With Pekka's permission, I did a translation of his "first impressions" story on Lintuvaruste, and will post it here. I hope this is better than what Google translate can do. I consulted him on the bit about the rolling ball (carousel effect in Finnish), and based on that, simplified the wording a bit. What he reported to me was consistent with some AMD, but how much and what kind of a distortion profile remains to be seen.
Here:
Some observations on the Swarovski 8x42 NL Pure after a less-than-24 hour trial on 13.-14.7.2020
The image is exceedingly sharp, vivid and with high resolving power.
Light and dark hues seem accentuated, reading texts, for example, is extremely easy, notably easier than with the Zeiss 8x42 Victory SF, Leica Noctivid 8x42 and Swarovski 8x42 SLC I compared it with. Detail resolution was top class, and looking at foliage I could see it consisting of individual leaves with varying hues rather than different kinds of green-hued areas with individual leaves difficult to discern. Or as another example, looking at a rye-field, each individual awn is clearly separated unlike with my Swarovski SLC 8x42 which shows them partially merged together and seeing individual awns is more difficult.
Looking at a widgeon at close range (ca. 20 meters), every feather is easily discerned and feather patterns and color hues are visible in vivid clarity. Due to the binocular’s excellent ability to differentiate color hues, feathers of different ages are easily discerned in the bird’s plumage.
The image gives an impression of looking at a picture taken with superb optics, with extremely wide color spectrum (HDR), and slight over-sharpening.
The wide field of view makes finding targets easier, and the image opens up nice and wide. In a forest, the wide view is beneficial since it is easier to find the birds and easier to follow their movements when the bird more easily remains in the field despite their rapid movement. Likewise when watching migration, it is easy to locate targets and there is less need to move the binoculars than with binoulars with narrower fields. There is an almost total absence of any tube-like effects to the image, and dark edges to the field are very narrow and almost imperceptible.
Suppression of stray light is top-notch. Only just before you get the sun in the view do you detect a small reflection in the view which warns you not to move the binocular further so that you would end up staring straight at the sun.
Close focus is 2.0 meters, which in my view is sufficient for viewing insects, especially considering the level of the optics.
The forehead rest gives unexpectedly good support and stabilizes the image surprisingly much. In cool morning weather, it felt cold against my forehead at first, but warmed up quickly. However, I could imagine that in the winter it could feel unpleasantly cold, though fortunately it can be quickly removed.
Focus movement was pleasantly smooth in both directions. In the EL’s, the focus moves more stiffly in one direction than in the other due to a different kind of focus mechanism. The movement range of the NL focus wheel was a little under two rotations.
The eyecups have four intermediate click-stop positions between the minimum and maximum extension. This facilitates finding the right position for your eyes.
The new carrying strap is easy to adjust for good fit and has proper locks for length adjustment.
The body design is unusual. The body narrows at the middle and the tube is partially flattened at a 45 degree angle. This new form provides the binoculars with a good grip. The focus wheel has been moved forwards, and my fingers found it easily. Diopter control is separate from the focus wheel, having its own control wheel. It does not lock in place, but the construction is probably more durable than the previous one, since there is no longer a need to pull up the focus wheel. Experience will show how easily the diopter control wheel will move unintentionally from its setting.
Towards the edges of the field of view, the image compresses so that a square-shaped object narrows when approaching the field edge and widens when it moves towards the center. In normal use, I don’t pay attention to this, but some viewers might find it distracting. This phenomenon creates a so-called globe effect, but usually one’s eyes/brain rather quickly gets used to it and you soon cease to pay attention to it. The image is sharp from edge to edge, which means that it is considerably easier to detect movement at the image perimeter than with binoculars that have soft edges. This means that the entire field of view is better utilizable than in most other binoculars (although in the top models by Leica, Zeiss, Canon and Nikon the image is also sharp from edge to edge).
At the very edge of the field, in certain situations a narrow yellow-green fringe appears, but to see it you need to specifically look for it, and in normal use it is not noticeable at all.
My thaks to Swarovski for the opportunity to preview these binoculars.
Pekka Nikander, July 14, 2020
