Gijs,
That was a pretty fabulous list of Wow-factor binoculars you had up there. Have you really looked through all of them? Anyway, it brought back to me memories of my very first binocular, the Russian 8x30 porro, a predecessor to the Tento. It did have the wow-factor, as my specimen was perfectly collimated and very sharp at the center. Unfortunately, brightness and contrast were not that stellar, and the color cast was very yellow. But, it served me well for several years.
The next wow-binocular that I owned was (though I still have it) at Zeiss Jena Jenoptem 10x50, which has such good center resolution that when my Nikon SE 10x42 arrived, it failed to wow me. Of course, the SE was and is better in most other respects, but the Jenoptem's superb resolution and wide FOV had spoiled me, and I could never become quite as enamored of the SE as I perhaps should have.
Other WOW factor binoculars for me:
- Canon 10x42 IS L - still the one I prefer for hand-held image quality and the one I happily come back to from all the superb binoculars I test.
- Canon 15x50 IS - showed me what IS can do and served me beautifully for many years.
- All the Swarovski SV:s I have tried. - If I would use binoculars with a tripod, one of these would be my choice. If I had the funds to own binoculars just for the pleasure of owning them, I would get an 8x32 SV for the odd times I would not want to take the 10x42 Canon out with me.
- 8x42 Swarovski SLC HD - just about as good as the SV:s. But since I don't suffer from the dreaded Rolling Brock effect (thanks, Gijs, for this new term), I prefer the SV:s that keep the corners clean.
And finally two from the olden days (for me) that were wow but would not necessarily be so anymore:
- Leica 8x32 Trinovid when it was new - amazing quality for its time for that size of binocular.
- Zeiss 15x60 CF T* - would have bought this but the price was out of my reach.
- Kimmo
That was a pretty fabulous list of Wow-factor binoculars you had up there. Have you really looked through all of them? Anyway, it brought back to me memories of my very first binocular, the Russian 8x30 porro, a predecessor to the Tento. It did have the wow-factor, as my specimen was perfectly collimated and very sharp at the center. Unfortunately, brightness and contrast were not that stellar, and the color cast was very yellow. But, it served me well for several years.
The next wow-binocular that I owned was (though I still have it) at Zeiss Jena Jenoptem 10x50, which has such good center resolution that when my Nikon SE 10x42 arrived, it failed to wow me. Of course, the SE was and is better in most other respects, but the Jenoptem's superb resolution and wide FOV had spoiled me, and I could never become quite as enamored of the SE as I perhaps should have.
Other WOW factor binoculars for me:
- Canon 10x42 IS L - still the one I prefer for hand-held image quality and the one I happily come back to from all the superb binoculars I test.
- Canon 15x50 IS - showed me what IS can do and served me beautifully for many years.
- All the Swarovski SV:s I have tried. - If I would use binoculars with a tripod, one of these would be my choice. If I had the funds to own binoculars just for the pleasure of owning them, I would get an 8x32 SV for the odd times I would not want to take the 10x42 Canon out with me.
- 8x42 Swarovski SLC HD - just about as good as the SV:s. But since I don't suffer from the dreaded Rolling Brock effect (thanks, Gijs, for this new term), I prefer the SV:s that keep the corners clean.
And finally two from the olden days (for me) that were wow but would not necessarily be so anymore:
- Leica 8x32 Trinovid when it was new - amazing quality for its time for that size of binocular.
- Zeiss 15x60 CF T* - would have bought this but the price was out of my reach.
- Kimmo
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