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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)

PlanetMaker said:
Looking closer there's about 1/4" (6.35mm) there for a lens cap tether :t:
Yes there is a corner in the Zeiss front tube body.
Click to expand...

There is a little room, but not enough for the tether ring plus the external
objective cover, if that is what you are putting on.

Some of the internal plug types may fit, if you experiment.

Jerry
 
NDhunter said:
There is a little room, but not enough for the tether ring plus the external
objective cover, if that is what you are putting on.

Some of the internal plug types may fit, if you experiment.

Jerry
Click to expand...

But see Pete Gamby's post. Opticron have a cover that fits.

Lee
 
They have fine objective covers which are very light weight and easily fully removed during use. I think Zeiss aimed to keep the weight low, especially at the objective end. Similar philosophy with light weight plastic eye cups, which are reliable and comfortable, but don’t give as positive a feel when twisting and locking vs other alphas. I think the Zeiss SF is ergonomically superior to all the alphas in actual use, with the best balance and focus out there. They are exciting to look through and have the least fatiguing view of them all, despite minor faults like a slight color cast. It’s a binoculars you want to keep on looking through.
 
Acute said:
They have fine objective covers which are very light weight and easily fully removed during use. I think Zeiss aimed to keep the weight low, especially at the objective end. Similar philosophy with light weight plastic eye cups, which are reliable and comfortable, but don’t give as positive a feel when twisting and locking vs other alphas. I think the Zeiss SF is ergonomically superior to all the alphas in actual use, with the best balance and focus out there. They are exciting to look through and have the least fatiguing view of them all, despite minor faults like a slight color cast. It’s a binoculars you want to keep on looking through.
Click to expand...

Mine is scheduled to ship tomorrow, look forward to a great view.

I'm hoping I can only see CA off axis if that and not in a straight on view, I'm overly sensitive to seeing CA |8)|
I found this review of the new 8x42
https://www.all4shooters.com/de/Jagd/Optik/Zeiss-Victory-SF-8x42-Fernglas-Test/
 
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PlanetMaker said:
I think that there's 2 things that trouble me is the complaints about the eyecups not being top notch and the front lens covers coming off at times
But I think I can handle that considering the great views from the SF
Thanks
Click to expand...

The eyecups do feel cheaper than the swaroski version, (which is made of metal I think) but they functionally work very well and have several click stops so you can put them where they need to be. It is easy to remove and replace them if need be, while some (usually cheaper) bins don’t allow you to remove them at all

Plastic eye cups have the advantage of it being harder to scratch your eyeglasses with them, and I imagine they have to be lighter than metal ones. They are better than the eye cups on the conquest 8x32, which is stiff and harder to turn.

I don’t have issues with the front lens cover “coming off” at all. The problem is more along the lines of how it hangs on one side by a string, which makes it take perhaps 2s longer to replace the objectives than normal. This does have the advantage of removing weight from the front of the binocular, which makes it easier to hold for longer periods. The objective covers are not necessarily a disadvantage here, though I rather they gave me a choice of eyecups to use, with one attached to the front of the binoculars like the 8x30 companion

I’m not sure I like the way the eye cups attach to the 8x32 EL either Those attach with some kind of hinge, which look harder to replace when it breaks...

It would be nice if there’s an aftermarket version that will attach to the binocular via a rubber ring around the objectives, that would give us more choice.
 
PlanetMaker said:
Mine is scheduled to ship tomorrow, look forward to a great view.

I'm hoping I can only see CA off axis if that and not in a straight on view, I'm overly sensitive to seeing CA |8)|
I found this review of the new 8x42
https://www.all4shooters.com/de/Jagd/Optik/Zeiss-Victory-SF-8x42-Fernglas-Test/
Click to expand...

Congrats!

You may be interested to know that the optics for the 8x42 SF were done by the same optics engineer who worked on some of the swaroski EL bins. Sadly, the SF was his swan song.
 
Picture of both eye cup designs, interesting, looks to be metal in the Zeiss eye cup too?
 

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aCuria said:
Congrats!

You may be interested to know that the optics for the 8x42 SF were done by the same optics engineer who worked on some of the swaroski EL bins. Sadly, the SF was his swan song.
Click to expand...

This is correct. His name was Konrad Seil, known to his friends as Konnie, and he is much missed by his colleagues.

Lee
 
PlanetMaker said:
Are those also plastic fine threads there?
Click to expand...

Yes, the whole threads are (precisely) made from plastics. One point I dislike is that you cannot screw in the eyecups tight enough after you detached them (i.e. for cleaning or drying issues after a heavy rain). This causes the eyecup detaching when turning ccw to highest position by opening the thread.

There are some further minor issues with my black SF 8x42 I noticed while using it for almost one year now. A report will follow in september.

Cheers
 
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Got my SF 8x42 yesterday, wow, razor sharp, unfortunately had to send them back to Zeiss for another pair because of a dust speck on the left side, wonder about there QC department, should have another pair next week
They paid the 2nd day FedEx back
 
I just bought a brand new pair of Zeiss SF 8x42 a couple of months ago. I liked them until I looked through them. They had thin orange rings of light around the edge of the FOV. I didn't try another pair. I returned them and I bought a pair of Swarovski's SV 8.5x42. Better quality and no problems. I like the sharper edges better and no blackouts.
 
[email protected] said:
I just bought a brand new pair of Zeiss SF 8x42 a couple of months ago. I liked them until I looked through them. They had thin orange rings of light around the edge of the FOV. I didn't try another pair. I returned them and I bought a pair of Swarovski's SV 8.5x42. Better quality and no problems. I like the sharper edges better and no blackouts.
Click to expand...

Too bad you didn't give another one a chance, I'm Mr picky when it comes to optics and the copy I sent back because of internal dust was still sharper in detail then any other binocular I've ever had and I've had just about all of them in my hands.
I have the Swarovski 10x50 and it's too close to the Swarovski 8.5 to justify the purchase and have also the Swarovski 15x56 both are excellent.
Had the Swarovski 8x32 but had problems with the rolling ball effect and the SF 8x42 kills it, hope Zeiss doesn't send me your copy :king:
 
[email protected] said:
I just bought a brand new pair of Zeiss SF 8x42 a couple of months ago. I liked them until I looked through them. They had thin orange rings of light around the edge of the FOV. I didn't try another pair. I returned them and I bought a pair of Swarovski's SV 8.5x42. Better quality and no problems. I like the sharper edges better and no blackouts.
Click to expand...



How could you like them until you looked through them???:h?:
 
Vollmeise said:
Yes, the whole threads are (precisely) made from plastics. One point I dislike is that you cannot screw in the eyecups tight enough after you detached them (i.e. for cleaning or drying issues after a heavy rain). This causes the eyecup detaching when turning ccw to highest position by opening the thread.

There are some further minor issues with my black SF 8x42 I noticed while using it for almost one year now. A report will follow in september.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Vollmeise

There is a technique to fitting Zeiss eyecups back onto the binos after removing them for cleaning and this was taught to me by a Zeiss service engineer.

When you screw them upwards at first they extend to the non-spectacles position and if you continue to screw them upwards they remove from the binos. To re-fit them, first you must 'collapse' the extended eye-cup to into its smallest length, like it would be for a spectacle wearer. If you push two fingers up inside the eye-up through the opening at the bottom and spread you fingers out you can stop the inner element rotating and screw the outer part downwards with your other hand so that now the eye-cup is at its shortest length. Now you can re-fit them to the bino and they screw down securely and do not come off when you screw them up to the position for those who do not wear spectacles.

Lee
 
I liked the ergonomics, focus and everything except the view. I don't feel the quality is quite on par with the Swarovski but it is fine. When I looked through them I like it at first except the edges were a little softer than the SV and it was more prone to blackouts than the SV then on a sunny day I started seeing a thin orange ring at the outermost of the FOV. It just must because of the way my eyes and facial structure work with the binoculars. I returned them and got the SV 8.5x42. I prefer them for my eyes.
 
PlanetMaker said:
Too bad you didn't give another one a chance, I'm Mr picky when it comes to optics and the copy I sent back because of internal dust was still sharper in detail then any other binocular I've ever had and I've had just about all of them in my hands.
I have the Swarovski 10x50 and it's too close to the Swarovski 8.5 to justify the purchase and have also the Swarovski 15x56 both are excellent.
Had the Swarovski 8x32 but had problems with the rolling ball effect and the SF 8x42 kills it, hope Zeiss doesn't send me your copy :king:
Click to expand...
RB doesn't bother me. The Zeiss were a little more prone to blackouts also and I prefer the sharper edges of the SV. Everybody is different. The Swarovski's just work the best for me. I tried a Leica Ultravid HD Plus 8x32 and the eye cups were to short on it also. It irritated me because I could see it had really nice optics and good contrast. I might try an SV 8x32 again but before I got quite a bit of glare with it. I don't get the glare with the 8.5x42 SV.
 
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