Got My Meopta 10x42 HD's Today (1 Viewer)

Wow these Meopt a Meostar B1 10x42 HD's are the bomb. I am so glad I spent the extra cost to get these. I sold my Alpen Rainier 10x43 HD ED's which were great glass but wow these are awesome in all aspects. If you are looking for Alpha glass why spend the $2000+ when these run about $1000 and they are top notch. I can hardly keep myself from looking through them. So far have seen a few hawks, a Grey Crane and some other birds all looking amazingly great. The clearity is as good as anything else out there size and weight are fine for me and the feel is also very nice and I really like the wool cary case. These may be the poor mans Alphas but I feel rich when looking through them. There is not one thing cheap about them. The focus is super smooth and spot one with Zero play. If I had to pick one negitive it would be they are a tad stiff to adjust width wise but I like how they are I just had to try and pick something that could be a complaint. Meopta Fan all the way. Loved the cabelas Euro Hd's and my mind has not changed. A+++++++

Glad you are enjoying them.
Any color cast?
How is the flateness of the visual field?
How far to the edge of the view does blurring start?
How is well is the CA handled?
Thanks

Awesome, congrats. Bet you are excited. Enjoy the weekend.

Sweet, would second what Jay quoted! Enjoy!!!

The color cast is very neutral gives a very 3D effect and colors to me look very natural. I have a quaking Aspen with a white trunk. I can always get any glass I use to show CA and it is hard to find I really have to look through the outter edge to see any at all. While just viewing in a normal fashion I detect none. Flatness is what I would call good my Alpen Rainiers had a serious bow effect when I would look at my back fence. I have metal fence posts and it really looked like it had a bow to it. The Meopta's I don't see that at all. Seems flat to me. Edge to edge sharpness is awesome it's not 100% but you have to be looking in a non natural way to detect it. So for me I see no issue at all. I really like what I got and these are true keepers and I hope to have a life time of use from them :0)

Tazz, sounds like you got a winner! Probably will be hearing more about these once the 8x42's & 32's come out! Bryce...

Very cool

tazzilla said:

The color cast is very neutral gives a very 3D effect and colors to me look very natural. I have a quaking Aspen with a white trunk. I can always get any glass I use to show CA and it is hard to find I really have to look through the outter edge to see any at all. While just viewing in a normal fashion I detect none. Flatness is what I would call good my Alpen Rainiers had a serious bow effect when I would look at my back fence. I have metal fence posts and it really looked like it had a bow to it. The Meopta's I don't see that at all. Seems flat to me. Edge to edge sharpness is awesome it's not 100% but you have to be looking in a non natural way to detect it. So for me I see no issue at all. I really like what I got and these are true keepers and I hope to have a life time of use from them :0)

Click to expand...

godzilla,

Wow! They sound like the dog's nuts, as they say on the other side of the pond.

I'm surprised you don't see "Cupid's Bow" like Mr. Wilson did in his 10x42 Euro HD. In fact, if the Alpen Rainers had a noticeable "bow" than the Meoptas, the distortion must be off the charts.

The only problem is that Arek wouldn't have rated them #2 in the 8x42 category if the distortion was so bad. Let's go to the review:

"The distance of the first curved line from the field centre compared to the field of vision radius: 74% +/- 5%"

Holy Carp! That's even farther out than the 8x42 Premier, which keeps on "rollin' rollin' rollin', keep those birdies rollin' Alpeeen. That's really low distortion.

http://www.allbinos.com/236-binoculars_review-Alpen_Optics_Rainier_HD_ED_8x42.html

Now let's see what he has to say about the 10x42 Rainer:

"The distance of the first curved line from the field centre compared to the field of view radius: 53% +/- 2%"

Yep, more distortion than the 8x42 version, but still not that bad at 53%. The 10x42 SE has more @ 46%, according to allbinos, and I hardly notice any bowing at the edges unless I use a telephone pole to look for it.

Well, let's see what he has to say about the 10x42 Meopta, which is way down at #29 on the ranking! That can't be a good sign for distortion.

Sure enough...

"The distance of the first curved line from the field centre compared to the field of vision radius: 34%."

That's pincushion, baby. Cupid's Bow in full retraction.

Well, I guess it only goes to show that people's perception of pincushion and what the expert's measure isn't always the same. That's certainly true for me with allbinos' measurement of the 10x42 EDG:

"The distance of the first curved line from the field centre compared to the field of view radius: 88%".

What??? He rates the Premier @ 61%, and that creates enough RB to curve the night sky into a celestial sphere for me, 88% would produce so much RB that I couldn't use the EDG, but I had no tribble at all (and they do tend to multiply).

I think we're going to need Henry to chime in here and straighten this out, so to speak. If AMD and pincushion are polar opposites and you can't add one w/out taking away the other, then severe AMD and severe pincushion are like matter and anti-matter and can't occupy the same space at the same time w/out self-destructing.

I guess in the end, you have to ignore the numbers and go with what your eyes tell you.

Brock

I was concerned with the whole bow effect and I honestly don't see it on the Meopta's but it was with out a doubt on the Alpen Rainiers. The rainiers have a retail list of $1700 but sell for around $1000-1300 way over priced compared to what you get with the Meopta's I want to compare these to the Zeiss 10x42 Conquest HD which also sell for $1000. I am sure the meopta's beat them hands down. I agree you have to judge with your own eyes. I had a pair of Zen-Ray ZRS 10x42 really like them for the price point and they were not bad easy to use, but the Zen Ray ED3's I hated they were not easy to use always seemed like I was trying to find a good view through them not natiral feeling to look through at all. Seems like most everone else raves about them. My eyes did not like to view through them at all went back in two days.

tazzilla said:

I was concerned with the whole bow effect and I honestly don't see it on the Meopta's but it was with out a doubt on the Alpen Rainiers. The rainiers have a retail list of $1700 but sell for around $1000-1300 way over priced compared to what you get with the Meopta's I want to compare these to the Zeiss 10x42 Conquest HD which also sell for $1000. I am sure the meopta's beat them hands down. I agree you have to judge with your own eyes. I had a pair of Zen-Ray ZRS 10x42 really like them for the price point and they were not bad easy to use, but the Zen Ray ED3's I hated they were not easy to use always seemed like I was trying to find a good view through them not natiral feeling to look through at all. Seems like most everone else raves about them. My eyes did not like to view through them at all went back in two days.

Click to expand...

Tazz it is nice to see how happy you are with the new glass. Suck it up and enjoy. The regular model impressed me as it was probably the closest thing to an alpha I've seen. Imagine the hd is even better.

The HD is Awesome been glassing everything I can with these. Me like them alot!!!!! I was concerned that I blew it when I sold the Rainiers because they were a steal at the price I paid but I am sucking it up and have zero regrets. Even my wife thinks these are as good as the swaro's I damm near had her convinced to let me buy. Well she really was not convinced but I would like to think that.

Glad you like them! Thanks for the mini review!


I have no idea why there's no visible "bow" but if that's what bothers you, I'm just glad they don't have it!

But I do agree that they do have a good 3d effect.

I tried a Conquest HD 10x42 after the fact and it was very nice, except CA was a lot more than the Meopta & also more than my Minox 8x43 APO HG, although the later probably isn't surprising considering price and magnification differences.

Well been over a week now and after lots of use I must say the Meotpa HD 10x42 are a perfect fit for me. Onlt thing is I wish they were not so expensive but on the other hand they are cheap compared to what the other high end binoculars would have cost. I just hate spending $900 on glass. I have tried others costing $500-250 less but were at as pleased with them as I am with the meopta. I guess Over time the cost differance will not matter because the enjoyment I will get from them will be worth it in the long run.

tazzilla said:

Well been over a week now and after lots of use I must say the Meotpa HD 10x42 are a perfect fit for me. Onlt thing is I wish they were not so expensive but on the other hand they are cheap compared to what the other high end binoculars would have cost. I just hate spending $900 on glass. I have tried others costing $500-250 less but were at as pleased with them as I am with the meopta. I guess Over time the cost differance will not matter because the enjoyment I will get from them will be worth it in the long run.

Click to expand...

Enjoy tazz, the money will fade after a while. No regrets. Have a good weekend!

well its out in the June/July 2012 issue of OutdoorLife, the Meopta 10×42 HD binoculars received the highest honor of “Editors Choice” against an elite field of competing binocular models from Swarovski, Leica, Zeiss and others. Meopta is now really a true Alpha at 1/2 the cost!!!! Yes I still love my MeOpta HD's

http://www.meoptabinoculars.com/

Yeah, now when they come out with an 8x42 HD I will be one of the first in line to try them.