Bought myself a pair of these today, so looking forward to much fun. I did waver a bit between these and the Swaros, but decided they were forcing my elbows outwards, and I was getting my thumbs stuck on the focus wheel.
Both were great, possibly a smother focus on the Swaros, but I really wanted the Zeiss, and apart from the obvious, the narrow IPD(52) really swung it.
Geoff
Geoff,
Congratulations! on your new Zeiss FL.
One thing I've read about the 8x32 FL is that it has a larger "sweet spot" than the 8x42 model.
Did you have an opportunity to compare the 8x32 to the full sized model?
I haven't tried an FL yet, but I've owned mostly Nikons - SE, E, EII, LX, LX L, XL Zooms, WF, and all have very good edges, and the fall off beyond the "sweet spot" is gradual until the very edge.
From what I've read, the full sized FL is very sharp over 60% of the FOV, then sharply falls off to the edge. So you have a very sharp image at the center and a very out of focus image at the edges.
As Steve Ingraham explained on the now defunct Zeiss Website, zbirding, this was a design choice to maximize the "zone of critical sharpness" rather than compromise by giving a less sharp image over a wider area like Nikon does (though I have no complaints about the overall sharpness of my SEs, which are almost as sharp at the edge as they are at the center, same thing with the full sized LX).
I find edges that are very out of focus distracting, particularly while panning since my eyes will dart ahead into the fuzzy areas (unless that area is far from the centerfield near the extreme edge).
In fact, it even gives me eyestrain, because my eyes try to focus the out of focus areas.
What percentage of the field of view would you say is "sharp" in your 8x32 FL?
That is, how far out from the center on both sides is the image sharp before it degrades?
And how sharp is the image from where the sharpness begins to fall off to the edges.
IOW, is the out of focus area beyond the sweet spot still useful until you get to the extreme edge or are birds totally out of focus beyond the sweet spot?
Brock