Originally Posted by kabsetz View Post
....I fully agree that it is regrettable that, for reasons known best to them, people who haven't bought, used, or sometimes even tested certain binocular models seem to feel the need to criticize them over and over again. Personally, as regards Swaro focusing mechanisms, I have tested a lot of them, and have just taken the uneven resistance between close-to-far and far-to-close focusing directions as an unavoidable (which it is, since the mechanism has a spring that compresses in one direction and expands in the other, which takes energy, which comes from your finger) and harmless consequence of the chosen design. A similar spring is used in the Zeiss HT models, but perhaps due to their larger-diameter focusing wheel, there have not been many complaints about it.
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Kimmo
Well, Kimmo can't be talking about me since I've tried three SLCs (each made a decade apart) and two ELs (made almost a decade apart), but what I find regrettable that, for reasons known best to them, [some] people who have bought, used, or sometimes even tested Swarovski binoculars seem to feel the need to say that there are no problems with [any] Swaro focusers over and over again, or in Pily's latest charade (after stating emphatically that every Swaro he's tried had a smooth focuser) that the stiff focusers (WHAT stiff focusers? I thought they all were smooth?) will eventually break in and smooth out.
NOT SO! I've tried two Swaros with coarse focusers that were 7 and 9 years old, respectively, and the owners said, if anything, the focusers had gotten stiffer. And a third sample, made in 2009, that was just harder to turn in one direction never changed, because, as Kimmo and others have pointed out, that issue has to do with the one-way spring design.
Kimmo says that the focusers are harder to turn in one direction, which doesn't bother him, and it doesn't bother some others, but I have been pointing out
more issues than different direction resistance, but also on
gritty/stiff/coarse Swaro focusers, which there have been numerous reports posted about on these forums, most recently with two members who attended the Bird Fair and found this to still be true on the new SLCs despite the other changes to the focuser mechanism!
Whatever is causing these issues, it's certainly not a "harmless consequence" for everyone, nor is this "unavoidable" since Nikon, Zeiss and other sports optics manufacturers manage to make focusers that turn smoothly without a gritty or coarse feeling and w/out harder resistance in one direction.
If it's just a matter of using a larger focuser wheel, as Kimmo suggests, then go to it Absam wizards! Supersize those wheels. It's a cheap fix.
I'm not sure why Swaro engineers chose this focuser design and the original focuser speed, but those characteristics apparently didn't bother hunters, which had been Swaro's target buyers for decades. But then birders started migrating to the brand when the EL was introduced, and birders have different needs than hunters.
So we began hearing complaints from birders about the slow focuser on the original EL (having tried one, I know what they mean). Why the complaints? Because birders need faster focusers to catch flitting birds whereas hunter's targets are much bigger and are observed at a long distance where little focus travel is needed.
So to cater to birders, Swaro made the focusers faster on the ELs.
What I'm saying now is that it's time to fix the other issues with Swaro focusers or at least on some of them -- the lack of consistency is in itself a problem because those who luck out and get a good sample have no clue to what others are talking about. It's the gritty/stiff/coarse and harder to turn in one direction focusers that need to be addressed, because those are not characteristics that most birders look for in any bin, particularly not in an alpha costing around $2K.
Yet many are willing to put up with the subpar focusers to gain the fantastic view, robust build, comfortable ergonomics and best warranty in the business. And let's not forget the prestige factor of owning "the best!" It's a lot to gain, so I can understand why some might overlook the focuser issues, but for $2K, IMO, they should get it all.
To me, this sounds like a reasonable request, just as the request for a faster focuser was reasonable, but as I've learned (and as others have learned), for reasons known best to them, some Swaro fanboys insist, despite these numerous reports of focuser issues by various members on BF and in reviews, that Swaros are infallible. It's like they identify so closely with their bins that they feel any criticism of their favorite brand (not just focusers,"rolling ball," chromatic aberration, cases, etc.) is a criticism of them.
Of course, it does become a criticism of them when they start spouting chauvinistic hyperbole, but it really has nothing at all to do with them, it's simply a call to arms for Swarovski to take these criticisms about the focuser issues as seriously as they did the focuser speed. We know that in the past, Swaro has responded to customer complaints about the focuser speed, but on these other focuser issues, it appears the company would rather deal with the issues when an owner sends his bins in for focuser repairs like Pier did with both of his SV ELs.
Since the company is apparently not interested in changing the focuser design, and because Swaro fanboys are insistent on creating a "cover up," there's really no point in mentioning the focuser issues any longer, it's waste of time.
Case closed. :flyaway:
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