Well I finally cracked and have just ordered a pair of FLs so no doubt a new model will be announced very soon!
Nice! Which did you go for?
... I'd say let's capitalize on the Baby Boomer's nostalgia and bring back the ClassiC line of optics with updated technology (coatings and internal focus) and sell them at a price point in between the Victories and Conquests....
Here are a few more experimental results using a different setup. We are looking towards a vase about 20m away. The pictures are taken from about 30 cm behind the eyepiece. The eyepiece lens is 36mm in diameter. As you can see the exit pupil is as large as the eyepiece lens.
Another major feature is that you can still see a full image (although different part of the field of view) when looking through the eyepiece from an off-axis angle. There will be aberrations in the off axis image but the image is still visible. In standard binoculars a) the exit pupil is much smaller b) the image is not visible when you look off-axis.
I think Zeiss should make soon a new binocular to compete with the last Swarovski (Swarovision).
His Zeiss FL is from 2004.
Here is a google-translated verison of the 8x42 Conquest HD.
http://translate.google.com/transla...welt.de/Fernglaeser/Zeiss/Conquest-HD&act=url
I didn't see much concrete. The field of view is in the 380s. Are they still using abbe-koenig prisms in the design?
So, they increased the field of view by 25 feet and put ED glass in the lenses. Around an $1100 price tag.
It's simpler than it looks. The metric FOV spec uses the same measurement units (meters) for FOV width and distance. If we did things the same way our spec would be given in feet @ 1000 feet or yards @ 1000 yards, not feet @ 1000 yards. So, 128 m @ 1000 m is the same as 128 ft @ 1000 ft, or 128 yds @ 1000 yds, or 384 ft @ 1000 yds.
I was hoping for something more exiting to be introduced by Zeiss than just an update of the current Conquest range. But then at a second glance, what is know so far sounds interesting.
Specs have caught up with the Victory: a little lighter with 750g and FOV almost as good for the 8x (with 128m) or even better for the 10x (115m). The orniwelt description also says "made in Germany" while I think the current Conquest are made in Hungary. On top of that the announced price is 100 € less than the going rate for the current Conquest. Does not sound too bad...
"The ones being announced in March are apparently going to offer ~95% light transmission..."
Time for me to show my limitations. Is "95% light transmission" significant improvement and is it even meaningful in daily use? The 7x42fl I use are pretty bright now, hard to believe a couple of percent would be observable. Maybe important in an 8x32?
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