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New Zeiss Victory SF !!!!!! (6 Viewers)
- Thread starter Chosun Juan
- Start date
Chuck
There is only the light-medium grey armour. Some of the pics in the book have reproduced looking a bit dark.
Lee
Pinewood
New York correspondent
Hello Lee,
I am always happy to be informed about new binoculars. The SF certainly excites some BF members. There are some interesting advances incorporated in its design, but I will await something comprehensive from those who get a chance to use one before I take out my credit card.
Happy bird watching,
Arthur :hi:
I am always happy to be informed about new binoculars. The SF certainly excites some BF members. There are some interesting advances incorporated in its design, but I will await something comprehensive from those who get a chance to use one before I take out my credit card.
Happy bird watching,
Arthur :hi:
Yes Arthur
A wise move. I have posted elsewhere that my own findings are provisional pending trying out a genuine production unit, but my goodness, the omens are promising.
Lee
Sandy Leng
Well-known member
The recent Lee bashing is very unfair in my opinion. I for one find his posts very balanced and informative.
I recently bought a new 8x42 HT, and it was posts by Lee and other BF regulars that gave me the info I needed to make my choice.
As others have already said, he is better placed than anyone else to make comments on the SF.
If people don't like the content of the thread, then don't read it. Simple.
Keep em coming Lee :t:
Sandy
I recently bought a new 8x42 HT, and it was posts by Lee and other BF regulars that gave me the info I needed to make my choice.
As others have already said, he is better placed than anyone else to make comments on the SF.
If people don't like the content of the thread, then don't read it. Simple.
Keep em coming Lee :t:
Sandy
HighNorth
Well-known member
Second that! :t:
Robert Wallace
Well-known member
The shambles of the launch of the HT is only matched by the launch of the SF models. I must ask the question, does Zeiss have a marketing department or is "Sports Optics" a cottage industry?
As a retired management trainer I am sure Zeiss could be a wonderful case study.
Having said that might be the same said of Nikon and I thought the Japanese took management theory seriously.
I too am finding this thread tedious, perhaps out of frustration.
As a retired management trainer I am sure Zeiss could be a wonderful case study.
Having said that might be the same said of Nikon and I thought the Japanese took management theory seriously.
I too am finding this thread tedious, perhaps out of frustration.
Robert
What does management theory teach manufacturers about the use of or misuse of internet discussion sites in their marketing of items that become discussed on them--such as here on Bird Forum about Binoculars?
Bob
Robert, imho you hit the nail on the head when you characterized Sports Optics as a cottage industry. The volumes are small, growth is minimal, the technology is routine and the customers are gullible, because they have no way to make reliable comparisons. Firms stay in this market mostly because of historical associations, rationally all production would have shifted to China ten or fifteen years ago. So the future belongs to the Zen Rays and their peers, not our current alphas.
That is not to say that historical association lacks market impact. It is just that the market is too small to allow any rational manager to invest in meaningful innovation and the customers are too conservative to embrace it.
The market failure of the Zeiss Photoscope, a vastly more convenient digiscoping solution than the Rube Goldbergs now prevalent and the slow sales of the Canon image stabilized glasses, which really provided dramatically better viewing, are two very sobering data points. This is a cottage industry, its economics more like those of a performing art than a good business.
NDhunter
Experienced observer
Robert:
It is good to see some others finding this a very long thread. |=o|
I have a degree in Economics, and have had well over 30 years of
experience in sales, and management, now self-employed.
You mention you are a management trainer, and I am wondering how
that relates to being a sales trainer ?
I suppose it is fun to talk about a new binocular, I do have way too many
posts on this thread. Some of us are keeping track.
Jerry
It is hard to call Sport Optics a "cottage industry" when there are large international corporations like Zeiss, Swarovski, Leica and Nikon still involved in it.
If nothing else it keeps their names before the public. Especially with the public which has enough money to budget for recreational and travel activities. Additionally, and unfortunately, making these recreational devices also gives these companies reason to stay active in research for their use in military activities. I don't expect these companies to stop producing top end optics in today's economy.
But even with all this, these companies are not solely in business to develop and sell very expensive recreational optics to a wealthy small minority of the above public community unless they can project reasonable profits from these instruments. This may explain why Canon is reluctant to expand and improve their line of stabilized binoculars. For my part, I only had one occasion to use a Canon 10x42L and I was very impressed with it!
Historically, at a lower level, particularly after World War II, there were enterprising businessmen who saw a developing need for less expensive optics and they responded. As they went in and out of business others came along to fill their shoes and that still continues. Very few of these companies have had the where with all to compete at the highest level by producing "Alpha" sport optics but they do yeoman work in keeping a large part of the general public interested in recreational optics.
Bob
Last edited:
jan van daalen
Well-known member
ET,
Given the fact that the answer to Roberts question is that Zeiss has an marketing department results to the fact that Sport Optics is no cottage industry. Wasn't Bushnell sold this year for $980.000.000,00!!
IMHO the example of the Photoscope is not well choosen. If Zeiss had made the camera modular (take it out and put a new generation in) into the scope it was a different story. The camera development goes so fast that the camera in the Photoscope was "ancient" by the time the scope hit the market.
The new optical technology in the SF is no routine.
The world is filled with big optic fairs where all the brands are present and there are shops everywhere, so customers do have a way to compare.
Trust is earned and historical associations do have a (earned) place in that, but credits from yesterday are forgotten when todays trust is shamed, so the only way to stay on track for these so called alpha's is to keep on exploring the edge technology (with the current SF as an result).
So I wouldn't call it cottage industry.
Jan
bh46118
Well-known member
Being a natural born tightwad, I always thought the 'Alpha' optics were overpriced compared to bins a third their price. After taking the time to actually see one of the best first hand, my mind was immediately changed. There are some overpriced posers out there, but the top Zeiss and Swaro, no way.
dalat
...
Don't know about Nikon, but neither of Zeiss, Leica or Swaro produce special optics for military today.
Didn't someone post an article here a couple of years ago about Swarovski making special Habicht binoculars for the Chinese military? It had pictures and all. I think they did the same thing for some people in Arabia.
And not producing does not necessarily exclude doing research in this area.
jan van daalen
Well-known member
A few years back I was in the US and a company related to Leica made a trinocular (optical, nightvision and thermal in one) for the military.
At the same time a sort of prototype was shown of an device that measures/detects the unique reflection of optics, so every observation through optics in the field is registrated by drones and properly followed up by......
As we have a Defence contact number I can say for sure Swarovski has a military departement.
Zeiss has sold their complete military production facilities including the Hensold name.
Jan
