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Please read if you are about to buy high end bins (1 Viewer)

Blincodave

Well-known member
After a year's ownership, I decided that I could not live with the Swaro 8.5 x 42 EL's slow focus. Having sold them on E Bay, I went off to Cley Spy with enough money to purchase some Ultravids. I tested a good range: Ultravid 7s and 8s, Zeiss Victories (yes I know they are being replaced!), B & L Elites, Nikon 8 x 32 HGs, Swaro 8x32 ELs. So what did I buy?

Nikon 8 x 32 SEs. What an amazing glass. They matched or outperformed all of the above in very overcast conditions. They are well made, comfortable to hold (forget those comments in Birdwatching Magazine on this point), lightweight and have excellent eye-relief. I decided I could live without water proofing.

Please read Leif's detailed review in the Reviews section of Bird Forum. It is not easy to find a stockist but if you do, I believe you will be genuinely amazed by their quality. I have owned all of the top brands over the years but had always overlooked porros as a viable option in the past. Several days in the field have convinced me that I made the right decision. For £439, they are an amazing bargain in our over priced optics market.
 
Blincodave said:
After a year's ownership, I decided that I could not live with the Swaro 8.5 x 42 EL's slow focus. Having sold them on E Bay, I went off to Cley Spy with enough money to purchase some Ultravids. I tested a good range: Ultravid 7s and 8s, Zeiss Victories (yes I know they are being replaced!), B & L Elites, Nikon 8 x 32 HGs, Swaro 8x32 ELs. So what did I buy?

Nikon 8 x 32 SEs. What an amazing glass. They matched or outperformed all of the above in very overcast conditions. They are well made, comfortable to hold (forget those comments in Birdwatching Magazine on this point), lightweight and have excellent eye-relief. I decided I could live without water proofing.

Please read Leif's detailed review in the Reviews section of Bird Forum. It is not easy to find a stockist but if you do, I believe you will be genuinely amazed by their quality. I have owned all of the top brands over the years but had always overlooked porros as a viable option in the past. Several days in the field have convinced me that I made the right decision. For £439, they are an amazing bargain in our over priced optics market.



Welcome to the elite band of birders who have found The Holy Grail, and lived the SE experience. Ain't enlightenment wonderful.............. ;)

Clive
 
william j clive said:
Welcome to the elite band of birders who have found The Holy Grail, and lived the SE experience. Ain't enlightenment wonderful.............. ;)

Clive

Enlightenment is definitely wonderful,not so sure about self-satisfaction though ;)
 
Dave, arent they amazing? I've found that most of their 'faults' tend to be overstated. Maybe the answer is to own the SE, and just get another one if they drown or fog or grow algae or whatever way they choose to suicide - you could prob buy 2 or 3 SE's for the price of one high end roof :)
 
Comfort is not the same for everyone. I tried the 8x32 SEs and found them a disappointment. A lousy fit in my hand with a stiff focus. Please don't assume that your "Holy Grail" will be someone else's. And always "try before you buy."

Clear skies, Alan
 
AlanFrench said:
Comfort is not the same for everyone. I tried the 8x32 SEs and found them a disappointment. A lousy fit in my hand with a stiff focus. Please don't assume that your "Holy Grail" will be someone else's. And always "try before you buy."

Clear skies, Alan

In remote places, the choice in the stores isn't large enough to find a whole selection of high end binos. If you find one model, you are happy. The good thing with the SE:s is that they can easily be sold again with a minimum loss.

So, there is another advantage of the SE:s : "buy and try".

Cheers, Jens.
 
haven't got any but they are optically superb

just waiting to see how they stand up to use in tropical environments long-term. However, I have no reason to suspect they will not be excellent in this respect too. There is a long line of overlooked bins (Zeiss 8x30 dialyts, B and Lomb 7x35, Opticron minerva 9x35 etc) to which we can add the Nikon SE. I guess they're just not expensive enough to convince us of their worth, perversely.
 
Tim Allwood said:
haven't got any but they are optically superb

just waiting to see how they stand up to use in tropical environments long-term. However, I have no reason to suspect they will not be excellent in this respect too. There is a long line of overlooked bins (Zeiss 8x30 dialyts, B and Lomb 7x35, Opticron minerva 9x35 etc) to which we can add the Nikon SE. I guess they're just not expensive enough to convince us of their worth, perversely.

The question that comes to my mind is why they are not more popular in the UK, and maybe elsewhere. Okay so they are not everyone's cup of tea for various reasons, but most UK dealers do not even stock them despite Nikon having a huge presence and good reputation in the UK. Maybe it's the "rarely mentioned in the UK birding press so I'm not buying those" syndrome?
 
guess that's a major factor Leif, plus they don't look like expensive bins which may put some people off. I removed the Nikon nameplates from my Hgs to deter thefts when abroad and people do tend to give them a double take......
 
Tim Allwood said:
guess that's a major factor Leif, plus they don't look like expensive bins which may put some people off. I removed the Nikon nameplates from my Hgs to deter thefts when abroad and people do tend to give them a double take......

In *really* bad conditions I often use a pair of Hensoldt 8x30's porros. They're made to military specifications and are just about the most robust pair of binoculars I ever had. They look pretty nondescript to say the least, and most birders don't take them seriously.

Not until they look through them, that is.

Hermann
 
Hermann said:
In *really* bad conditions I often use a pair of Hensoldt 8x30's porros. They're made to military specifications and are just about the most robust pair of binoculars I ever had. They look pretty nondescript to say the least, and most birders don't take them seriously.

Not until they look through them, that is.

Hermann
Hermann,

Would you say they outperform the SEs?
 
I have been an advocate of Nikon SE's for years now. I own the 10 x 42's, which fit in my hands quite nicely, thank you. But someone above mentioned the issue of birding extensively in the humid tropics. Under those conditions I would have some doubts about using extensively a non-waterproofed binocular. For people who use their glasses under very damp and/or humid conditions, I think that getting something fully waterproofed is a good investment. For the rest of us, Nikon SE's are the best bargain out there.
 
AlanFrench said:
Comfort is not the same for everyone. I tried the 8x32 SEs and found them a disappointment. A lousy fit in my hand with a stiff focus. Please don't assume that your "Holy Grail" will be someone else's. And always "try before you buy."

Clear skies, Alan

At least you tried them. In The UK they are not widely stocked. BTW, I was not assuming my 'holy grail' will be someone else's as you suggest. I am not stupid. I am merely encouraging people to have a look at them.
 
mpedris said:
Would you say they outperform the SEs?

No. They're good, but not as good as the SEs. The Hensoldts are made for the military, and therefore have individual eyepiece focussing and laser filters that cost some optical quality. The individual eyepiece focussing makes them difficult to use for birding, but I can cope with that in open landscapes.

Hermann
 
Blincodave said:
At least you tried them. In The UK they are not widely stocked. BTW, I was not assuming my 'holy grail' will be someone else's as you suggest. I am not stupid. I am merely encouraging people to have a look at them.

Hmmm. You weren't even the person who used the term "Holy Grail," no one called you stupid, and I was only saying that not everyone finds the same binocular the right fit for them.

I agree that people should look at any binocular they are considering, no matter how highly it has been recommended. Two that made the top of my list, based on the advice of others, were absolutely horrid fits for me.

Clear skies, Alan
 
Hey, I'd like to throw some gas on this fire....... A few years ago I was in a shop buying a pair of bino's. I could afford water-proof Pentax jobs and they've been great. But the guys let me take everything outside and actually look at birds. All the top models of the top brands. Everything........ The 8X32 SE's were my favorite. So.............I asked about water proofing and fog proofing. Here's the best part. From what I remember, the salesman mentioned that the individual engineers of the SE's in Japan have huge ego's and thought that their SE's could stand any conditions and so refused to label them as such. I know this sounds odd, and I know doubt, sound more odd..........but that's what I remember. There was this bizzare inside scoop about "Bino Engineers with big attitudes". I've forgotten about it until reading this forum. I'm not sure this will help anyone, but with the state of the world right now........perhaps this controversy will be a fun distraction. I've spent much time in wet tropical forests over the last 2 years. They're dark and the SE's just must be marvelous in conditions like that. Having had cameras seize from humidity though, I still wonder if those "Wunder Bino's" would do the job or grow some fun organisms inside. Chris D
 
Chris D said:
From what I remember, the salesman mentioned that the individual engineers of the SE's in Japan have huge ego's and thought that their SE's could stand any conditions and so refused to label them as such. I know this sounds odd, and I know doubt, sound more odd..........but that's what I remember. There was this bizzare inside scoop about "Bino Engineers with big attitudes".

That sounds like a modern fairytale...

Nikon have nothing in-between waterproof and not waterproof. They don't have the labels "spray proof", "splash proof", etc. which I can understand if they give 25 years guarantee. Sonner or later, someone drops the bino's into water and come back claiming that "it was just a splash".

Cheers, Jens.
 
jebir said:
That sounds like a modern fairytale...

Nikon have nothing in-between waterproof and not waterproof. They don't have the labels "spray proof", "splash proof", etc. which I can understand if they give 25 years guarantee. Sonner or later, someone drops the bino's into water and come back claiming that "it was just a splash".

Cheers, Jens.

Steve Ingraham mentions that his 10x42 SE fogged after he washed the eyepieces under a tap. They are not waterproof, and will not withstand immersion. My own stance is that the optics are so good that I don't mind taking the small chance that I will fall into a river/stream/sea/bog with them round my neck. I choose them in preference to my 8.5x42 Swaro EL.
 
I'm having this vision of a "Bog Man" discovered perfectly preserved 5000 years in the future with Japanese binoculars around his neck. Hopefully those future archeologists will see it as an accident and not a strange sacrifice. Lots going on in that last sentence.
 
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