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Spoiled by the SE view...now what? (1 Viewer)

ceasar said:
Where do you bird where you see a "crowd" of Swarovski users? Cape Cod? The Hamptons?
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Seattle, too. The most common "top 4" bin is clearly the Swaro. Followed by Leica. And then Zeiss. I don't recall seeing any other top Nikon aside from one well used 8x32 SE.

There are a lot more mid-range bins and terrible low end bins. Even amongst people who are good birders. I have a particular lever-focus porro in mind.

Monarchs are the common default amongst the impecunious intermediate or student or field worker or just those that would rather spend two weeks in Peru rather than get an "alpha". They're light, robust and have a good warranty. I've seen quite a few at "twitches". Each to his own.

Yes, it isn't the bike -- it is the rider. I once had the experience of pointing out a distant (50m?) Western Bluebird (an oddity on Montlake Fill in lowland Western WA) to a older woman with Swaro EL who couldn't find the bird on her own. It was hawking/gleaning invertebrates in grassland and returning to a post as a perch before heading out for another invertebrate in the grass. Nice distinctive behavior that did stand out if you paid attention to it. An example of getting a good optic but not having the skills to go along with it.

As someone commented above I always love the tour leader with an old bin and foggy glasses who can see (and often sex) a uncommon bird 200m away. Especially if he has porros. Think Chandler Robbins and his battered Bushnell 10x50.

A lot of Swaro users are, I think, just quite well heeled rather than being optically knowledgeable. They just ask around in the same way that they buy a new car: a Lexus or a Merc? It's not expensive to them. Lots of people think they're good. That's good enough for them. They would have got those or Leicas.
 
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Yeah, sometimes I wonder. I was on the Cape May birding deck last fall and there were two middle aged ladies nearby using 50mm SLC's. One had the cap over one objective and was holding it and using it like a monocular. She seemed to have normal vision otherwise, but I can't be sure. Anyway it looked like a very practical way to use it if you only had one good eye. Much more steady with their weight, I'm sure, than a regular monocular!

I was the only person there with a porro AFAIK--I had my 10 x 42SE.
Bob
 
You guys make me nervous. Don´t know what to take out birding anymore...perhaps in future I´ll take both EL´s and SE´s, hide both under my jacket, and only choose one when I note what all the other birders have, so as to cause neither offence nor envy.;)
Actually there are so few birders here (in "Formerly-Known-As-Republic-of-Ireland") that you rarely see more than three together at a time. I reckon most of the serious folk have top 3 Euro binos, mostly swaros. I´ve never seen anyone else (apart from yours truly) tote either a Canon or an SE/EII. I´ve never seen Steiners, Zen-Rays, Hawkes, etc. on any Irish birder. Some of the real old hands occasionally turn up with Dialyt 7x42 - this earns Respect. One elderly gent of nature film-making here totes Trinovids. I don´t think there´s optics-envy here - some of us may like foolish experimentation, but they´re tubes with glass in for seeing faraway stuff, take yer pick.
 
Sancho, I now have a new sig line from the collective wisdom of BF. Thanks.

And when I visit the old country, I hope you'll have your SVs--I'd like to take a good long look through some.
 
David Swain said:
Sancho, I now have a new sig line from the collective wisdom of BF. Thanks.

And when I visit the old country, I hope you'll have your SVs--I'd like to take a good long look through some.
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I´m humbled, David - you´re too kind! (My wife will probably let me keep the SV´s until you visit, upon which you´re more than welcome to have a gander through them!B) :)Happy New Year, Éanna
 
Sancho - Had a couple I know return from Ireland after a three week visit. They claimed it rained everyday. A waterproof binocular must be essential. Same new year wishes. John
 
John Dracon said:
Sancho - Had a couple I know return from Ireland after a three week visit. They claimed it rained everyday. A waterproof binocular must be essential. Same new year wishes. John
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Sorry to hear they had rain every day, I hope they had dry spells too! I recently learned how essential a WP bino is here, when I ruined a new pair of Bushnell Elite 7x26 in a shower. And there I was, thinking WP was a modern over-hyped caprice! Not sure therefore I want my SE´s anymore, much as though I love them. Best wishes to you for the new year too, John!
 
Bob, I seem to remember a woman posting on here that her lady friend needed a monocular. Seems she talked about Cape May. I did a search and no results. Maybe they gave up and she bought a Swaro binocular. There are quite a few threads started about monoculars.;)
BTW I have been known to carry a Swarovski around with me, and now a Nikon 8x32SE as well. I think I am spoiled by the view of the 8SE.

ceasar said:
Yeah, sometimes I wonder. I was on the Cape May birding deck last fall and there were two middle aged ladies nearby using 50mm SLC's. One had the cap over one objective and was holding it and using it like a monocular. She seemed to have normal vision otherwise, but I can't be sure. Anyway it looked like a very practical way to use it if you only had one good eye. Much more steady with their weight, I'm sure, than a regular monocular!

I was the only person there with a porro AFAIK--I had my 10 x 42SE.
Bob
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All things considered she would probably still be better off with the SLC because of the Optics and because she could steady it with both hands. The latter is hard to do with a monocular.
Bob
 
Sancho - If Nikon would improve the 8x32 SE with internal focusing like the Leupold Cascade porro and make it water proof, eye cups that accommodated everyone with or without eye glasses, keep the same FOV and that special resolution the current model possesses, I would pay big bucks to get one. Who knows, it may happen some day.
John
 
John Dracon said:
Sancho - If Nikon would improve the 8x32 SE with internal focusing like the Leupold Cascade porro and make it water proof, eye cups that accommodated everyone with or without eye glasses, keep the same FOV and that special resolution the current model possesses, I would pay big bucks to get one. Who knows, it may happen some day.
John
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Good luck!

Sometimes a binocular is more than the sum of it's parts--like the current SE.:t:

Sometimes it isn't.:C

Bob

PS: Have you considered that it may not be as good as the old one?
 
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John Dracon said:
I would pay big bucks to get one.
John
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This fact, I suspect, is key. If there *were* a market for no-holds-barred porros priced in the alpha class, I imagine Nikon might have tried to update the SE, but that train had already left the station with the sole emphasis on roofs by the big-3.

I don't think it will happen, but there is certainly a strong value market for porros, which would exclude the SE in its current form. But what if they rebranded/redesigned the SEs or EIIs as a niche birding glass? If it succeeded, it would just steal sales from the EDG series. And reading between the lines of Mike Freiberg's occasional notes on the SEs vs EDGs, that's exactly what Nikon fears. They have many other fish to fry.

Sad that optical excellence alone is sufficient only to keep the SE on the market, frozen in time as a "special order item," but nothing more.
 
David Swain said:
This fact, I suspect, is key. If there *were* a market for no-holds-barred porros priced in the alpha class, I imagine Nikon might have tried to update the SE, but that train had already left the station with the sole emphasis on roofs by the big-3.

I don't think it will happen, but there is certainly a strong value market for porros, which would exclude the SE in its current form. But what if they rebranded/redesigned the SEs or EIIs as a niche birding glass? If it succeeded, it would just steal sales from the EDG series. And reading between the lines of Mike Freiberg's occasional notes on the SEs vs EDGs, that's exactly what Nikon fears. They have many other fish to fry.

Sad that optical excellence alone is sufficient only to keep the SE on the market, frozen in time as a "special order item," but nothing more.
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Lucky people like us who owned SE is considered having the privileged to enjoy the view from SE ;)

When I used the 8x42 EDG last time for a week, the view was awesome much better than my 8x32 SE :king: I might get one next time but at this moment I'm enjoying my SE and for me, that is a keeper :king:
 
horukuru said:
Lucky people like us who owned SE is considered having the privileged to enjoy the view from SE ;)

When I used the 8x42 EDG last time for a week, the view was awesome much better than my 8x32 SE :king: I might get one next time but at this moment I'm enjoying my SE and for me, that is a keeper :king:
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"When I used the 8x42 EDG last time for a week, the view was awesome much better than my 8x32 SE"
Are you SURE!
 
With Nikon's pathetic US customer service department, I can't imagine why anyone would spend $2k on Nikon glass. I gave them a serial # off of a demo EDG last year from an authorized Nikon dealer and they didn't have a clue as to when it was made...no clue. Wonder what this Freiberg guy would say about that?
 
Super Dave said:
You sound very upset JG. Have you considered forgiveness?
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What's to be upset about? After talking to those idiots I purchased a Swaro. I went happily down the road and haven't looked back. Nothing in the optics world could happen to upset me....nothing. In the scheme of things optics don't mean squat.
 
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