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What's your favourite bins of all time..... and why? (3 Viewers)

Alexis Powell said:
What? How can you say this?

I like the Swift Audubon but it is not sharp to the edges,

--AP
Click to expand...

That comment caught my eye. I think individual accommodation ability may have something to do with it. I was using my Swift 766 (worked on by Richard B. of this parish to increase focus beyond infinity) yesterday and although I very much doubt its edge performance is at all comparable to many modern binoculars, when I rolled my eyes around that expansive field of view, I found it was acceptably sharp to about 75 to 80% from the center. But that was most probably due to eye accommodation on my part. A different observer might well see things differently.

Incidentally, I found that the sweet spot/area of sharpness seemed larger when viewing with both eyes - close one eye and the sweet spot quite visibly decreased in size. Also, for some binoculars (eg. Leitz Binuxit) I do notice edge sharpness falling off quite quickly; my ability to accommodate doesn't seem to be able to compensate in these cases. I also seem to find, when viewing with glasses, my ability to accommodate seems somewhat less than when viewing without. Your experiences may well differ.
 
Ok. I'm ready to commit.

It's the opticron srga 8x32.

I can't get on with roof prism x30/32's. They just feel too small for my hands. Big heavy binoculars are great, my SLC 8x56's are amazing and if they fitted into an '32 porro body id be for them all day long but they don't, is the image worth the size and weight, yes probably but what do I always want to have with me, it's the srga's all day long. I don't carry them most often as when the light isn't great the slc's trounce them.

I haven't got any affection for Schmidt pechan's of any flavour, they just don't seem to work for me and always seem a bit less sparkly, a great tool no doubt - just lacking a little magic for my eyes. So why not the eii or habicht? We'll I'd be worried about water/fog/fungus here in the UK for the price of the eii and I've done habichts, I can tolerate the smooth but heavy focus on the 7x42's due to there depth of field but can't in a 8 or a 10 so they srga's it is. Yes they have a stupidly fast focuser, yes the diopter moves of its own accord especially in warm weather and yes they aren't much cop in the rain or in dim light but they are the ones I always want to pick up and for a £200 I can't fault them.
 
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FWIW I am totally in the thrall of my new 10x56 SLC as well. Being an astronomer I love aperture, I don't want to carry the beastly weight of the 56mm SLC around on hikes, but when I do it's clear it crushes all other birding binoculars easily!

Even with the stiff focuser and annoying thumb undercuts I think it's still my favorite bino of all time, taking that title from my old 8x56 Dialyts which I foolishly sold when I needed money. I've settled into using an 8x42 most of the time for birding on walks & tours, while the 10x56 SLC ride along in the car for use around the shore & salt marshes or any other long-distance situation where I'm parking the car nearby.

For astronomy the SLC are sublime, the flatness of field, color correction, and lack of glare or flaring is astonishing for a 56mm bino. The only thing that differentiates these from the most expensive binos is marketing IMO. For me they have the best optics. The price is lower than the Zeiss 10x54's and the Leica 10x50's and they easily exceed the performance of those two binos.
 
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Scott98 said:
Even with the stiff focuser and annoying thumb undercuts...
Click to expand...
SLC 56s are hard to beat. As to the indentations, much as I generally hate coercive ergonomics, have you tried aligning with them? Let the palm/heel support the bin and bring the elbows more underneath, and the hold is stable enough for me to enjoy even 15x. (Focusing is a bit slow for birding, but can work.)
 
I love carping about feature bloat, but the undercuts on the 56mm SLC are actually not that bad. My observing position seems to be holding them much lower on the barrels, closer to the objectives, so my hands aren't near the undercuts. And when I need to re-focus, I can quickly move my hand back and when my thumb hits the groove, it's in the right place to focus. I'd still get rid of them if I could, but it's no big deal.

and honestly for astronomy, they're usually focused from the last session when I take them out of the case, so I don't even use the focuser.
 
kabsetz said:
For me, the worst image artefact by far is image shake. The tiny annoyances remaining in the 10x42 pale by comparison with the artefact of not seeing a steady image and not being able to discern the detail in it. This latter artefact is abundantly present in all other alpha binoculars unless supported by a tripod, a rock, a sandbag or such.

- Kimmo
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I find a walking pole with an appropriately shaped handle makes a very good monopod that enables me to get a completely stable view with a 10x at least, and probably also higher powers. I usually take one with me anyway when in the countryside so it's for free.

M
 
Nikon WX 10x50.
They are approx. 4000 euro in Japan, which isn't much more some offerings of the 'alpha' brands that are close to 3000 euro.
But unfortunately, it's not very useable for daily nature watching (my main use).
 
Zeiss FL 8x32.

Super sharp. No chromatic aberrations. Wide field of view. Almost flat field. Great focuser. Enough eye relief to use with sunglasses. Very bright. Small, light, superbly robust. Very practical objective and lens caps. Good bag.

Now, I have more than one pair, and Leica UV 8x42 or 7x42 give me more contrast and better eye relief, at the price of higher weight and a more curved field... and every binocular has its occasion. But if I had to have only one pair, that would be it.
 
Mikbul said:
My hard to beat Swift Audubon HR5!
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Whoops, why? 8.5 X 44- 8.3 degree FOV with awesome 3D, does everything well, closest image is a Nikon 8x30 Eii but only with enough light. Not waterproof but neither are the Eii.
Named after a bird. (Swift, not Audubon but that's cool too!)
(Not knocking the Eii, actually a compliment. I have two E "C")
 

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