Well the fact was my pair of 8x32se showed more CA than the 7x42 dialyt I had before them and the 7x42 dialyt I replaced them with.
Still we know how much you like the 8x32 se as you never cease in telling us, though a few days ago you had them up for sale.I thought you had come to your senses,but,alas it was not so!!
suppressor
Suppressor,
I don't doubt you, a good quality 7x bin should show less CA than an 8x bin, particularly a long roof (due to the A/B prisms) with no internal focus such as the 7x42 Dialyt .
That's not surprising. I see less CA when comparing the SE against the Nikon 7x35 WF.and the Vixen 7x50 Foresta (though its triplet objective may also be a factor), But in your original post, you just wrote the SE had "CA and lots of it," without qualifying as compared to what. Compared to a Nikon 8x32 HG/L, I think you'd find the SE to be a much better CA SUPPRESSOR.
Even unqualified, I don't doubt what you saw. Perhaps you're used to ED roofs or are more sensitive to CA than even I am, however, if you read reviews of the 8x32 SE, you will find that most reviewers/users find the SE good to very good in controlling CA. It's well made and unlike modern roofs, which have more CA because of their internal focusing elements, the SE doesn't have that problem to overcome. You are the first person I've heard complain about the CA in the 8x SE, so it surprised me. I also couldn't resist goofing on your username since it fit perfectly in the discussion.
I was thinking about what you wrote when I took the 8X SE out on Saturday and was watching at least 50, probably more, crows on a snow covered field. I was looking south, with a treeline at the edge of the field positioned against a bright, cloudy sky.
In the central portion of the FOV, I didn't see any CA on the crows or the trees. About 60%-65% from center, I started noticing CA (purple on one side of the FOV, green on the other). I thought that many bins would be out of focus or certainly souring by 60%-65% out, and that perhaps the reason you see "lots of it" is because you could focus on objects both in the centerfield and edges at the same time, which makes it easy to compare the CA suppression from center to edge.
I then looked at the same scene with my 8x30 EII expecting to see more CA in the same area, but it was close to the same amount at 60%-65% as the SE, BUT I could see much more edge because of the wider FOV so therefore more CA, which worsens the farther I looked off axis. The fall at the edges is gradual so it didn't take much tweaking to get the edges in sharp focus.
In the past, I have written that the EII showed more CA than the SE. Now I realize that's because of the wider FOV not because it shows more CA on axis or up to 65% off axis. So certain features of bins such as field flatteners or wide fields of view can lead one into thinking that there's more CA than there actually is.
As to me deciding not to sell the SE, at least for now, it had nothing to do with "coming to my senses" (that is, I think what you're implying is that I was selling it to buy an ED roof, because the SE has "lots of CA"), but was purely a financial decision, which I mentioned in one of my posts. The reason I changed my mind was because the SE has been discontinued so replacing it later might be difficult and/or costly.
If you see too much CA in the SE, then stay away from the HGL series, it really could use ED glass. Although you have a few users such as Bob who don't see CA, but generally most who have used the Premier/HGL series have reported seeing anywhere from mor than average CA to "lots of CA."
The SE is not everybody's cup of tea for other reasons, the image blackouts probably chief among them, but to me, they still provide the best bang for the buck, the best ergos in an 8x32 (other than the original 8x32 EL, which are equally comfortable to hold), and a better 3-D effect than any 8x30/32 roof I've tried.
So if I never cease in touting them, those are the reasons. I was also hoping that by turning others on to the joys of the SEs and EIIs, that they would buy them, which would encourage Nikon to keep making them, but I see I failed at that mission!
However, unlike some Swaro fanboys who think their bins are perfect, I recognize the limitations or flaws of the SE, EII, HGL, EDG, and other Nikons Ive owned or tested, and I have discussed those shortcomings on BF.
No bin is perfect. There is always something that one user likes that another users abhors, and we are a good example. One reason I like the SE is that to my eyes, it does a good job of controlling CA. I only see it in the most extreme conditions.
So no harm or foul. To quote a famous sailor: I yam what I yam, and that's all what I yam.
Brock