Vanguard EDII Owners - Feedback (1 Viewer)

Hi all, I just bought a pair of EDIIs through Amazon. Just curious if others have noticed some things i've noticed with this pair. I have owned a couple of pairs of ED1s and was very pleased and struck by the quality for the price. These don't give me the same feeling.

When looking into the objective end I see two distinct black lines, which I am assuming are the edges of the prisms. In the left side it runs from top left to bottom right.. just the opposite in the right barrel. The left barrel is impossible to miss, the right one more subtle.

More troubling to me is in the right barrel there are distinct specs of dust or some other debris, it looks like its dust on the prism but hard to tell. Some of it is noticeable at fist glance, with a flash light you can see a lot of dust and contamination.

The diopter lock is also very indistinct and kind of mushy compared to the ED1s which gave a distinct solid click.

I emailed Vanguard they didn't provide any insight.. just suggested returning them.

I may be being very picky and just looking to find things wrong...are these just things to expect from a $300 pair of binos? The dirt to me feels like shoddy/careless QC for a facility producing optics.

That all being said the view is really nice, and I have to really look hard to find any CA on bright white objects whereas the ED1s I couldn't not notice it. And granted you don't enjoy binos by looking through the objective!

Overall this pair makes me feel that Vanguards QC has taken a nose dive. There are other little things like clear plastic sticking out of the emblem on the focus wheel like the assembler didn't peel the protective wrap off before putting it together...very minor of course. Taken as whole these just feel like typical chinese made so-so stuff and not like the previous pairs i've had.

I believe I will return them just wanted to throw it out to other users and gauge how particular I am being.

Thanks for any comments!

Just had a close look at my EDII. Just for clarification I'm supposing you meant the apex of the roof which would run through the centre of the view, not the prism shelf off to one side. The roof edge on mine is completely invisible in normal viewing in both barrels. If I shine a torch through the eyepieces and wiggle it around I can get occasional feint glints from the edge running throught the centre of the view. I wouldn't say the lens/prism surfaces were perfect, but pretty good, and the dioptre clicks nicely.

Must confess I normally judge a binocular from the other end, but it does sound like the QC on your sample falls short of mine.

At the time of the EDII launch their European manager was very keen to stress that they made everything themselves, down to grinding the lenses. They had complete control of the QC chain. The EDII had one exception. The extremely low dispersion lens element from sourced from Hoya. I don't know If anything has changed.

David

Even much more expensive binos, including the alphas, can have specks of dust inside the tubes. If the dust is on the objective lenses it rarely affects the view, but it might affect the view if it's on the prisms or, even worse, on the ocular lenses. If you are happy with the view you might want to keep your sample, but if you can't help thinking of its issues just return it and try another one.

I tried two different EDIIs at one point. I sent them both back. To my eyes they had too much chromatic aberration.

I've noticed there is now a Vanguard Endeavor ED IV on the market according to their UK website; would this mean that the ED II has been superseded, and was there an ED III. Just curious about the development and marketing of binoculars per sa.

Hello Pat,

There was no EDIII, I am not sure why; maybe EDIV looks more different from EDII than EDIII?

The ED has been sold at the same time with the EDII for a long time; I'd guess the same will be true for EDIV and EDII, but it seems that the ED line is going to be phased out.

Peter

Pyrtle,

The EDIV has had a troubled history. I first saw a prototype about 4 years ago, which was quite frankly a big disappointment. Since it's launch and immediate recall, I belive there have been a number of issues and revisions. The version I saw two years ago was hard to distinguish optically from the more basic ED. I believe there was another redesign earlier this year. I expect to see the latest version tomorrow. I should know more then.

The comment about the EDII and high CA seems a bit strange to me. I'm not suggesting mine is totally CA free, but I would rate it lower than the majority of models in the price category. I understood part of the reason for that was the US designer specifying Hoya FCD100 glass as the ED element. It had the lowest dispersion properties of any glass on the market. They switched designer for the EDIV. Together with the QC comments at the top of the thread as well, I'm wondering if there have been a number of other changes in the intervening years. I'll see what I can find out.

David

Thank you both gents, an intriguing insight.
Pat

PeterPS said:

Even much more expensive binos, including the alphas, can have specks of dust inside the tubes. If the dust is on the objective lenses it rarely affects the view, but it might affect the view if it's on the prisms or, even worse, on the ocular lenses. If you are happy with the view you might want to keep your sample, but if you can't help thinking of its issues just return it and try another one.

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That's disappointing and rather surprising to me but I don't have a lot of experience with binos at different price points. Seems a dust free assembly area wouldn't be too hard to accomplish, but like everything surely a cost consideration. Its hard to tell where the dust is on this pair but yes the view is nice, I just have to weigh how much it bothers me I guess. Thanks for the common sense advice

As David said above, the EDIV has not had an easy time. The EDII kind of broke the mould for binoculars at this price point - a flat field, sharp almost to the edges (but not so flat as to induce rolling ball when panning), high resolution particularly at the centre and the famous (or infamous) fast focus.
What could have been improved in its successor (EDIII was passed by, presumably to avoid confusion with another maker's model of the same name - Vortex perhaps?) would have been, in the opinion of some owners, to upgrade the coatings from silver to dielectric, to perhaps slightly widen the field of view and (this one is my opinion) to lower the focus gearing a smidge. It really is incredibly fast.
This didn't happen with the EDIV, which is supposedly slightly brighter, but not noticeably so. The edge-to-edge sharpness was sacrificed, and the coatings remained silver.
According to the Vanguard rep at BF today, there is likely to be a new iteration of the Endeavor series next year, possibly called EDVI (or six), with a proposed launch somewhere between the UK Photography Show and Bird Fair next August. No other info available as yet - whether this will be what i personally would hope to take the EDII further, or to work on the EDIV design is too early to say.
I still rate the EDII very highly, as it has a combination of positive features rarely found together and in such an affordable package. It's still the only 8x42 i own, and i wouldn't part with it.
I suspect the issues raised by the OP are QC ones, and hopefully a replacement would solve these.

Concerning the EDIV...

I've had one for about a year or so.... I have nothing but good things to say about it. I'd rather have it than any other 42mm I have in its price range and more. The view is very EDGisque. In other words...VERY nice. I've not had one problem with it.

It's not meant to be a criticism of the EDIV; merely that i felt the EDII did a fair amount of ground-breaking in its blend of ingredients, and particularly at the price. When the IV came out, it seemed Vanguard had abandoned this direction, which seemed a little mysterious, following all the favourable reviews the II had received, in favour of a design perhaps a little more 'conventional'.

Perhaps the improvements i would have liked to have seen (presumably most concerning the eyepiece design) would have moved the price point, and thus the market. If you've tried an EDII, i'm sure you'll agree the focus is extremely aggressive and fast. When i use it again after a lay-off, it takes me 15 minutes or so to re-accustom myself with it.

Here are my 5 cents about Endeavors.

I had ED II 8x42 a year ago. Have bought it after reading good review at allbinos.
The CA level is quite small on axis, but very noticeable and annoying at edges.
The field of view was less, than 7 degrees. It is a good binoculars for the money, but i have returned it. My sample and another one which i tested in a shop didn't hold diopter setting. Almost every time i changed the focus distance from close to infinity, right barrel went out of sharpness. And i had to re-set the diopter compensation again and again,... It looked that focuser lenses in both barrels didn't went synchronous.
The local service center checked the binoculars and said it was ok. I didn't agree with them. And the seller changed ED II to ED IV model.
ED IV is much brighter binoculars, and white balance is less warm, then in ED II. The view is much better and more "transparent".
Focus wheel makes 520 degrees of moving, instead of 420 degrees in ED II model. But easy of focusing was better in ED II.
ED IV loses the diopter setting from time to time also, but not so often as ED II i tested.
Field of view in ED IV is a little more, right 7.2 degrees as advertised.

My guess is that Vanguard skipped ED III number because of many improvements to ED IV.
Overall, ED IV is very good pair of binoculars. The view is comparable to Leica Ultravid HD 8x42 to my eyes.

Strange - i've never had a moment's problem with any of the issues with focus or dioptre with the EDII; the dioptre was set on the day i bought it, and don't think i've had to touch it since.
I'd agree the EDIV has a slightly wider FoV, but doesn't have the edge-to-edge sharpness of the II, so whether this is any significant advantage is debatable.
If i use the EDII extensively over a period, i'm fine with the fast focus; it's on the occasional use, when i'm attuned to another binocular, that i find i overshoot it until i adjust again....
Anyway, glad you're happy with the EDIV. We'll have to see what the new one is like next year. Hopefully the best of both worlds?

paddy7 said:

I'd agree the EDIV has a slightly wider FoV, but doesn't have the edge-to-edge sharpness of the II, so whether this is any significant advantage is debatable.

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Yes, it looks like Vanguard just opened the soft edge in EDIV model. Eyepieces look identical in both EDII and EDIV.

paddy7 said:

Anyway, glad you're happy with the EDIV. We'll have to see what the new one is like next year. Hopefully the best of both worlds?

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If Vanguard fix the diopter lock issue (or improve the quality control) and add dielectric prism coatings to ED V, this will be the best binoculars for the money (in the middle price range).

The chap i spoke to at BirdFair seemed to think it was going to be called the EDVI - they're obviously trying to start a trend of missing numbers out....unless they just don't like odd numbers. The original version was just the ED, not the ED1.....who knows!

Sounds like Vanguard has a QA problem with their glass. It seems to me that a good amount of these mid-range glass has this same problem, IMHO you get what you pay for. I hope the new Tract models do not suffer from this fate, time will tell. These days if I want to try a mid range glass, I will wait for a year to find out what bugs lurk if any.

Andy W.

chill6x6 said:

Concerning the EDIV...

I've had one for about a year or so.... I have nothing but good things to say about it. I'd rather have it than any other 42mm I have in its price range and more. The view is very EDGisque. In other words...VERY nice. I've not had one problem with it.

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Chuck - how does it compared to the EDII, if you have compared them that is?