Me to, exactly the same.
Just received today and been back and forth between the E2 and my long timer Hawke Sapphire 8x43.
Wanted the most optic for my limited £'s and didn't think the Monarch 7 8x30 would do it for me. Thankfully the E2 is great. Only thing I noticed negatively and I noticed immediately was CA although not a lot and if I get my eyes centred well then it's well controlled. I noticed it immediately because I haven't seen any in my two Hawkes in the years that I've had them so it did jump out at me from the E2. Otherwise I think the E2 is pretty fantastic and I'm definitely going to get a lot of enjoyment from it.
Bought not previously having had the chance to try one so it's also a relief that it's as good as everyone has been banging on about for years and a resoundingly definite keeper. Highly recommended.
I'm also glad that it didn't show my Sapphire up to be a complete dog. In fact it just confirmed what I always thought that the Sapphire is a very good bin especially at controlling CA but even my little 8x25 Hawke Frontier PC does that perfectly also.
Glad I have the Sapphire for wet days but I think I'm going to be using the E2 a lot otherwise. The Sapphire seems to have more magnification even though it's a 8x also so I imagine it will be more useful over distance and I know it excels in low light. Really glad they that they make a great pairing.
Dare I say it. Maybe I don't need any more binoculars! Definitely needed something decent just to have an alternative to the Sapphire and the E2 fits the bill perfectly. What really struck me is that the E2 seems so short and a fairly insubstantial lightweight binocular whereas the view is kind of huge and bright (and quite flat on mine)! This did amaze me. They should have called it the Nikon Tardis or something.
Sorry Brock to hear of your predicament. Seems a big shame that you are selling your great binocular when people like me are just discovering it largely thanks to folks like yourself. I just borrow the neighbourhood kitty or as you know it borrows me, usually for a ham breakfast weekdays.
Off topic but I actually saved a swift from murderous starlings the other day and probably the cat. Tried to lift it off some grass and had to pull the grass up to get it as it wouldn't let go. Anyhow ended up with it sitting on a pair of decorating jeans unitl it recovered and then took it upstairs and let it fly from the bedroom window. It was an absolute beauty of a bird and I didn't even bother grabbing a pic as I was more trying to think what to do with it but my neighbour did witness it taking off and shooting out of my bedroom window. Picture me carrying it upstairs on the jeans like cushion and trying to gee it up to fly and it just sitting there happy as a swift I suppose? It didn't even seem to want to leave as it just sat in the window until I shouted down to the neighbour. Bit magical experience.
Clive,
Glad my "banging on about for years" finally got you to try one for yourself. They are my favorite bins.
Happy to hear you saved the swift! I've been trying to catch a feral cat that has been killing chipmunks and fledgling birds that aren't able to fly or at least fly well enough to escape. My neighbor's dog keeps eating the food I leave out for the cat, and the cat broke out of the first cage I had. She wouldn't go in the second one, which was longer, I kept catching the same skunk, who has a taste for stinky fish, small wonder, being a stink weed himself!
I love my backyard animals, including the cat, the skunk and the groundhog (which one neighbor wants to pour gasoline down his hole and burn him to death because he eats veggies from his garden). I don't subscribe to the "law of the jungle," as some do, because this ain't the jungle, it's suburbia, suburbia that's becoming increasingly urbanized, and we need to learn to live in harmony with wildlife, not exterminate it. I'm trying to save what little wildlife habitat we have left by keeping my backyard wild while everybody else clear cuts their yards to put up a parking lot and another student apt. building, or more lawn! My one neighbor cut down a huge hedge that served as a great shelter for birds, and now he's planting grass. Yeah, that's just what we need, more grass! Ugh. He likes to ride his Lawn Boy.
I put out sunflower seeds for the squirrels, chippies, and birds each and every day even when it's 0*F. I'm always out there. Even when I injured my leg (pulled my hip flexors) I was out feeding them on my crutches.
Only one neighbor has ever thanked me for taking care of the animals. Some others dislike me because I attract wildlife to the area. One harped on me ths winter because crows crapped on his $30K car, which for some reason, he doesn't keep in his garage even though he has one. He parks it under the power and TV cable lines that go to our houses. Of course, it's going to get crapped on.
Penn State set off explosives on campus to drive the crows away this winter, and we ended up with over 100 in my neighborhood for about a month until the snow finally melted. They descended on the seeds, peanuts and suet in my backyard like a swarm of locusts.
Most of my neighbors come home from their cubicles at work and go right into their cubicles at home w/out ever stepping outside to see the wildlife right in their backyard. Civilization - it's vastly overrated.
I've attached a photo of my backyard taken from the seat where I watch birds and other backyard critters. The ladder leads to a tube feeder. This is where the EII was at its best.
Brock
![Nikon EII and SE 030 [Desktop Resolution] [] [Desktop Resolution].JPG](/data/attachments/509/509634-4ab9183e7b64e8e9350556635d455dfa.jpg)
