Amazed by the HR WP 8x42 (1 Viewer)

As I was passing through Titchwell yesterday I thought I'd pop into infocus optics to take a second look at the Opticron 8x42 HR WP and compare it to some mid priced roofs, the shop didn't have any of the roofs I was hoping to look at (Zeiss conquest 8x30, Minox HG 8x33, Opticron Imagic SE 8x32 etc) but instead tried out a secondhand pair of Leica trinovid 8x32, Opticron Verano 8x32 and an Opticron DBA oasis 8x42. Of the four bins lined up the humble little Opticron HR WP 8x42 HR WP still seemed to be optically better...even beating the Leica trinovid!!

Second favourite was the Opticron Oasis 8x42, not sure if it was the old model before the recent ''s-coat'' coatings upgrade but it had a very nice, easy on the eye image, not quite as sharp and bright as the HR WP but handle very well and seemed to have a very high build quality...about equal to the smaller sized Leica but with a better depth of focus.

At £189 the HR WP's are an incredible bargain, only gripe I have with them is the slow focus. I had been looking around for a nice compact roof around 8x30ish however I doubt I'd find anything to equal the optics of the HR WP in a roof prism binocular under the £600-700+ mark!!, the fact that the HR WP is a porro prism glass must be the sole reason for the bins superior (to my eyes) optical performance?

Just goes to show you can't judge a binocular on price alone!!

Matt

Matt,

The second gripe with the HR WP would be the rather narrow field of view. But, you are quite right about the image quality in the center of the field. It is really very good indeed. I think you are right about it being very hard to find a roof at less than three times the price to match it.

Kimmo

kabsetz said:

Matt,

The second gripe with the HR WP would be the rather narrow field of view. But, you are quite right about the image quality in the center of the field. It is really very good indeed. I think you are right about it being very hard to find a roof at less than three times the price to match it.

Kimmo

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A third gripe Kimmo.They look horrible!!
fiddler.

Hello people. I wonder if someone who has tried both could tell me whether the HR WP 8x42s are optically as good as the SR GA 8x42s? The former attract me since they are waterproof and not that much more expensive than the latter.

Thanks in advance,
Joe

Hi Joe,

In-focus have the SRGA 8x42 on offer at the momment for £149, Sherwoods have the HRWP 8x42 for £180. I have both models. They are both excellent in terms of image quality, the SRGA has better colour contrast, and a warmer colour cast to the image, the HRWP has a more neutral to blue colour cast with excellent sharpness. As Matt says they are impossible to beat at the price, you need to spend a lot lot more to get the same image quality in a roof prism binocular. The SRGA is a smaller and lighter binocular than the HRWP but has fixed rubber eyecups and is not waterproof. The HRWP also has internal focus, another plus point, albeit rather slow to and from close focus, at more 'usual' distances the slow focussing is not such an issue, the SRGA has 'quicker' focussing in this respect. A tough call, they are both very good.

Steve

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the informative reply, it was really useful. At the moment I'm trying to decide between the binoculars already mentioned and the SR GA 8x32, which also seem to receive high praise and has a wider field of view.

Cheers,
Joe

Hi Joe

No problem. The SRGA 8x32 are good and do have a much larger field of view, but the edge sharpness does go a bit towards the edge of the field, you will find this the case for most wide angle models. The SGRA 8x42 has a smaller field of view but with hardly any loss of sharpness at the edges, it will also be noticably brighter than the 8x32 version

best wishes

Steve

binonewb said:

At the moment I'm trying to decide between the binoculars already mentioned and the SR GA 8x32, which also seem to receive high praise and has a wider field of view.

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I have the HR WP 8x42 and used to have the SR GA 8x32. I would say the HR WP is incomparably better. Sharper, brighter, easier to look through. It's disadvantages have been dealt with here and in other threads, and I can imagine you might want to accept some loss of performance in order to avoid those disadvantages, but the SR GA has its own disadvantages: fold down eyepieces, short eye relief, 4m close focus. If you don't mind those, then give it a try.

Michael

Thank you both (Steve and Michael) for your helpful replies. It looks like the HR WPs are real winners. I'll have to hunt a pair down for a test.

Best wishes,
Joe

Hi, I tried lots of bins before upgrading from my Nikon Acion Ex 8x40's. I was prepared to pay 3,4 5 hundred for the right pair for me. My eye sight is not brilliant so no bins are going to fix that. I thought that the HR-WP's were as good as anything costing a lot more that I had tried so I purchased a pair of 10x42's from Hiltons of Hull for £199 plus three quid postage. Fantastic service from them, they check them over before sending and communicate by phone. Yes, a real person who knows optics, not a box shipper and the bins are great.

I think optically the HR WPs are the best for the price. I very nearly bought a pair. The main reason i didn't was that they just didn't fit my hands, i couldn't hold them comfortably and reach the focus wheel. That coupled with the slow focussing put me off.
Which was a shame because i really did want them.
Maybe a mk 2 model in the future?

ghostrider said:

The main reason i didn't was that they just didn't fit my hands, i couldn't hold them comfortably and reach the focus wheel.

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Do you have small hands?

Just curious ...

Ah, a porro, that explains the quality optics.
http://www.swoptics.co.uk/view.asp?KEY=2390