DLS Stokes vs. Known brands (1 Viewer)

As I am getting ready to plunk the cash down for bins around the $1,000 mark, I go back to the Stokes more and more. Why? Because they seem to have features that the upper end brand names have.

Using this logic though, would you buy the stokes over a trinivid or SLC ? Has anyone compared these side by side? Casual conversation and chat seem to suggest that the Stokes are in fact better than these two second generation bins.

The FL's, El's and ultravids of course skyrocket $500 more or so.

I refuse to give in to the easily adopted logic that...if I am spending 1k on bins, then what the heck? Go for the gusto. 500 bucks is 500 bucks in my checkbook.

I am so utterly confused in this new purchase.

There is an up side to the Stokes being a relatively unknown brand. My wife would never guess that I spent so much money on bins.

Best Regards

The brand may be unkown but the bins are a proven design that were "borrowed" from a well known and respected maker.

Robert Ellis said:

The brand may be unkown but the bins are a proven design that were "borrowed" from a well known and respected maker.

Click to expand...

May I ask what design? I am a bit new to the market.

randman said:

May I ask what design? I am a bit new to the market.

Click to expand...

I don't know why R.E. is being so cagey about this; he's mentioned this hint in a different thread, too, again without specifics. In that thread he states that the Stokes design is based on a "former" Better View Desired reference set pair of bins, which were then supplanted by the Nikon LX 8x42's. My best recollection is that the bins Mr. Ellis is hinting at are the Bausch & Lomb Elite 8x42's. I don't know what other bins might fit the hint, but the specs are not the same. The Stokes are lighter, and have a significantly wider field of view than the old Elites did.

Regarding the Stokes, Eagle Optics has an excellent reputation for customer service and a very liberal return policy. You can always try the Stokes and see for yourself.

I ended up a pair of the Nikon LXL 8x42's for very little money more than the Stokes. I find them a superb pair of bins that have squelched all yearning for status Eurobins. I am also confident that should I ever decide to trade the Nikons (though not an apparent likelihood), I believe their resale value as a percentage of purchase cost would be significantly higher than the Stokes brand.

I don't know if the Pentax DCF SP's are fabbed in Japan or China. If Japan, with their better manuf. tolerances and consistency, The SP's might still represent a price/performance sweet spot, and I believe the Pentaxes also have a (limited) lifetime warranty.

Happy hunting,

Bradley

My impression has been that the SLC's and the Trinovids are pretty much optically on par with the EL's and Ultravids, so I'd look at those. I've never owned SLC's (I have EL 8.5x42's), but did recently buy a pair of Trinovids, and frankly, I can't imagine that the Ultras could give a better view.

Bill

I didn't want to piss Vortex off, and I have not heard this directly from them, but...
Myself and others, including some expereinced retailers, have been shown the bins by Vortex on occasion. One of us decided to comment, "kinda remind me of the old Elites" the response was affirmative. Tweaked eyepieces and measuring differences would account for the spec differencs.

Being based on such a succesful bin should help Vortex, if people can live with a bin that says Stokes on it.

I still have not seen the Stokes in person. But, I say, why spend a $1,000 on a brand that most people have never heard of? If you buy name brand and decide to get rid of them one day you will have no problem finding people willing to buy a used pair of Leicas, Swaros, etc. The same cannot be said of a relatively unknown, brand-labeled bino. I also feel more comfortable buying from 100+ yr old manufacturers rather than a store brand.

ranburr

The Stokes has the look of a binocular from a Japanese factory tweaked to the requirements of the Stokes brand. Whenever I see pictures of the Stokes 8x42, I always think it looks rather like the 8x42 Opticron DBA. The general shape and size are the same. I would not be surprised if they were the same basic binocular, with small differences in coatings, manufacturing tolerances and quality control, cosmetics etc. The Opticron DBA is by all accounts quite decent, but priced too close to the big names IMO. With luck a review will appear before long.
Leif

Here's a trick I use to determine if two sets of optics are really identical. Place a single simple light source like a light bulb or a window over your shoulder. Using one eye examine the pattern of light source reflections you see looking into the objective and eyepiece ends of the two binoculars placed side by side from about 20-30 inches away. If the optics are identical you will be able to tilt the binoculars until you see an identical reflection pattern coming from both the outside and interior elements of each. I think you will see what I mean by just comparing the right and left sides of the same binocular.

I'v had the opertunity to try the stokes bins and I really liked them. In a side by side comparison with the bushnell elites and Nikon premiers I would choose the stokes because they are better optically (this was very evident when viewing high contrast areas in the sun, they had no purple hazing unlike the other two), focus closer and have that incredible no-fault lifetime warranty. It seems to me the $1000 binocular niche has had the bar raised by these stokes.

I was pretty dissappointed with the bushnells, I was expecting a much better product from them. Optically they were just OK and their close focus was not very close at all (I don't remember the exact distance). I did find them comfortable though.

I was quite surprised at the quality of the stokes considering the fact that they are brand new to the market. Of course time will tell how versitile and rugged they are (but with a warranty like that you can bet they're pretty tough).

Cheers,

Russ