Ok, so I had a little time yesterday morning with the Ultravid+ and today I had over 2 hours with it at the park.
In a nutshell I really love it and the 7x42 format is just wonderful for eyeglass wearers. I'm able to see the whole field of view with glasses, so the 17mm ER is enough. The 6mm EP makes eye alignment nice and easy. It's a no fuss, comfortable experience when bringing the bin up to my eyes. This will be very helpful when I need to bring the bino up to my eyes quickly for fast moving birds and in general it's just pleasant.
DOF is very good of course and this also will help with warblers and such where you need to focus quickly on birds in line of sight at different distances. I think the good dof will be helpful. You can get on birds a bit quicker when needed.
The focus wheel turns nicely and is precise , but on my unit there is a very subtle scraping feel and I've heard others say this is common with Leica focusers, but I haven't really noticed this until now. This isn't really a negative, as the focus is fine...it's just a different feel; Tension is good and even...there are no spots which feel looser or have more tension; it's even and fluid. I have no problems with it and it should not stiffen in colder weather.
I like the wider FOV and the overall image is very sharp, typical excellent Leica view with great contrast. It's really beautiful. It's very bright ! When I looked through it for the very first time on Thurs. morning before work (only had 10-15 minutes with it) the sun was out and I thought wow this is almost too bright and I didn't at first see that rich Leica styled view.. But today and yesterday were very overcast days and now I'm seeing that typical view with nice rich colors and contrast. So, 7x42 should be a bit brighter than 8x42 and now with the HT glass the view is very bright in the 7x. In the darker wooded areas where it was very dim today I was able to see good detail in the darkest spots.
Today was perfect to evaluate CA with a white overcast sky. I only test for CA when I first buy a new bin and , if acceptable to me, I never try and look for it again. I don't believe I will ever see CA with this bin when out birding.
I had a hard time finding it today. It is a nice clean image. In the rather large sweet spot I saw none. I only saw strongly backlit branches and no color fringe. I found very minor to my eyes color fringing on the outer edge and had look for it; just a thin line of yellow/green and one time subtle purple at extreme edge. This won't be noticed during normal birding, as it is very minor (barely noticeable) and only near the edges. Overall very nice CA control and I'm thinking the lower magnification may have a bigger hand in this than the updated glass (?). If anyone has the 8x42 plus let us know how CA control is compared to the regular 8x42 HD. Has it improved ?
The rubber armour feels nicer than the Trinovid I used to have. It's smoother and more comfy to hold. The ergonomics are overall nice. The bin is a bit fat and the weight so far is manageable.
That's about it... I like it very much so far.
p.s. Thanks Torview for your review/recommendation of this awesome binocular. It helped me to make the big purchase.