A little update. Not sure if this should really belong here, but oh well.
I've been looking up brick and mortar shops around Prague that sell Meopta, where I could try and potentially buy the MeoStar 12x50 HD, and I haven't been very successful.
Finding a shop that carries Leica, Zeiss, Swarovski, ..., not a problem, but our own domestic make - nope.
I tried one shop where I was sure they have some MeoStars in store. When I asked for the 12x50 HD, I was told "Only to backorder, non-cancellable. The standard B1 12x50 didn't sell too well, and in HD version it's not any better. Birders want the 10x42 HD, hunters want the 15x56 HD for long distance, 12x50HD is a sort of a hybrid that not many people want..."
Well, I would, since I'm not really a full time birder and definitely not a hunter. So they let me try the 10x42 HD and the 10x50 (and also a Kowa Genesis 10.5x44 which I found impossible to adjust for my IPD due to wide eyecups and short eye relief but that's irrelevant now), and I already have a 8x42 Vanguard, and for my hands a 42mm is kinda smallish (large hands + narrow IPD = not ideal grip) and figured I don't really need another 42mm bin.
I liked the 10x50. I liked the design of it very much, except for the focuser, which was too stiff and way too slow. The image was great.
I said to them, if Meopta made 10x50 HD MeoStar, I'd want one.
So, for comparison, they let me try a 10x50 binocular that is HD - a Swarovski EL fieldpro. They shouldn't have done that.
Like I said, the image of the MeoStar was great. For not having HD lenses, it didn't show a lot of CA, but it was there. Then I switched to the Swarovski and - it was gone. No CA. I looked really hard and searched for it and indeed, I found some when looking at the edges of a black handle on a white van standing outside, but it was so tiny.
The focuser on the EL - smooth as silk, ideal rate. Why can't all focusers be like this? (I $u$p€ct I know why).
I wasn't able to tell a difference between the color cast, but I could see a difference of the sharpness, which with the EL was absolute to the very edge, whereas the image of the B1 started becoming blurry at about 80-90% of the distance from the center to the field stop.
Very good, but not perfect.
The store interior wasn't ideal for testing for globe effect, but I couldn't see any with either.
They had some cardboard box lying around, so I tried to see if it would look orthographic through the binoculars. It did with both. I guess I'll have to live with the fact most binoculars do that.
However, I remember that with the EL, when looking at window blinds, they all looked straight as arrows. I don't remember how the B1 fared in that comparison, because honestly I was too immersed with the EL. Can you blame me?
One more thing I tried, I lit the flashlight on my phone and propped it up so I could look directly in it's rather bright light.
Ï could see diffraction spikes with the MeoStar, quite clear and about halfway across the FOV.
I tried the same with the EL, and there they weren't.
No diffraction spikes at all. Not even a hint. The lit LED looked exactly the same as if looked at directly, with a little halo around that you'd see with naked eye as well, with 2 very faint internal reflections, one of them yellowish and the other one purple, like the AR coatings tint. I'm not sure if the MeoStar showed any internal reflections, but they were rather overshadowed by the diffraction spikes, which can't really be called an improvement over the EL (tried the same at home with my Endeavor. Tiny internal reflections, drowned out in the diffraction spikes).
I'm not sure if I'd describe the EL 10x50 as something giving me a wow effect. It's more like, they show what you want to look at, only from closer, and nothing else.
So, I was poised to buy the MeoStar, but unless I get a chance to try the 12x50 HD MeoStar and find it much better than the standard 10x50 (that is, no diffraction spikes even from a bright light source and a better edge sharpness), it's not going to happen, and I will have to have the Swarovski.
So now I'm kind of screwed because a) it's more than twice as expensive and b), call me crazy but I don't like the look of the field pro. I think the buttons on the sides of the barrels for strap attachment look inappropriate and the objective covers that when removed leave behind a gap with a bare wire are absurd (what was wrong with the 2nd gen Swarovski lens cap attachment anyway?). The 2nd gen, in my opinion, was a lot more aesthetically pleasing than the field pro (though not as much as the MeoStar, with its bullet shaped barrels, central hinge and strap loops neatly flush with the barrels) so my only chance is somehow gathering sufficient amount of money and going after that 2nd gen 10x50 SV in the ad I found yesterday, and hope someone doesn't beat me to it.
I didn't think I was quite ready for an alpha bin, but I guess I have no choice, really.
Apologies to my fellow countrymen producing binoculars in Přerov. You're great, but our neighbors to the south are better at it.
Martin