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Your pick btw 8x32, 8x42, 8.5x42? (1 Viewer)

Just a bit off topic, but does the new little 8x30 CL have the same glare issues as (some, such as myself) have seen with the 8x32 EL?

Thanks.
 
oldfortyfive, post 15,
My Swarovski 8x32 EL 2006 has joined me to a lot of places: the deserts and mountain range in South Africa, Namibië, the mountains of Kyrgystan, the countryside in Europe, the Alps in Europe, lakes and large water surfaces in a lot of places and I never had any glare issuses with the 8x32 EL.
Gijs van Ginkel
 
8.5 x 42 EL in my case. In retrospect the 32 mm ones may have been a better option due to the weight of my camera gear but I had to make decision to have one binocular to rule them all.
Surprisingly I didn't get on with the SV bins - we are all different!
 
Ditto on the SV 8x32.....I find it interesting on how many comment on glare with the SV 8x32's. I've been using mine for the last few years in South Dakota in the prairie dogs towns, about the worst possible condition for glare and have not found it much of an issue.

oldfortyfive, post 15,
My Swarovski 8x32 EL 2006 has joined me to a lot of places: the deserts and mountain range in South Africa, Namibië, the mountains of Kyrgystan, the countryside in Europe, the Alps in Europe, lakes and large water surfaces in a lot of places and I never had any glare issuses with the 8x32 EL.
Gijs van Ginkel

Same here of course!

I've had mine since January 2016. I wouldn't use and recommend a binocular if I had any such issue.
 
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Certain observers failing to see glare doesn't mean the 8x32 SV is somehow free from the internal reflections that cause glare when those observers use it. The photos in the link don't lie about the presence of the reflections, but it's quite possible that the reflections just don't enter the pupils of those who don't see any glare. How can that be?

Twp possibilities occur to me. One is that those observer's pupils never open widely enough for internal reflections near the exit pupil edge to enter the eye. That certainly happens frequently with large exit pupil binoculars. 4mm is not a large exit pupil, but in extremely bright light the eye might be open to no more than 2-2.5mm. The other possibility, which could occur in combination with the first, is that those observers habitually misalign their pupils with the exit pupils in a vertical direction. I've observed this in some fellow birders (maybe most often with eyeglass wearers). Since glare producing light most frequently comes from above and usually causes reflections at the bottom of the objective cell. Moving the eye's pupil up from perfect centering with the exit pupil will misalign the objective aperture with other internal stops (like the focusing lens cell or the prism aperture) so that the reflection is masked and no glare is seen.

More than most other binoculars the 8x32 SV simply does suffer from the kind of internal reflections that will produce glare under the right lighting conditions, but only for a properly centered eye opened widely enough to accept light from the exit pupil edge. Observers who don't see it are not meeting one or both of those conditions.

One last thing to mention is that some lighting conditions that seem like they should be bad actually aren't. For instance, looking at a very bright sky with the sun close to the edge of the FOV may not reveal much glare because the eye's pupil is very small, the field is naturally flooded with bright light which may conceal the glare and the angle of the sunlight striking internal surfaces may not throw internal reflections exactly toward the eye's pupil. The conditions that are most likely to show glare are when looking into a dark shadowed area under a sky much brighter than the observed area, but not necessarily absolutely bright, like the sky at twilight or on an overcast day. That's when the pupil is opened wide and somewhere in the the large area of open bright sky there will be bright light at just the right angle to reflect from the binocular innards straight into the eye.
 
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Certain observers failing to see glare doesn't mean the 8x32 SV is somehow free from the internal reflections that cause glare when those observers use it. The photos in the link don't lie about the presence of the reflections, but it's quite possible that the reflections actually don't enter the pupils of those who don't see any glare. How can that be?

Twp possibilities occur to me. One is that those observer's pupils never open wide enough for internal reflections near the exit pupil edge to enter the eye. That certainly happens frequently with large exit pupil binoculars. 4mm is not a large exit pupil, but in extremely bright light the eye might be open to no more than 2-2.5mm. The other possibility, which could occur in combination with the first, is that those observers habitually misalign their pupils with the exit pupils in a vertical direction. I've observed this in some fellow birders (maybe most often with eyeglass wearers). Since glare producing light most frequently comes from above and usually causes reflections at the bottom of the objective cell. Moving the eye's pupil up from perfect centering with the exit pupil will misalign the objective aperture with other internal stops (like the focusing lens cell or the prism aperture) so that the reflection is masked and no glare is seen.

More than most other binoculars the 8x32 SV simply does suffer from the kind of internal reflections that will produce glare under the right lighting conditions, but only for a properly centered eye opened wide enough to accept light from the exit pupil edge. Observers who don't see it are not meeting one or both of those conditions.

Very nicely explained, I haven't made my decision yet but been researching the Swarovski 8x32 EL, Zeiss 8x32 Victory FL, Leica 8x32 Ultravid HD-Plus and the Nikon 8x32 EDG.
Funny how allbinos puts the Nikon at the top


Seems all have some issues but the Swarovski 8x32 EL stands out and not because of cognitive bias, having two other Swarovski's already (10x50 EL and 15x56 SLC)

Today I'm going to Bass Pro shop and check out some of the alpha's, only problems it's hard to test in a store environment and with short handling time.

If I was fortunate to have members of a bird club where it would be more realistic test but don't have that luxury yet
Thanks
Dan
 
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The conditions that are most likely to show glare are when looking into a dark shadowed area under a sky much brighter than the observed area, but not necessarily absolutely bright, like the sky at twilight or on an overcast day. That's when the pupil is opened wide and somewhere in the the large area of bright sky there will be bright light at just the right angle to reflect from the binocular innards into the eye.

Hi Henry,

You have just perfectly explained where and when I was troubled by veiling glare in my 32mm SV.

John.
 
I've found the 8x32 Conquest HD doesn't do a stellar job with glare - mostly crescent glare in strong light, but I have recently started to use the bin with the eye-cups all the way down. Result, almost all the glare is eliminated because it occurs far enough outside my FOV when my eyes are so close to the oculars that I simply don't see it.

Sure it's still there but it illustrates that user methods can affect results to a large degree as well. BTW - this super-close MOLCET-type view is fantastic - great sharpness and contrast and seemingly huge FOV as the fieldstop is reduced to a very narrow ring of black at the edge. I've done this with most of my bins in the past and going back to eye-cups out looks very narrow and seems to lack the great punch and sparkle of the close-in technique.
 
I've found the 8x32 Conquest HD doesn't do a stellar job with glare - mostly crescent glare in strong light, but I have recently started to use the bin with the eye-cups all the way down. Result, almost all the glare is eliminated because it occurs far enough outside my FOV when my eyes are so close to the oculars that I simply don't see it.

Sure it's still there but it illustrates that user methods can affect results to a large degree as well. BTW - this super-close MOLCET-type view is fantastic - great sharpness and contrast and seemingly huge FOV as the fieldstop is reduced to a very narrow ring of black at the edge. I've done this with most of my bins in the past and going back to eye-cups out looks very narrow and seems to lack the great punch and sparkle of the close-in technique.

Could you enplane? "super-close MOLCET-type view is fantastic"
Thanks
Dan
 
Could you enplane? "super-close MOLCET-type view is fantastic"
Thanks
Dan


lol, sorry, it's a birdforum thing - it means moore-or-less-ceasar-eyebrow-technique, which is when you rest the top of the ocular on or under your brow, usually to reduce the vignetting some get from too much / not enough eye relief.
 
Henri, post 28,
Your explanation about the possible causes of the existence of glare are clear, you had given the explanation already earlier in other posts. I am not an eyeglass/spectacle user and have used the EL 8x32 now for many years under all kind of observing conditions , in all kinds of light conditions and it simply never happed to me and I am very certain that I would have noticed it when it had occurred. So now we may come in area of statistics to find out how bad it could be.
Gijs van Ginkel
 
lol, sorry, it's a birdforum thing - it means moore-or-less-ceasar-eyebrow-technique, which is when you rest the top of the ocular on or under your brow, usually to reduce the vignetting some get from too much / not enough eye relief.

You also have to remember to tilt the binocular very slightly upward.

That is how it works for me. I do it without thinking about it with my SEs now.

Bob
 
Henri, post 28,
Your explanation about the possible causes of the existence of glare are clear, you had given the explanation already earlier in other posts. I am not an eyeglass/spectacle user and have used the EL 8x32 now for many years under all kind of observing conditions , in all kinds of light conditions and it simply never happed to me and I am very certain that I would have noticed it when it had occurred. So now we may come in area of statistics to find out how bad it could be.
Gijs van Ginkel

Hi Gijs,

I just noticed that in post #22 you mention that your 8x32 EL dates from 2006. Is that correct? If so, it would the model before the current 8x32 EL SV. I haven't tested that one for glare, but as I'm sure you know its objective and focusing lens designs are completely different from the SV, so possibly it doesn't have any special glare problem.

Henry
 
Hi Henry, post 37,
You are correct the 8x32 EL I use is from 2006 so now I can sleep well and do not have to worry I missed something.
Gijs van Ginkel
 
I compared the 8x32 and 8.5x42 side by side. I liked the compact size and weight of the 8x32, but preferred the brighter 8.5x42. Ended up ordering them and no regrets.
 
I compared the 8x32 and 8.5x42 side by side. I liked the compact size and weight of the 8x32, but preferred the brighter 8.5x42. Ended up ordering them and no regrets.

The 8.5x is a fantastic choice and shouldn't let you down for any viewing situation. If I could justify to myself that I needed one, or found a very nicely priced used model, it would probably be my everyday choice. There's just something to love about the 8.5x magnification... I felt the same with the Kowa.
 
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