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

New Product To Be Launched 4-Mar-2016 (1 Viewer)

LOL, Yay Dennis: nice one! :-O

Yep, I am still awake in Sheffield although the noise and stress from having our bathroom makeover has almost driven thoughts of binoculars out of my head.

If Swaro was ever to launch a third tier there would only be one winner and thats us: the folks who buy this stuff.

Meanwhile I've heard that Swaro's devastating response to the SF is a new way of attaching a strap to an EL, but I don't believe this. Surely no self-respecting optics alpha would think this is an adequate response? So I can't believe this would ever happen..... :-O

Lee
"Yep, I am still awake in Sheffield although the noise and stress from having our bathroom makeover has almost driven thoughts of binoculars out of my head."

Just get out of the house and go down to The Fat Cat pub and have a good ale and you will be all right.
 
"Yep, I am still awake in Sheffield although the noise and stress from having our bathroom makeover has almost driven thoughts of binoculars out of my head."

Just get out of the house and go down to The Fat Cat pub and have a good ale and you will be all right.

Could be a good idea Dennis :t:
The Fat Cat is on the other side of town but I know it from about 20 years ago when I used to work nearby. The beer was excellent but was the room-temperature ale type so perhaps not your style. But the best thing was the cider which was just fabulous.
Thanks for bringing back those memories.
Last night when the workers had gone we sat back with a bottle of chilled Meursault which was heaven.

Lee
 

Thanks for the visual evidence of colour bias, Globetrotter. Had he included Swarovski ELs, however, I'm sure they would have appeared equally colour-biased - toward red/orange/brown - so on that score it's down to personal preference. However, what really set the Swaro image apart imo was the sharpness, colour-saturation and contrast - perfect for picking out field marks.

Early in my field test of the Zeiss SFs, I could see they brought out the best in (green) Ring-necked Parakeets. :eek!: Sadly, the test went slightly downhill from there so that ultimately, I switched my allegiance to Swarovski.
 
That sounds like fun Lee, when I need to unwind I like soda pop and tater chips. I like the soda pop on ice though, not at room temperature.B :):king:


Could be a good idea Dennis :t:
The Fat Cat is on the other side of town but I know it from about 20 years ago when I used to work nearby. The beer was excellent but was the room-temperature ale type so perhaps not your style. But the best thing was the cider which was just fabulous.
Thanks for bringing back those memories.
Last night when the workers had gone we sat back with a bottle of chilled Meursault which was heaven.

Lee
 
Has one got any idea if it's a porro or not they are releasing in the 4th of March? I want to get this porro Habicht 8x30 as there seems no other choice.. it has top image quality but poor flare control.. but wondering if they would be releasing a 8x30 with upgraded baffling or something like that.. what you think?

I doubt that Swarovski will announce a new porro prism binocular,
but I am just speculating. Porro binocular sales numbers are small
compared to the roof designs, and it is nice that they continue to upgrade the glass in the porro models, that have been around for many years.
I would be very surprised if they update these in any other way.

If the flare control is not good for you, then move on to another model
there are many nice choices on the market today.

Jerry
 
Can't they solve the flare control because of lack of advanced technology (in spite working on it for 30 years) or they are unwilling to solve it.. what is your theory?

I suspect the flare control issue is not much concern for most users.

There is no perfect optic, they are all a compromise, so just consider
that.

Jerry
 
Does anyone have any friend at Swarovski? Can you please confirm if there is no new porro coming out on March 4.. not guessing but actually asking them? Because if no porro coming. I think i'll order the Habicht 8x30 asap to try as it is the sharpest bino on the planet with maximum contrast transfer than not even top alpha roofs can offer. The latter may have less coma, astigmatism, but for resolution.. perhaps one can say the Habicht 8x30 is the world's greatest bino as far as contrast transfer is concerned (not even the Fujinon 7x50 can beat it in contrast transfer right)?

Lume,

My EL 10x50 SV's have Better sharpness, resolution, color and yes, contrast than the 8x30 W's I owned!! When the 8x30 view would loose resolution because of extreme low light, the 10x50's would continue glassing on, even into almost total darkness!

Get the 8x30's and try them out...they may be all the bin you'll ever want...just wasn't for me.

I'll be in Absam on June 13th...wait, you want to know before March 4th huh...sorry. :-C

Ted
 
Lume,

Why wait? Order one now. You aren't going to be satisfied until you use one. The optics are the simple thing because they will be first rate! :t:

You have to find out if its ergonomics are suitable for you.
 
I think i'll order the Habicht 8x30 asap to try as it is the sharpest bino on the planet with maximum contrast transfer than not even top alpha roofs can offer. The latter may have less coma, astigmatism, but for resolution.. perhaps one can say the Habicht 8x30 is the world's greatest bino as far as contrast transfer is concerned (not even the Fujinon 7x50 can beat it in contrast transfer right)?
Well, maybe and maybe not. I personally doubt that there is a "sharpest bino on the planet", or at least if there is it won't necessarily seem that way to everyone who uses them (or compares them to whatever seems "the best" to them this week). Plus, the photographer in me wants to quote Henri Cartier-Bresson and say "sharpness is a bourgeois concept". Also: ergonomics and other physical things (eg. size, weight and shape) matter; format matters (50mm objectives gather a lot more light; different magnifications work better for different people); even appearance may matter, or perceived "snob value" or whatever... The list could go on and on.

Nonetheless, I'm going to agree with this:
You aren't going to be satisfied until you use one.
That may not be rational. Sometimes rationality is overrated. I've just spent way too much money on some binoculars I can't justify rationally (though I can try hard to convince myself). As long as I can afford them, and nobody gets hurt (even me) then where's the harm? Wasting a bit of money may well be better than spending too much time over-thinking things, or worrying about "dying without knowing".

So buy them, already! Here's hoping they're just as great as you think they'll be. :t:

...Mike
 
Does anyone have any friend at Swarovski? Can you please confirm if there is no new porro coming out on March 4.. not guessing but actually asking them? Because if no porro coming. I think i'll order the Habicht 8x30 asap to try as it is the sharpest bino on the planet with maximum contrast transfer than not even top alpha roofs can offer. The latter may have less coma, astigmatism, but for resolution.. perhaps one can say the Habicht 8x30 is the world's greatest bino as far as contrast transfer is concerned (not even the Fujinon 7x50 can beat it in contrast transfer right)?
I don't think so. Swarovski hasn't made a new porro in 60 years since the Habicht. I wish they would. HaHa!
 
Dennis, post 79,
Before you say something about Swarovski porro production you better start investigating their history, since that company produced the porro SL series quite some time after the start of the Habicht porro series which started approx. 60 years ago. You can find their history on the WEB-site of House of Outdoor.
Gijs van Ginkel
 
At what distance? In what light?

...Mike
30 yards.. imaging single spider web (or single bird feather) near trees.. any lighting conditions above...
OK, that's sort-of easy: at 30 meters in good light the Habicht has a good chance of picking up the spider web. At low light, or dusk, or twilight, or less, any modern large-objective binocular with decent coatings will do better [*]. Perhaps not well enough to pick up on this putative spider-web (in my personal experience, the angle light hits webs has a lot more to do with that than you might think, and light can change by the second), but nonetheless better by a good margin. In fact, at true twilight, I'd back my thoroughly ordinary 7x50 Celestron marine binoculars (complete with semi-useful recticle, and utterly useless compass) against any 30ish objective binocular at all. Including my recently-purchased, alpha, very expensive, set of roof bins. So what? My tres ordinaire 42mm roof bins would do better too. A lot better than my 30-ish "alphas". Sometimes total quantity of light trumps most everything.

...Mike

[*]I have checked. Modern coatings make an enormous difference - to a point. I've also checked and know that my relatively inexpensive 10x50 lower-middle bins resolve considerably more than my 8x32 top-of-the-pops, alpha-grade, compact bins in low light. For me, the compact bins win, simply because I'll use them more often because I'll have them with me. Of course, their view in any kind of decent light is first-rate. But without light, well: "Sometimes total quantity of light trumps most everything." At that point saying "any lighting conditions above" is utterly worse than useless as condition for comparison.
 
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Does anyone have any friend at Swarovski? Can you please confirm if there is no new porro coming out on March 4.. not guessing but actually asking them? Because if no porro coming. I think i'll order the Habicht 8x30 asap to try as it is the sharpest bino on the planet with maximum contrast transfer than not even top alpha roofs can offer. The latter may have less coma, astigmatism, but for resolution.. perhaps one can say the Habicht 8x30 is the world's greatest bino as far as contrast transfer is concerned (not even the Fujinon 7x50 can beat it in contrast transfer right)?

Lume

1) Swarovski is not going to release any details about upcoming product. Neither would any other maker. They have planned for a launch at IWA and will have got all their guns in place for this and although dealers and the press may know what is coming the info will be under an embargo until that date.
2) The new product is launching at IWA. Its a hunting show so it will be a hunting product and you could bet safe money on it being a rifle scope.
3) You could bet safe money on Swaro never introducing another porro in your lifetime or even updating the existing ones: apart from fascinating stuff like the Leica rangefinder porro (housed in a roof look-alike body) I can't imagine any of the alphas launching a new traditional porro.

Lee
 
But isn't the Habicht a hunting bino? At binostore.com it is listed under the Hunting Bino.. btw.. what country is binostore located? I can't find it in their physical address.. and has anyone got any bad experience with it?

Lumey

Every bino is a hunting bino if you use it for hunting. I am no hunter but since I understand that much hunting takes place in twilight then an 8x30 might be the least-huntingest bins ever, apart from 10x18 pocket bin that is.

Binostore sells across international borders and I know nothing about where they source their stock but you woud be advised to carefully check whether the manufacturers warranty would apply to you.

Lee
 
lume
Pick up an 8.5X42SV while they are readily available at much reduced prices. That's my 2 cents for what it's worth.
 
@SwarovskiOptik just tweeted (1 Feb 16:55) the following:

"March 4, 2016 is D-day. We will be presenting our new landmark product that completely redefines performance."​

Anybody know what it is? Specifically, will it supplant the EL 10x42 binoculars that I just bought?!?

So why the reference to D-day???? Digital? :D

CG
 
3) You could bet safe money on Swaro never introducing another porro in your lifetime or even updating the existing ones: apart from fascinating stuff like the Leica rangefinder porro (housed in a roof look-alike body) I can't imagine any of the alphas launching a new traditional porro.

I'm pretty sure thóugh that Swarovski will update the coatings in the Habicht range whenever there's a change. Doesn't make sense not to do so, in fact, it would probably be more expensive to keep on making the Habicht with "old" coatings.

As to none of the leading manufacturers making a new porro at some stage .... Well, I'm not so sure. From talking to people from those manufacturers I got the distinct impression that they do know that porros will always have advantages over roofs when it comes to optical quality.

And traditional porros also have distinct advantages when it comes to reliability. There are simply fewer things that can go wrong.

Hermann
 
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