Swift 828HHS Bins - Any opinions ? (1 Viewer)

matt green said:

mmmmmm,need to take a closer look at those swifts,the ones i last looked at were the old models with the pop up eye cups.

as for the leicas vs swarovski's,the dead tree half a mile from the shop carpark looked much sharper through the leicas.

that was the only basis of concluding that to me the leicas had better optics,
in every other respect the swaro's were fine,pity the swaro's focus was'nt wider though.

matt

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elkcub said:

It could well be that the Leica's seemed or were sharper than the Swaros. I compared the Ultravid 10x42 BL with Swaro's 10x42 SLC and saw an apparent brightness difference in favor of Leica, but I preferred the Swaro's color saturation and contrast. In terms of visual acuity it was really a wash betwen them for me.

What do you mean "... the swaro's focus wasn't wide enough?" Do you mean depth of field?

I guess the reason I'm so impressed by the new Swift 828 is that their small compromise in FOV allows a terrific 19mm eye relief. Also, the 8.5x magnification makes a nicer image, and the 44mm objective really does give it more versatility than my 8x30s. They only weigh 23 oz., and the $300 price tag makes me more willing to use them extensively. I'd be interested in how you feel about the optics compared the the higher prices bins.

Ed

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matt green said:

it's the focus wheel itself that i found quite narrow,compared to the beasts that adorn trinovids and highgrades.

have yet to look at the swifts and higher priced models side by side though as has been said many times here before the difference in price would i doubt equal the difference in optics alone.

matt

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... i wonder how many folk prejudge binoculars on their retail price alone before actually looking through them in the optics store.

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matt green said:

i meant that if the swifts retail in the uk at £300 and the highgrades at about
£800 the highgrades optics TO SOME might not appear £500 better.

did'nt mean to give the impression that i thought lowerpriced roofs can outperform highgrades or any other top end binoculars.

as for the swarovski's it's both the thickness and lengh that i found wanting,the focus wheel on the leica range and nickon highgrades are much bigger adding to better control of focusing imo.

matt

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kmiernik said:

What is 828 HHS interpupillary minimum distance? I have quite close one - like 60-61 mm. Would they be comfortable in use?

I'd like to order those binoculars by net so I'm little bit afraid (particularly after reading that their ID is not for children) that they won't fit my eyes.

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Luca said:

A much better choice than the Williams, i might add.

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Luca said:

They will be fine for you. They fit my 6 year old daughter just fine. I can't tell you exactly what the IPD is (someone borrowed my calipers and forgot to return them) but it is less than 60 mm.
A much better choice than the Williams, i might add.

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kmiernik said:

I hope so. Reviews are great and Swift company seems to be - from every forum I checked - like good old-school "family" biznes. And WO 8x42 opinions aren't great in terms of quality. What's more 828 are another binoculars which price in Europe is almost same as in US. Usually binoculars are priced twice more.

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rka said:

I'm looking for a good budget birding binoculars (<US$400). After quite a bit of research, it's down to two units. Interestingly, both units are from Swift, a brand I have never looked seriously at before. Does anyone have experience with the following units:

1) Swift 828HHS 8.5x44 (Latest Roof Model)
2) Swift 820ED 8.5x44 (Porro Model)

rka

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