted here. Just wanted to give a shout out to this lovely bin I bought on a whim a few weeks ago. I sold off all my optics to get into photography, and have slowly migrated back. I wanted a <1K high quality piece of glass I can use for any and all situations. I have had a chance to try many nice optics over the years ranging from other Zeiss' (SF 8x42, FL 7x42 BGAT 7x42 Conquest HD 8x32) to Leica (UVHD+ 7x42) to Swaros (EL 8x32, 8.5x42, 10x50 SLC 8x42, 15x56, Habicht 8x30, 10 x40) to Nikons (EII 8x30, M7 8x30 SE 8x32 SE 10x42) and even a Kowa ( Genesis 8.5x44) and Meopta (12x50) gosh even a Vortex (Razor HD 12x50)- unfortunately rarely multiple at the same time so my experiences are fairly anecdotal. Im always on the quest to find a good value optic. With a used LNIB Conquest HD 8x42 recently coming up for sale and a little spare cash at hand, I decided to take a chance.
Off the bat, the quality was evident. I like a solid feel bino with thick rubber armoring (the Kowa and Meopta and Zeiss FL come to mind). This one feels similar with smoother rubber. Its got a nice heft to it and I would feel fairly confident it can take a bump like a champ. One thing that I was morbidly concerned about was the focus wheel. When I tried the Conquest 8x32, I thought it was a very nice bin but I noticed some free play when engaging the focuser. I didn't think this would be a problem, but it slowly ended up annoying me quite a bit. I sent it to Zeiss and they didn't fix it which was upsetting (it was right when they moved their service center to Kentucky from New York so I'll give them a pass). On these 8x42's, the focuser was spot on perfect. Very smooth and FAST. I knew this given my experiences with the 8x32, but after heavy use, I got used to it and really enjoy the fast focuser. I can truly use it with one finger with a heavy leather glove on with no issues and rapidly identify birds. The balance of the 8x42 feels right as well.
Much has been said about the eye cups. I had a set of the extended Zeiss eye cups for the Conquests which I put right on and at least for me, this made the bin very comfortable to use without glasses. After a few weeks of use, the eye cups have become smoother to twist in and out which was a welcome surprise - that or I developed some muscle memory.
In terms of the view - this bin provides quite a bang for the buck. At some point you reach a point of diminishing returns with exponential rises in price and what one observer values based on budget is very subjective. For me I wanted a serviceable binocular at a particular price point and these fit the bill. The view is astonishingly bright, and true to color. Maybe the greens and yellows are a little punctuated but nothing overly yellow/warm like the Meopta, Kowa, Nikon SE. The view is not as sharp as the FL, EL, and Habichts, but what I did notice is a high amount of contrast. Branches on trees seem to pop and glisten. This is lost around the outer 70% but I can live with that. Chromatic Aberration is there in the most challenging conditions but it disappears with proper eye placement and is not existent in less challenging environments. The biggest CA offender in my years of optical adventures was the Vortex, the best was the Kowa and a close runner-up was the Meopta. The SLC 15x56 also performed very very admirably. One thing about these Conquests is the fairly narrow AFOV, I believe around 59 degrees. You do notice the slight tunnel vision view, similar to the SLC 8x42 in my experience, but its not distracting.
Roger Vine recently put out a bunch of reviews of the entire Conquest HD line and I agree with his final statement: "The more I used these 8x42 Conquests, the louder my inner Captain Sensible whispered, ‘these are all the binoculars you need, really’."
The point of this post was not to compare this binocular to all the other ones I tested. Some of my favorite binoculars ever were the EL 8.5x42's, FL 7x42, SLC 15x56 and they were all much better than the Conquest, but for the budget I have at the moment and for any one else looking in this price-range, this is a pretty darn good option. It's also a binocular that rarely gets discussed on this forum other than the ongoing debate regarding its country of manufacture. With the SFL's coming out and the Terra's starting to house ED glass, I feel like there will be little room left for the Conquests which have been in production since 2012 and may soon be discontinued - this is just my own speculation with no evidence to support this. So while they are still around and being produced, I highly recommend them!
Cheers!
Been a while since I posted here. Just wanted to give a shout out to this lovely bin I bought on a whim a few weeks ago. I sold off all my optics to get into photography, and have slowly migrated back. I wanted a <1K high quality piece of glass I can use for any and all situations. I have had a chance to try many nice optics over the years ranging from other Zeiss' (SF 8x42, FL 7x42 BGAT 7x42 Conquest HD 8x32) to Leica (UVHD+ 7x42) to Swaros (EL 8x32, 8.5x42, 10x50 SLC 8x42, 15x56, Habicht 8x30, 10 x40) to Nikons (EII 8x30, M7 8x30 SE 8x32 SE 10x42) and even a Kowa ( Genesis 8.5x44) and Meopta (12x50) gosh even a Vortex (Razor HD 12x50)- unfortunately rarely multiple at the same time so my experiences are fairly anecdotal. Im always on the quest to find a good value optic. With a used LNIB Conquest HD 8x42 recently coming up for sale and a little spare cash at hand, I decided to take a chance.
Off the bat, the quality was evident. I like a solid feel bino with thick rubber armoring (the Kowa and Meopta and Zeiss FL come to mind). This one feels similar with smoother rubber. Its got a nice heft to it and I would feel fairly confident it can take a bump like a champ. One thing that I was morbidly concerned about was the focus wheel. When I tried the Conquest 8x32, I thought it was a very nice bin but I noticed some free play when engaging the focuser. I didn't think this would be a problem, but it slowly ended up annoying me quite a bit. I sent it to Zeiss and they didn't fix it which was upsetting (it was right when they moved their service center to Kentucky from New York so I'll give them a pass). On these 8x42's, the focuser was spot on perfect. Very smooth and FAST. I knew this given my experiences with the 8x32, but after heavy use, I got used to it and really enjoy the fast focuser. I can truly use it with one finger with a heavy leather glove on with no issues and rapidly identify birds. The balance of the 8x42 feels right as well.
Much has been said about the eye cups. I had a set of the extended Zeiss eye cups for the Conquests which I put right on and at least for me, this made the bin very comfortable to use without glasses. After a few weeks of use, the eye cups have become smoother to twist in and out which was a welcome surprise - that or I developed some muscle memory.
In terms of the view - this bin provides quite a bang for the buck. At some point you reach a point of diminishing returns with exponential rises in price and what one observer values based on budget is very subjective. For me I wanted a serviceable binocular at a particular price point and these fit the bill. The view is astonishingly bright, and true to color. Maybe the greens and yellows are a little punctuated but nothing overly yellow/warm like the Meopta, Kowa, Nikon SE. The view is not as sharp as the FL, EL, and Habichts, but what I did notice is a high amount of contrast. Branches on trees seem to pop and glisten. This is lost around the outer 70% but I can live with that. Chromatic Aberration is there in the most challenging conditions but it disappears with proper eye placement and is not existent in less challenging environments. The biggest CA offender in my years of optical adventures was the Vortex, the best was the Kowa and a close runner-up was the Meopta. The SLC 15x56 also performed very very admirably. One thing about these Conquests is the fairly narrow AFOV, I believe around 59 degrees. You do notice the slight tunnel vision view, similar to the SLC 8x42 in my experience, but its not distracting.
Roger Vine recently put out a bunch of reviews of the entire Conquest HD line and I agree with his final statement: "The more I used these 8x42 Conquests, the louder my inner Captain Sensible whispered, ‘these are all the binoculars you need, really’."
The point of this post was not to compare this binocular to all the other ones I tested. Some of my favorite binoculars ever were the EL 8.5x42's, FL 7x42, SLC 15x56 and they were all much better than the Conquest, but for the budget I have at the moment and for any one else looking in this price-range, this is a pretty darn good option. It's also a binocular that rarely gets discussed on this forum other than the ongoing debate regarding its country of manufacture. With the SFL's coming out and the Terra's starting to house ED glass, I feel like there will be little room left for the Conquests which have been in production since 2012 and may soon be discontinued - this is just my own speculation with no evidence to support this. So while they are still around and being produced, I highly recommend them!
Cheers!
