Nikon M7 8*30 vs. Opticron Discovery 8*32 (1 Viewer)

First I like to thank this forum for valuable information about binoculars. :t:

I bought M7 for me few months ago (based on information from this forum) for 300 euros and I have been happy with it. o. I had before Focus Nordic 8*42 bins (70 euros) that have only MC coating and 6.8 degree field. So the M7 is clearly brighter and sharper and lighter and the Fov is clearly greater.

Before M7 I ordered Hawke Endurance 8*42, but I returned it, because it had not enough benefits over my old bin. M7 is huge step up from my Focus bins.

My GF has Olympus 8*40 dps i porro bins, which have really good pic quality for it's price (50-70 euros). But it's clumsy to wear, because it's big and weights 720g, so often my GF don't wan't to keep it in the neck as she often has the camera (Nikon p900). So, bins that are left home are not much of a joy. :-C

I order Opticron Discovery 8*32 for her as birthday present, because of many positive reviews and because of small size. The thing is, I am not very satisfied with OD, as it's clearly worse bin that M7 in nearly every way. M7 has relaxed and immersive view, while with OD you must "struggle" more to get sharp view and using it more of a burden after just few minutes. Fov of OD is 7.5 degrees and it's darker and not as sharp as M7. So, M7 is more like and everyday bin and OD is more like "emergency" bin to use when you don't have anything else.

I revisited this nice video review on compact bins that included M7 and OD (and Hawke Endurance)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gahaDrGBULE&t=

...and I have to agree with it. The focus wheel of OD is bit sloppy and althought the pic quality in the center is good or ok, using OD is not great joy and the feel is toyish.

The GLARE MONSTER: Everybody here seems to be talking about M7 glare. Well, I haven't noticed it much at all. It's winter time, dark, snowing all the time and walking in thick snow gets me sveating like pig and lences are fogged in few seconds. So the glare is the least of problem at this time...:smoke:

Biggest fault of M7 is the freezing focus knob in cold weather. At -15 C M7 knob is so stiff that it hardly moves at all. :eek!:

Conclusion

The M7 is really good bin, but I have no experince of other "alpha" bins with higher prize. But I am happy with M7 as my everyday birding bin. I use the "eyebrow" way to se set my bins without glasses and the M7 eye relief is just right for me. With glasses the M7 eye relief is too short for me, but I don't like to use bins or scope with glasses.

The Opticron Discovery is not as comfortable to look through as I hoped it would be. My GF says she likes it, but I am not sure that it will be satisfactory in the long run. Anyway, OD should work fine as an addition to carry around with the camera.

Roy,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the two models. They are very different, but then, so are the expectations of different users.

I enjoyed the YouTube review. Refreshing to hear about the differences a relatively young and inexperienced user sees in that price range of models. Maybe a few minor slips on the technicalities, but really I though he was pretty astute.

David

Both have been my main binoculars and I absolutely share your thoughts; actually, I could have written your post word by word

The Discovery was my first 8x32 (after 8x25 and 8x42) and at the time I was happy with them, but looking back, now I think the viewing position (and performance to some point) has more to do with what I have experienced with 8x25 (where eye position is critical and the eyecups is at times not very wide). The M7 is to my eyes worlds apart in almost every single term (except size and weight, obviously). Brightness, crisp focus, definition, and quality are just better to my eyes. Funny thing is that I actually paid more for the Discovery (I can remember the sum, but in the region of 220-240 €, I bought the new) than for the M7, which I bought from a forum member for around 200 €, almost new.

And then there's that very personal and hard to describe feeling of "fit" (some bicycle users may be familiar with this). I find holding the M7 utterly satisfying, I guess it is a combination of size, proportions, texture of the soft and "gummy" rubber cover. All and all, M7 are almost my perfect binocular (I had a Zeiss Victory 8x32 FL and the optical quality was higher but the "fit" was nowhere near the M7 -always from my personal point of view). I say "almost perfect" because I do suffer the glare issues mentioned. Specially at dawn/dusk it is there, and sometimes it can be quite annoying. I tried the new Monarch HG 8x30 with great expectations, but it was unusable for me because of kidneybeaning, so I'm still pleased with the M7 until something with a better "fit" comes to my hands.

*Now we come to the quality issue of my Opticron Discovery. I say "my" because I haven't read of anyone else suffering the same issues, but my unit was really faulty; in a few months eyecup covers fell apart, hinge became loose (sent it to Opticron and got it fix... but to no avail, because it happened again in a few days), then one of the eyepieces got a bit loose as well, to the point that the binoculars became useless in a bit more than 2 years (mind you I'm not a professional, so my usage is not particularly intensive). So I guess I got a lemon, who knows.

I would agree the M 7 is optically the better binocular. However if small size and durability are priority needs, the Discovery may well have no peer. I have had my Discovery for five years. For six months of every year, it is my ranch binocular (one of them anyway). It lives, with rain guard and objective covers, in a saddlebag on my 4 wheel ATV. It stays there 24/7 because it will always be there if I need it, which is just about every time I'm out on the farm some place. I put on about 1,000 miles per year, mostly checking cattle and irrigating. It gets bounced, vibrated, wet, dirty, hot, and cold. It has faded to a mostly gray armor color, but it works just as well as it did when it was new. If it ever wears out, I'm getting another one.

yarrellii said:

All and all, M7 are almost my perfect binocular (I had a Zeiss Victory 8x32 FL and the optical quality was higher but the "fit" was nowhere near the M7 -always from my personal point of view). I say "almost perfect" because I do suffer the glare issues mentioned. Specially at dawn/dusk it is there, and sometimes it can be quite annoying. I tried the new Monarch HG 8x30 with great expectations, but it was unusable for me because of kidneybeaning, so I'm still pleased with the M7 until something with a better "fit" comes to my hands.

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I will take a more serious look for the glare thing as the spring goes further. The M7 has been fogged up outside so many times lately that I am not sure of the glare.

*Now we come to the quality issue of my Opticron Discovery. I say "my" because I haven't read of anyone else suffering the same issues, but my unit was really faulty; in a few months eyecup covers fell apart, hinge became loose (sent it to Opticron and got it fix... but to no avail, because it happened again in a few days), then one of the eyepieces got a bit loose as well, to the point that the binoculars became useless in a bit more than 2 years (mind you I'm not a professional, so my usage is not particularly intensive). So I guess I got a lemon, who knows.

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I am also afraid of the loose hinge that have happened to many users, but let's hope for the best. :t:

Steve C said:

I would agree the M 7 is optically the better binocular. However if small size and durability are priority needs, the Discovery may well have no peer. I have had my Discovery for five years. For six months of every year, it is my ranch binocular (one of them anyway). It lives, with rain guard and objective covers, in a saddlebag on my 4 wheel ATV. It stays there 24/7 because it will always be there if I need it, which is just about every time I'm out on the farm some place. I put on about 1,000 miles per year, mostly checking cattle and irrigating. It gets bounced, vibrated, wet, dirty, hot, and cold. It has faded to a mostly gray armor color, but it works just as well as it did when it was new. If it ever wears out, I'm getting another one.

Click to expand...

Nice to hear success story with Discovery. :t: I think that it is nice and light bin to use "when needed" and I don't have particural eye positioning or blackout problems with it. I am just worried that in serious birding for hours and hours it is not relaxing and comfortable enough. But my GF is more into photography, so as a camera buddy it should work fine.

Updating our experiences with M7 and OD... I am still happy with M7. The migration season has started and I have done lot of migration watch towards under the sun. The glare is often visible and it requires more precise eye positioning to overcome. For 90-95 % of migration watch I have no problems and the wide view with good depth of field are nice with M7.

I am still not in love with OD, because of focus knob slack and and the view that is not as easy and satisfactory as with M7. But OD is wifeys bin and she seems to be happy with it using it with glasses. And wifey will mostly consentrate on taking pics with camera (P900), so the small size of compliments it perfectly. :t: And she can take the bin to commute to work, because of small size and weight. And she hates migration watch...