Hello all! I finally had a chance to get out of town to pit all three of my current crop of 10x42's against each other. :t:
My main reason for waiting to put all three side by side for an extended view was I wanted to see what their true low light performance without any interference of city light. I also didn't want to have a bias going into the viewing that might make me lean towards one bin over the other. So, I have been patiently waiting to get all three along side of each other. I traveled from Albuquerque, NM to the lovely little village of Luna, NM that resides in the Apache National Forest. This is beautiful country that is just west of the continental divide and has, for the most part, rolling mountainous terrain with elevations ranging from 5000ft to over 9000 ft. When you are in this country the nights sky is as black and rich as it comes. Perfect for low light observation and comparison.
I hit the field at about 5am, which was later than intended, and set up with 2 tri-pods and all three bins for observation of the local elk heard (est pop. 500 to 1000). The elk come down Luna mountain into the valley and water and eat all night then return to there mountain slumber by sunrise. At 5am there was already the faintest light out (I was kicking my self for not getting out earlier) but it was still very dark and a chore for ANY bin to resolve with any definition. The elk, as any are, are very weary and will not permit intrusion of their safety zone which is about 200 to 250 yards. So all of the comparison is at these distances, give or take.
As soon as we were set up I looked through the Swaro EL (my long time companion) to get a reference. As I knew the EL did resolve under this very gray almost black out condition. I could see the heard and separate the bulls from the cows but could not define any antlers to any real extent. Next up were the Leica BRF's..... They looked almost the same? I could not really tell any appreciable difference between the two. Next up were the Nikon SE's.....
Now I paused a moment because I didn't want to be disappointed in my new SE's that I have come to love in day light conditions and have vowed to use this whole season..... I put the SE's to my eyes and to my astonishment they were the equal of the two euros! Not only were they the equal they were better! Now when I say better I don't think that they were any brighter but they seem to have a tad more magnification? And this helps to resolve just a hair better.... Having said this, they were all so close I don't think you could really call one any better than the other. They all were able to not only see the heard but they were all able to separate the sexes. They all were able to resolve good enough to see antlers at 250 yards+ under the darkest conditions. Many, many times I have been afield with people that have good optics but not optics of this caliber and they could not resolve under these conditions. This says a lot for all three of these bins... They are all "World Class" when it comes to this type of observation! This was a big relief to me and a huge victory in my eyes for the Nikon SE's. This is a bin that I just paid $749 for vs $1999 for the EL and $2050 for the BRF's.
These little Nikon SE's just keep over achieving time and time again!
Now this was not just my impression but also of my life long friend who lives there in Luna. We both came to the agreement that the all three were as good as another under these gray/black long distance observations. Under these conditions it is, at least to me, impossible to compare for sharpness (especially edge), contrast, ca, and color rendition.
we watched the heard until they disappeared into the woods just before 7am. After this we went to my friends property to do better low light comparison between the hours of 7 and 8 where the sun was still behind the mountain and casting a large shadow on the valley but it was light out.
In these conditions differences between the three could clearly be seen. We overlooked six acres that had horses at the furthest end, old cars in the middle and trees flanking both sides. The SE's went up first and were very bright and sharp.... They really made the yellows, light blues, and reds of the cars jump out at you. The Leicas were next and looked very warm in comparison? They looked almost dark to me? They really brought out the greens, browns, and dark blues but made the whole picture look dark compared to the Nikons. The EL's were next and fell right between the two... Maybe just right bringing out all the colors.... Did not bring out the vivid colors as well as the Nikon or the darker colors as well as the Leicas but did better than the others with the range of colors. Never the less, The Nikons were still the brightest of the bunch but never gave a washed out view.... Again in my eyes a victory for the SE's. All three were very good and there were no loser of the bunch. Well I hope if your still reading I didn't bore you too much!
As a side note I brought my 12x SE's with and compared them with the 10's in low light. The 12's in my eye were no brighter than the 10's and the view looked identical to the 10x SE. The 12x SE did however resolve better due to the greater magnification and I could make out better detail...
My main reason for waiting to put all three side by side for an extended view was I wanted to see what their true low light performance without any interference of city light. I also didn't want to have a bias going into the viewing that might make me lean towards one bin over the other. So, I have been patiently waiting to get all three along side of each other. I traveled from Albuquerque, NM to the lovely little village of Luna, NM that resides in the Apache National Forest. This is beautiful country that is just west of the continental divide and has, for the most part, rolling mountainous terrain with elevations ranging from 5000ft to over 9000 ft. When you are in this country the nights sky is as black and rich as it comes. Perfect for low light observation and comparison.
I hit the field at about 5am, which was later than intended, and set up with 2 tri-pods and all three bins for observation of the local elk heard (est pop. 500 to 1000). The elk come down Luna mountain into the valley and water and eat all night then return to there mountain slumber by sunrise. At 5am there was already the faintest light out (I was kicking my self for not getting out earlier) but it was still very dark and a chore for ANY bin to resolve with any definition. The elk, as any are, are very weary and will not permit intrusion of their safety zone which is about 200 to 250 yards. So all of the comparison is at these distances, give or take.
As soon as we were set up I looked through the Swaro EL (my long time companion) to get a reference. As I knew the EL did resolve under this very gray almost black out condition. I could see the heard and separate the bulls from the cows but could not define any antlers to any real extent. Next up were the Leica BRF's..... They looked almost the same? I could not really tell any appreciable difference between the two. Next up were the Nikon SE's.....
Now I paused a moment because I didn't want to be disappointed in my new SE's that I have come to love in day light conditions and have vowed to use this whole season..... I put the SE's to my eyes and to my astonishment they were the equal of the two euros! Not only were they the equal they were better! Now when I say better I don't think that they were any brighter but they seem to have a tad more magnification? And this helps to resolve just a hair better.... Having said this, they were all so close I don't think you could really call one any better than the other. They all were able to not only see the heard but they were all able to separate the sexes. They all were able to resolve good enough to see antlers at 250 yards+ under the darkest conditions. Many, many times I have been afield with people that have good optics but not optics of this caliber and they could not resolve under these conditions. This says a lot for all three of these bins... They are all "World Class" when it comes to this type of observation! This was a big relief to me and a huge victory in my eyes for the Nikon SE's. This is a bin that I just paid $749 for vs $1999 for the EL and $2050 for the BRF's.
These little Nikon SE's just keep over achieving time and time again!
Now this was not just my impression but also of my life long friend who lives there in Luna. We both came to the agreement that the all three were as good as another under these gray/black long distance observations. Under these conditions it is, at least to me, impossible to compare for sharpness (especially edge), contrast, ca, and color rendition.
we watched the heard until they disappeared into the woods just before 7am. After this we went to my friends property to do better low light comparison between the hours of 7 and 8 where the sun was still behind the mountain and casting a large shadow on the valley but it was light out.
In these conditions differences between the three could clearly be seen. We overlooked six acres that had horses at the furthest end, old cars in the middle and trees flanking both sides. The SE's went up first and were very bright and sharp.... They really made the yellows, light blues, and reds of the cars jump out at you. The Leicas were next and looked very warm in comparison? They looked almost dark to me? They really brought out the greens, browns, and dark blues but made the whole picture look dark compared to the Nikons. The EL's were next and fell right between the two... Maybe just right bringing out all the colors.... Did not bring out the vivid colors as well as the Nikon or the darker colors as well as the Leicas but did better than the others with the range of colors. Never the less, The Nikons were still the brightest of the bunch but never gave a washed out view.... Again in my eyes a victory for the SE's. All three were very good and there were no loser of the bunch. Well I hope if your still reading I didn't bore you too much!
As a side note I brought my 12x SE's with and compared them with the 10's in low light. The 12's in my eye were no brighter than the 10's and the view looked identical to the 10x SE. The 12x SE did however resolve better due to the greater magnification and I could make out better detail...
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