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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Hawke Frontier 8x43 ED / Sapphire 8x43 (1 Viewer)

breydon

Well-known member
Hi All Just a quick thread from me. Been using the Frontiers for a couple of years now and found them excellent, But desided to upgrade them and went for the Sapphires thinking they would be even better unfortunately did not find them so and I don't no why they both seem the same but I find the Frontiers have a more easy view. So gone back to them. on a nother note checked out the Zeiss conquest 8x42 at minsmere to me the the view and brightness were the same and the frontier has a wider field
 
Breydon, I find that the Sapphire 8x43 have too much blackout compared to the Hawke Endurance 8x42. I should try the Frontiers to see if their view is good too and as good as other people say.
The Zeiss Conquest HD 8x32 is just as wide and slighltly better resolution. But they too have blackout problems, the eye cups don't seem to extend as much as the FLs.
The Sapphires hold well, more stable and feel good in the hands (less shake). These ones are open bridge, which is nice. The lens caps for the Sapphires are much better too.
 
I also have the 8x43 Frontier ED and, like you, really like them. Getting a significant upgrade will be expensive (I know, just bought some Leica Ultravid HD+ 7x42's). Tried the Sapphire's as well, no discernible difference optically and didn't like the 'feel' of them. During the search for my latest bins I tried the new Frontier ED-X range and found them very good, definitely better than the Sapphire, might be worth giving them a try as they are not that expensive and were as good as most I tried at twice the price. My new Leicas cost 4 times the price and are definitely not 4x as good. At one stage I was looking at the new Leica Trinovids and Zeiss Conquests and could find very little difference between them and the ED-X, in fact the wider field of view of the ED-X would probably have made me choose them out of the 3.

Just MHO of course.

Nick
 
Tried out the Sapphire and Frontier ED X today and far preferred the Frontier. Would have bought a pair but the eye cups don't come out far enough compared with other brands and they just didn't work for me. If they fixed that design fault I think they'd sell a lot more. Very nice design and feel otherwise.
 
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