• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Hawke Frontier ED 8x43! (1 Viewer)

Hello Huang Lingyun,

Sounds like you work in the development department. Maybe you could let us know what market these bins were originally aimed at. I take it the OEM agreement with Hawke must have been designed to punch a hole in some of the bigger players markets.

Last but not least I wonder where one could view them in Scotland, any ideas?
 
Last edited:
"Have to breathe in to see my toes, mind!"


Graham,Thanks for the laugh.:t:;)

No making fun or trying to be mean intended.

Regards,Steve
 
.. how the hell can Hawke produce a binocular to challenge the Zeiss FL at such a low price ?

Tim

Lousy payment for the workers on the factory(maybe).
Less quality control.

Anyways, should I go for the Nikon E2 or the Hawke? Maybe I get more depth of field with the Nikon?
 
Last edited:
Lousy payment for the workers on the factory(maybe).
Less quality control.

Anyways, should I go for the Nikon E2 or the Hawke? Maybe I get more depth of field with the Nikon?

Do you have any evidence for those statments? Didn't think so.

OK, back to your question.

A few things to consider:

0. Eye relief. The E2 is pretty short. I think this is a killer for eyeglass wearers without a trial. Judging by the numbers for my eyeglasses it would be marginal. The Hawke ER is plenty for eyeglasses (though not quite enough for the whole field for me and my glasses but very close).

1. The porro view. I've been looking through my porros again. Especially with good to excellent porros there is a transpancy that I still don't see with roofs. I have ABed the Hawke and the Nikon SE and the SE wins by all opticl measures (sharpness; contrast; stray light). I suspect the E2 might be the same (though I've not tried it). Plus there is the "3D effect" which some people find very helpful -- I rather like it.

2. Waterproofing and fogproofing. You can dunk the Hawke. You can't dunk the E2. In Danish weather I would think you have to be a little protective of the E2 (not like the devil may care attitude with a waterproof bin). That said I think I over-baby my porros.

3. How important is resale value to you? I suspect the E2 will be sort after for a while. The Hawke not so much. ;)

The DOF argument swings back and forth around here. Some say it's only magnification. I still don't buy that argument (for real bins). I suspect the E2 might have it here but I'm not sure.
 
Last edited:
No evidence.. its China..
anyways, someone earlier in this thread I believe talked about varying shortfocus. Long term endurance no one can know about yet.
Thanks for comparing it with the Nikon SE ( though I know its maybe not fair, but informative!).
 
Kevin hit on some excellent points. In my opinion the E2 should have better depth of field. I have found many of the porro prism bins I have owned exhibit better depth of field (probably because of the objective spacing) than their roof prism counterparts.
 
Frank, we can't use that term anymore, because of the theorists. We have to say perceived, or apparent, so perceived depth of field.

Tero, I know you're trying to be funny, but for the record I'd like to point out that the claim that magnification is the only significant determinant of DOF in binoculars (and conversely, that all binos of the same mag have the same DOF for all practical purposes) comes not only from the "theorists" but also from those empiricists/experimentalists who have done careful observations/tests.

--AP
 
Keith,

I do a whole lot more re-focusing with my Hawkes than with my EIIs. That's a combination of two things - the percived depth of field and the focus-wheel gearing. I can live happily with either - the Nikons are definitely better at getting very quickly focussed on a bird - the shorter perceived DoF and the slower focussing of the Hawkes can help 'pull' a bird out from it's surroundings and creates a more intense image.

I don't understand the physics of DoF - but the impression feels very real - the Hawkes definitely seem to blur objects at other distances much more than the Nikons.

Graham
 
Arent there an extra lense or two added inside a roof prism binocular, moveable, to adjust focus. Maybe that system makes a difference in terms of DOF, compared to Porro prism binoculars.
 
We are just talking perceived dof here, not real. We add poor optical qualities easily to the feeling of poor dof. Porros and roofs work the same way, I was able to convince myself, with dof. Power is the main criterion, and the only one to our theorists.

The porros focus with the eye piece part moving and the roofs have a lens inside that moves. In 8x20 pocket binoculars from Wal Mart, it was actually the objeective lense that moved.
 
Good question on the DOF. I don't have mine on hand anymore. Maybe Kevin can comment. I seem to remember the depth of field being comparable to something like the Monarch and a bit better than the Promaster in this regard.

My unit did not have any quality control issues that I was aware of.
 
Thanks for the answer FrankD.

Once I read that Nikon E2 is nearly on par with Zeiss FL and others.
Another place I read that The Hawke Frontier ED is nearly on par with Zeiss FL and others.
Then I read that the Nikon E2 is better in almost every optical aspect than the Hawke frontier ED..

Taste and preferences I guess B :)
 
Keith,

I think your last statement speaks volumnes. It really does tend to depend on what you prefer for optical characteristics. In my opinion the Promaster and Hawke were closer to the high end Alphas optically than any of the mid-priced roofs so far. The E2 is an animal in a different category entirely. It is probably my favorite bin optically. My only gripe was the short eye relief coupled with the wide eyecups made it nearly impossible for me to get a single field of view. I had to remove them on my unit. After that I don't think there was a bin that touches them optically. Beautiful bins.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 6 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top