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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Recent content by Chotacabras

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    Bee-eaters calling in NY, not

    Obvious explanation now you point it out Mono: thank you, duh. Still, with such massive attention to detail and authenticity in other respects, seems strange to me that high-end directors should treat this as unimportant. (I guess that only tiny% of movie-goers will notice, so commercially...
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    Bee-eaters calling in NY, not

    I yesterday watched the 2023 film "Past Lives". At one point the lead female character goes to an artist's residency in "Montauk", which in real life is at the north of Long Island. It's a house in the country, and it sounds to me like Common Bee-eaters calling. Which can't be right. Has anyone...
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    Birding without a camera, forever?

    If you want a camera for record shots, it's quite possible - albeit geeky - to carry binoculars round neck, scope and tripod in carrier on back, and small camera (eg P950) in bag on belt. But I also agree with you: often, just binoculars is plenty. Or no binoculars, just eyes and ears.
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    Noctivid eyecups

    Tony, you sound like me, face-shape-wise. I recently tested a lot of binoculars, to replace (or rather supplement) my practically perfect 1990s Leica BA 8x42s. Sadly all current Leica 8x42 models (including Noctivid) had too-short eyecups for me, producing irritating blackouts. [Though of course...
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    Leica is not getting the attention it deserves

    To be fair to lovely Leica, it also happens to me with diverse other binoculars, including Conquests unless long eyecup ordered, and even (very slightly) with the Swarovski EL 8.5x42s I just bought. Life at the tail of a customer frequency distribution, it sucks!
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    Binoculars - Hiking / mountains

    Old thread, but I have a two-cent opinion, namely: best binoculars for serious hiking are no binoculars. I recently hiked across Snowdonia (mountains in Wales) with tent on my back. Every 100g counts, and 600 or 700g of binocular was too many grams. There's something very beautiful about...
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    Leica is not getting the attention it deserves

    Too short for my face-shape, I get black-outs aka "beaning". Or more precisely: maximum eyecup extension in these binoculars is insufficient to provide me with the required eye relief. [So alternatively, one could say that the eye relief is too long for me.] I think I'm explaining this...
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    Zeiss SFL 8x40 vs. Swarovski EL 8.5x42

    Might be that. No idea, I bow to your more expert insight. Could be multiple other things too I guess... like some inscrutable side-effect of the longer eye relief of modern binoculars, or of close-focus optical elements, or etc etc. Perhaps Leica could just re-release the BNs with newer glass...
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    Leica is not getting the attention it deserves

    That might have been me this weekend, if the Leica eyecups hadn't all been so intolerably short 🙄
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    Zeiss SFL 8x40 vs. Swarovski EL 8.5x42

    For information: I bought the ELs, i.e. I prioritised "build confidence" (Bauvertrauen?!) over extreme close focus. Brief comparison of the ELs with my personal benchmark (Leica BA 8x42s, 1990s) after a couple of days in the field. Disclaimer: I'm talking about my own experience, not lab...
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    What are your priorities in binoculars?

    My two cents. Background: long-term Leica Trinovid BA 8x42 user, unable to find a modern binocular that really convinces me. Swarovski EL 8.5x42, perhaps. 1) CRITICAL a) Ease-of-view (Einblickverhalten): No blackouts/beaning, perfect collimation, and undoubtedly other factors which impact on...
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    Zeiss SFL 8x40 vs. Swarovski EL 8.5x42

    Thank you so much Ted, Scott and Rg. Ted: yes, I agree on all counts, including warranty = Bauangstgegenmittel! (In UK, so access to servicing shouldn't be an issue). Scott: yes, agree ergonomics important, I've tried both, ergonomics different but both fine for me. Rg: used BNs certainly...
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    Zeiss SFL 8x40 vs. Swarovski EL 8.5x42

    Thank you Troubador (Lee I think): I appreciate that response. Yes, close focus is important to me, it's a lovely nice-to-have: though my primary requirements are 1) superb "ease-of-view", so hard to define and so user-specific, and 2) durability/reliability. Many parameters are not very...
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    Zeiss SFL 8x40 vs. Swarovski EL 8.5x42

    Latching on to this thread rather than starting anew... I tried lots of binoculars recently, and my eventual favourites were the SFL 8x40s and the EL 8.5x42s. (I have massive Leica brand loyalty after 30 years of indestructibly wonderful BAs. But sadly I experienced some "beaning" with both...
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    Open message to Zeiss: Conquest eyecups

    @NDhunter: In my case (it has happened twice) an eyecup has cracked edge-to-edge, so unusable. (In fact, even when they work they don't work very well: "highest lock position" always wants to become "eyecup unscrewed".) I'm talking about Conquests, and I note that I need and use the...
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