In my search for my first decent pair of bins I narrowed it down and ordered these two for comparison. I had all weekend to play with them and feel I've spent enough time behind the glass of each to have some solid initial impressions.
Picked up the Sightrons for $161 and the Oregons for $121 from Optics Planet. Optically they are so dam close to each other. I spent time in early morning light, sunset, dusk, sunny day, cloudy day, looking into shadows, star/moon gazing, looking at things in close range, medium range, and horizon and 98-99% of the time I found the views to be identical.
Color was to my eyes nearly the same. Once in a while I thought there may be a slight difference, especially in the way yellows were portrayed, but as I looked and re-looked I decided they were close enough to call the same.
Sharpness/resolution - not sure if this is the same thing but for my beginners eye I will consider them the same. Again, so close I ended up declaring them identical. This resolution aspect I spent a lot of time studying. A dozen different times I found a sign that was just barely within reach of these bins and tried to read the sign. Several times I was ready to give the Oregons the tiniest nod in clarity but it was just so close that at the end of it all I declared a tie.
Contrast is the one area where there was a noticeably small difference with the Sightrons having slightly more contrast. Assuming this is due to the phase coating. In bright light I couldn't tell a difference but in lower light situations the increased contrast became noticeable, although just slightly so. The Sightrons almost gave the impression of a slightly brighter image in low light although I don't think that was the case, I believe it was the contrast giving the impression of increased brightness. Again we're talking about a 2-3% difference here, very small.
Brightness was the same until the low light situations and then the Sightrons appeared to have a small edge. Like I said maybe it was just better contrast but bottom line is that I slightly preferred the Sightrons in the low light situations.
When I turned the bins skyward to look at the night sky they were both able to resolve the moon craters as well as the moons of Jupiter equally well.
Now, the one definite optical difference I did encounter was possibly an eye relief issue with the Oregons. It seemed about 10-15% of the time I would put them to my eyes and found dark artifacting in the field of view. Sometimes to the point I would pull them away to make sure a lens cover wasn't on. This never once happened with the Sightrons. Not sure if it's a function of the shorter barrels with the Oregons or something else entirely but it was a little annoying.
I had these bins out in cold weather all weekend (single digits) and found the focusing knobs to both be adequate. They were both very smooth while indoors. The biggest gripe I have with the Sightrons is the crappy carrying case they threw in. It's cheap and doesn't even have an option for straps to carry it over your shoulder.. too bad.
On my scale the Sightrons came in at 17.0 oz and the Oregons at 18.2 oz. Not a big difference but it felt bigger then the numbers suggest. I have little doubt that if you handed both these bins to 20 people all 20 would declare the Sightrons lighter. They may feel lighter than they're weight because they are so well balanced in the hand.
I'm pretty sure I've decided to keep the sightrons for two reasons. One, I do enjoy the higher contrast views in less than ideal light, and two I did not care for the eye relief or whatever it was issue with the Oregons that caused the artifacting. I'll just have to find myself a decent case for the Sightrons.
Originally when I started looking for bins I thought I wanted an 8x25. More than one person on this forum chimed in and advised against that if it was to be my only pair of bins. I took that advice but now those 8x25's remain an itch that needs to be scratched so in a couple months I plan on picking up a pair of Hawke Sapphire ED 8x25's. Anxious to see how they compare in a head to head with the Sightrons
Picked up the Sightrons for $161 and the Oregons for $121 from Optics Planet. Optically they are so dam close to each other. I spent time in early morning light, sunset, dusk, sunny day, cloudy day, looking into shadows, star/moon gazing, looking at things in close range, medium range, and horizon and 98-99% of the time I found the views to be identical.
Color was to my eyes nearly the same. Once in a while I thought there may be a slight difference, especially in the way yellows were portrayed, but as I looked and re-looked I decided they were close enough to call the same.
Sharpness/resolution - not sure if this is the same thing but for my beginners eye I will consider them the same. Again, so close I ended up declaring them identical. This resolution aspect I spent a lot of time studying. A dozen different times I found a sign that was just barely within reach of these bins and tried to read the sign. Several times I was ready to give the Oregons the tiniest nod in clarity but it was just so close that at the end of it all I declared a tie.
Contrast is the one area where there was a noticeably small difference with the Sightrons having slightly more contrast. Assuming this is due to the phase coating. In bright light I couldn't tell a difference but in lower light situations the increased contrast became noticeable, although just slightly so. The Sightrons almost gave the impression of a slightly brighter image in low light although I don't think that was the case, I believe it was the contrast giving the impression of increased brightness. Again we're talking about a 2-3% difference here, very small.
Brightness was the same until the low light situations and then the Sightrons appeared to have a small edge. Like I said maybe it was just better contrast but bottom line is that I slightly preferred the Sightrons in the low light situations.
When I turned the bins skyward to look at the night sky they were both able to resolve the moon craters as well as the moons of Jupiter equally well.
Now, the one definite optical difference I did encounter was possibly an eye relief issue with the Oregons. It seemed about 10-15% of the time I would put them to my eyes and found dark artifacting in the field of view. Sometimes to the point I would pull them away to make sure a lens cover wasn't on. This never once happened with the Sightrons. Not sure if it's a function of the shorter barrels with the Oregons or something else entirely but it was a little annoying.
I had these bins out in cold weather all weekend (single digits) and found the focusing knobs to both be adequate. They were both very smooth while indoors. The biggest gripe I have with the Sightrons is the crappy carrying case they threw in. It's cheap and doesn't even have an option for straps to carry it over your shoulder.. too bad.
On my scale the Sightrons came in at 17.0 oz and the Oregons at 18.2 oz. Not a big difference but it felt bigger then the numbers suggest. I have little doubt that if you handed both these bins to 20 people all 20 would declare the Sightrons lighter. They may feel lighter than they're weight because they are so well balanced in the hand.
I'm pretty sure I've decided to keep the sightrons for two reasons. One, I do enjoy the higher contrast views in less than ideal light, and two I did not care for the eye relief or whatever it was issue with the Oregons that caused the artifacting. I'll just have to find myself a decent case for the Sightrons.
Originally when I started looking for bins I thought I wanted an 8x25. More than one person on this forum chimed in and advised against that if it was to be my only pair of bins. I took that advice but now those 8x25's remain an itch that needs to be scratched so in a couple months I plan on picking up a pair of Hawke Sapphire ED 8x25's. Anxious to see how they compare in a head to head with the Sightrons
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