What if you like the SFL 8x40 but don't have the budget for it? (1 Viewer)

[Conndomat]

I think that might be because there is just in general much less hunters in Germany (it's a profession and not a hobby here),

I think you are completely misinformed...

Jagd in Deutschland – Wikipedia

de.wikipedia.org

"Under the designation Revierjäger (RJ) and the associated master title Revierjägermeister (RJM), there is a state-recognized training occupation for professional hunters under the Vocational Training Act. The number of district hunters and district hunting masters is around one thousand in Germany. There are also several thousand foresters, especially in the group of forest district managers, who are functionally active as professional hunters and hunt as part of their duty.

Professional hunters find employment primarily in hunting and forestry operations, such as the state forestry operations of the federal states and large private landowners, as well as in protected areas (sometimes under the designation game wardens). There they plan the hunting operation, observe the existing game stocks, take care of the necessary kills, take targeted measures for game and game protection, promote rare or desired game and reduce harmful or unwanted game within the scope of conservation, organize group hunts, accompany hunting guests and use any game ."

Most hunters do it as a hobby in Germany, there are around 400,000 hunters in Germany, only around 5,000 are professional hunters.
The vast majority of hobby hunters tend to have money, not a hobby for poor people, hardly anyone has to make a living from hunting, good equipment is paid for out of petty cash.

Andreas

 

[dae33]

To answer your question: Buy a Zeiss Conquest 8x32 or x42 HD.

Has anyone tried to screw SFL eyecups into Conquest HD?
SFL's are much better and useful, could give a nice combo with Conquest.

 

[Binocollector]

@Conndomat
Hm, completely misinformed? You might be right about hobby vs professional but there are still 9 times as many people holding a hunting license in the US per capita compared to Germany. And in absolute numbers it's 38 times as many. 15.2 million vs 400,000. But you get a "Fleißpunkt" for quoting wiki on me . I don't instantly google everything, so thanks for clearing that up.

 

[Conndomat]

But you get a "Fleißpunkt" for quoting wiki on me . I don't instantly google everything, so thanks for clearing that up.

but please...a "Fleißpunkt" don `t need it, it is too obvious that your contribution is a hair's breadth off the mark on some points.

Andreas

 

[Megaloblatta]

I have been using a Maven C1 10x42 for four years - mainly on wildlife-related trips I lead to S.E. Asia. I have found it to be excellent in terms of optical quality, build quality and weight. I really hate having heavy binoculars around my neck on hot, humid rainforest treks, especially because I am laden down with other heavy stuff - SLR camera, lenses, small tripod and water! Recently I decided to upgrade to the B1.2 10x42, since it has a magnesium frame, a wider FoV, and hopefully is even better optically. Also, it doesn't weigh that much more than the C1. I wanted the black & grey version, since the usual one has a lot of orange on it. Birds (e.g. the Birds of Paradise we go to see on my trips) are very sensitive to the red end of the spectrum, so I didn't want to risk scaring them (deer cannot see the red end of the spectrum, so hunters of them should be OK). I tried to buy a B1.2 from the Maven distributor in the UK, but he said they were out of stock and that he wasn't planning to get stock of the black & grey model anyway. I then tried the distributor in Europe and they said it would take 8 weeks to ship one, but I didn't want to risk this as I wanted the binoculars for a trip to Indonesia in the second half of January next year. I then tried the distributor in Australia, but he said he was only allowed to sell in Australia and New Zealand. So, finally, I tried Maven USA, knowing the import duties, postage etc would probably be very expensive, especially given the low GBP to USD exchange rate at the moment. They said that they would have a batch of the black & grey version in early December, so I would probably receive it before my trip. However, the postage to the UK was $110 and the cost of importing it (20% VAT and 4.2% duty) would be $287 - bringing the total cost to $1397 US, or £1217 GBP. This was far too high a cost, so I started to see what other binoculars I could get instead. After days of research I ordered a pair of 10x42 Leica Trinovid HD. When I got them I carefully compared them with my C1s under extreme lighting conditions and could see no difference optically, apart from a slightly larger FoV and nasty chromatic aberration in the Leica around objects against the sky near the sun (the C1s did not exhibit this). The CA was a deal breaker, so I decided to return the Trinovids and continue my research.. I then 'discovered' the Zeiss 10x40 SFL, which at 60g lighter than my already lightweight C1s, sounds like exactly what I have been looking for. It has a magnesium frame, a larger FoV, and hopefully it is optically at least slightly better than the C1s. Although its cost is around £300 more than I could get the B1.2s for, the lower weight outweighs (!) the cost for me. All other binoculars I considered which cost between £1000 and $2000 have greater weight than the C1s. I am now planning to order the SFls and I hope I won't be disappointed...