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

Zeiss Victory 8x42 SF 524223 REVIEWS? (1 Viewer)

[email protected] said:
Excuse me but it is not "foolish banter". It is what I honestly experienced. I found the ergonomics of the Zeiss 8x42 SF excellent and I liked the light feel and balance of it and I thought the focuser was superior to the Swarovski being very smooth and better placed. I thought I had found my favorite binocular but the optics did not work for me. I doubt there was something wrong with the binocular. It was probably just my eyes and facial structure and shallow eye sockets that resulted in the orange rings around the FOV. We are all different and our eyes are different. Everybody gets defensive defending their binocular but they don't work the same for everybody. We all have different eyes and facial structure. I personally had more distortion at the field edge with the SF than the SV and I definitely did not like the orange rings. I am not trying to bash Zeiss. Just relating my personal experience with this model. I am sure for many it is a fine binocular. It wasn't for me.
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Is it the last EL that you have ? the first and only EL i ve used is the last one and i found that maybe there is even less friction on the focuser than on Zeiss sf one ! Maybe there is a very little difference between both direction.

For sure ergo of the zeiss is overall better and the focuser is better placed. Weight balance is also better and the field of view is bigger !

till now i have only ordered the zeiss and the swaro to see which one is better for me; so i am not addicted to one brand as the only bino that i ve owned is a way cheaper kowa one !

But after 1 week of extensive comparison i have no doubt that if i spend 2000 euros i want the optic quality of the Swaro and not the Zeiss.
So totally agree with you.

To be honest i was thinking that i will not discern any difference in the quality of the image between this 2 bino before ordering them.....i was wrong !
 
No, they were a little short on eye cup extension compared to the 8.5x42 SV's. The two that work the best for me for eye cup extension are the 8x32 SV FP and the 8.5x42 SV FP and that is what I have. They are perfect.
 
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Chris223 said:
Is it the last EL that you have ? the first and only EL i ve used is the last one and i found that maybe there is even less friction on the focuser than on Zeiss sf one ! Maybe there is a very little difference between both direction.

For sure ergo of the zeiss is overall better and the focuser is better placed. Weight balance is also better and the field of view is bigger !

till now i have only ordered the zeiss and the swaro to see which one is better for me; so i am not addicted to one brand as the only bino that i ve owned is a way cheaper kowa one !

But after 1 week of extensive comparison i have no doubt that if i spend 2000 euros i want the optic quality of the Swaro and not the Zeiss.
So totally agree with you.

To be honest i was thinking that i will not discern any difference in the quality of the image between this 2 bino before ordering them.....i was wrong !
Click to expand...
Me too! I took the Zeiss 8x42 SF out of the box and liked it although it seemed kind of big but it felt light for it's size and I liked the smooth focuser. Onced I looked through it I knew right away I didn't like it as well as the Swarovski.
 
Lightbender said:
Dennis, my personal experiences regarding SF 8x42 vs SV 8.5x42 are similar to yours.
Click to expand...

Hi,


My also, that Zeiss is better at Astro, wide field of view,
wonderful, the SV is optically superior during the day.

Contribution "53 and 58"
I'm not very sensitive to RB, but if I had to label this binoculars with RB, it would be the first SF 8x42 ... and yes, looking closer, the Swarovski shows a higher resolution of 0.5x more!
By the way, I own both glasses ...

Andreas
 
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Conndomat said:
Hi,


My also, that Zeiss is better at Astro, wide field of view,
wonderful, the SV is optically superior during the day.

Contribution "53 and 58"
I'm not very sensitive to RB, but if I had to label this binoculars with RB, it would be the first SF 8x42 ... and yes, looking closer, the Swarovski shows a higher resolution of 0.5x more!
By the way, I own both glasses ...

Andreas
Click to expand...
Isn't the flat field and sharp edges of the Swarovski SV better for Astro than the Zeiss SF? No distortion at the edges and a flat field is usually better for star fields.
 
[email protected] said:
Isn't the flat field and sharp edges of the Swarovski SV better for Astro than the Zeiss SF? No distortion at the edges and a flat field is usually better for star fields.
Click to expand...

Hi,

I refer to the large field of view of the Zeiss, in addition, the glass is so 80-85% edge sharp, that's enough.
Overall, the Swaro edge of course is a little better.

Andreas
 
[email protected] said:
No, they were a little short on eye cup extension compared to the 8.5x42 SV's. The two that work the best for me for eye cup extension are the 8x32 SV FP and the 8.5x42 SV FP and that is what I have. They are perfect.
Click to expand...

Thanks Dennis. I agree, the 8.5x42 is the most comfortable binocular I've used. No blackouts!

james holdsworth said:
I think you have to change ''are'' with ''were.'';)
Click to expand...

It's hard to keep up James!


Jack
 
I just ordered a new Swarovski 8x32 SV FP to compliment the SV 8.5x42 SV FP. I know the 32mm has a little more flare but sometimes I like the smaller size and the bigger walk-in FOV. I like the FP upgrades with the strap attachment, attached objective covers, new rain guard and really improved armour and focus wheel ribbing and material. Curious to see if the latest model has improved in flare control. Even with the flare I think the SV 8x32 is still the best 32mm available. I know Swarovski's aren't perfect. No binocular is but I think they are the best available binoculars right now. The SV series are about as perfect as you get.
 
I just ordered a new Swarovski 8x32 SV FP to compliment the SV 8.5x42 SV FP.
Click to expand...

I am sure the 8.5x will return the compliment. ;)
Seriously, the SV 8x32 is as good as it gets. It has the well-know glare issue (and I don't think the FP has an improved glare control) but you can learn how to deal with glare, for example by tilting the bino a bit upwards. I have several very good 8x32's (SV, EDG, FL and SE) and indeed the SV is my favorite.
 
[email protected] said:
I just ordered a new Swarovski 8x32 SV FP to compliment the SV 8.5x42 SV FP. I know the 32mm has a little more flare but sometimes I like the smaller size and the bigger walk-in FOV. I like the FP upgrades with the strap attachment, attached objective covers, new rain guard and really improved armour and focus wheel ribbing and material. Curious to see if the latest model has improved in flare control. Even with the flare I think the SV 8x32 is still the best 32mm available. I know Swarovski's aren't perfect. No binocular is but I think they are the best available binoculars right now. The SV series are about as perfect as you get.
Click to expand...

I remember suggesting to you a while back to get the 8.5x42 SV in place of your 8x and 9x you had at the time. I thought 8.5x would be a nice compromise instead of having two bins with only 1x mag difference. You may not remember that. Anyway, back to 8x32 SV I see and the new FP version. I really liked the FP version when I tried it sometime last year...beautiful. enjoy.
 
The 8.5x42 SV FP is probably the best all around binocular for me but I like having a 32mm for the small size and light weight. The smaller SV has a bigger FOV which feels more "walk-in" when you use it. It does have a little more flare in some situations than the 42mm but I have tried every 32mm including the Nikon EDG, Zeiss FL, Zeiss Conquest HD and the Leica Ultravid HD plus and I still like it the best. The 3rd generation just has incremental improvements but it makes quite a difference out in the field. I like the FP strap attachments with the adjustable strap and the attached objective covers. Also, the upgraded armour is really nice to the touch and it handles nice and they have improved the feel of the focus wheel. I told Sport Optics to check the focuser and make sure it doesn't have too much stiction. I just have two binoculars. The Swarovski 8.5x42 SV FP and the Swarovski 8x32 SV FP.
 
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Chris223 said:
I did not see an orange ring in my pair but the extreme edge is not usable for sure ! (ok maybe extreme edge is not necessary as the FOV is wide).
The image at edge is distorded and kind of blue/purple ring.

The blurr occur more or less at 80% . With the swaro the last 99% is better than the center of most non alfa bino !

The ergo parts of the SF is perfect .But for me optically Zeiss tried to beat the competition with an extra large FOV and because ot that did not achieve the image quality of his competitor !
Click to expand...

@ Chris, I have not tried the 8.5x42, how would you compare this to the zeiss SF if you only compare the center 60deg fov of both, ignoring the outer 60-65 degrees of the black SF?

I looked for the blue ring you speak of at the edge of the FOV and found the following:

  • The outer edge of the FOV is indeed "distorted", but this is perhaps the outer 1-2 degrees of the fov! Certainly within the 5 degree margin the SFs have over the 8.5x42s. Only the extreme 0.5mm of the fov is visibly distorted, the other perhaps 0.5-2mm is only visible when looking at something like text. I do not see a blur occuring at 80%, only at the extreme outer edge.
  • In normal viewing, a blue ring is only visible to me with glasses on, and I would have to actively look for this to see it. There is no ring with glasses off
  • Looking through the bins at extreme angles makes the blue visible without glasses (eg: move the bins up so you only can look see the bottom 20% of the fov, and a blue shift becomes more apparent.
  • When closing one eye, the ring disappears in normal viewing with glasses(!)
  • Adjusting the ipd to more extreme distances can cause the blue ring to be more apparent

I think its only fair to compare the overlapping AFOVs between bins of the same power. Zeiss could have easily added a baffle that cuts out the outer 60-65 degrees of afov, and the SFs will then have a 60 degree afov pin sharp to the extreme edges. This would not make it a better bin!
 
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I wonder why the ring I saw on the Zeiss 8x42 SF was orangish? It was very easy to see if I rolled my eyes the slightest bit and was definitely not acceptable.
 
[email protected] said:
I wonder why the ring I saw on the Zeiss 8x42 SF was orangish? It was very easy to see if I rolled my eyes the slightest bit and was definitely not acceptable.
Click to expand...

I am guessing the ring has to do with diffraction happening in your glasses + eye + contacts caused by light on more extreme angles, probably related to the larger fov of the SF.

When wearing glasses I sometimes get colored flashes depending on the suns direction, no bins required. The color of the reflection changes depending on the material used in the lenses. (Eg: with high index glass it was red, high index plastic is more green/blue)...

If you look through one barrel straight on without any glasses or contacts, do you see the orange ring?
 
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I don't wear glasses but I already returned the Zeiss 8x42 SF's to Sport Optics. I never tried one eye but I did see an orange ring at edge of the FOV with both eyes. I think you are correct though that it is diffraction causing the different colors. That is what it looked like.
 
Funny how some worry about the outer 5% of the FOV of binoculars, yet dismiss veiling glare that will affect contrast and image quality across the entire FOV at all times.
 
I believe the orange rings I saw and the blue/purple rings described by Chris223 were what Allbino's was talking about when they tested the Zeiss 8x42 SF.

"strange slip-up with reflections beyond the eyepiece's diaphragm, most likely caused by a shiny ring inside tubes which aren’t baffled properly by apertures"

"Cons:
distinct reflections visible beyond the eyepiece's diaphragm"

"Loss of point for distinct reflections behind the eyepiece's diaphragm."

"The binoculars don’t have any distinct baffles inside tubes but one ring right outside the objective system shines noticeably. It is possible that ring is the source of reflections visible behind the diaphragm of the eyepiece. Quite clean interior with some specks of dust."

https://www.allbinos.com/304-binoculars_review-Carl_Zeiss_Victory_SF_10x42.html
 
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