Thanks for the PMs and pointers, everyone. For what it is worth, my initial thoughts are as follows, as much for my benefit as anything...
Weight and handling comfort – the EL 10x50 is not a substantial increase in size compared to my old EL 10x42. Given my familiarity with the EL42, it is perhaps not surprising that the EL50 felt just as familiar in the hand. The weight difference seemed negligible; I certainly did not feel any significant difference raising them and holding them to my eyes. If anything, the slightly wider barrels made the EL50 even more comfortable in my hands compared to the EL42. Very comfortable to hold in the shop and outside, with cold hands and finally with gloves on. I did not feel that a harness would be necessary as quite honestly they felt very similar to the EL42.
The FL 10x56 is altogether larger. As others have commented, they are very well balanced, but the weight difference is noticeable. For me, a harness would most likely be necessary for all but the shortest hikes. They did not feel uncomfortable to hold up to my eyes and I can’t say that they were any more fatiguing than other binoculars, in fact I thought that they were probably the easiest of the two to hold steady. They are larger in the hands too, still comfortable, but for my hands very much on the large side and not easy to operate with gloves on.
Focusing ease and quickness – the EL50 focus was much smoother than my old EL42, but then they are 10 years old and probably in need of some TLC. No stiffness noticeable due to the cold and no discernable difference in rotating in either direction. Very easy to focus the image. Worked well with gloves too.
The FL56 had much less resistance in the focusing knob and I think that I did not have to rotate the knob as far in order to move from close to far focus (didn’t pay too much attention to this though). However I did find it more difficult to reach the knob with gloves on (due to my hands), although still easy to rotate and focus. Overall though, I found that for distance viewing (woodland edge at about 150 yards) I was constantly adjusting the focus very small amounts, which I did not have to do with the EL50.
Field of view – I felt that the field of view was slightly wider in the EL50 compared to the EL42 and FL56. Clearly the EL50 has the advantage of the ‘flat’ field of view, which may account for part of the difference, but for whatever reason, the difference was noticeable.
Edge sharpness – well perhaps it should be no surprise, but having not spent a lot of time with either Swarovision or FL, the difference in edge sharpness was striking. However, some things that I noticed were that viewing at distance (150yards to a woodland edge), the static image offered by the EL50 was superior. However, the difference was much less (if at all) noticeable in nearby images (say 25-50 yards). Over water, I could not distinguish any difference, but over fields looking at right angles to a bank covered in brambles, the difference in edge sharpness was very noticeable.
In the light conditions of the day, a ‘ring’ around the field of view in the FL56 where the clarity deteriorates was noticeable, to the extent that I could use the focus ring to bring the edge into focus. Actually, looking through the EL50 at a certain angle to the setting sun, a ‘ring’ was also observable, presumably where there is a change in the way the glass is ground (?) but the image at all times was still in focus across the field of view.
However, panning along the edge of a woodland with the EL50 did produce what I assume is ‘rolling ball’ to a significant extent. I have read that some people don’t notice it, but to be honest, it jumped right out at me. It was not an issue with most of the observing that I did, but a major part of what I specifically want the binoculars for is searching field and woodland edges, which I was able to do as long as I did not move too fast and made a conscious effort to ignore the image at the edges of the field of view. I will have to spend more time with the EL50 to see how the ease of use and if I can grow accustomed to it.
Colour fringing – not very noticeable at all in either the EL50 or FL56. Honestly I didn’t observe a significant difference between the two, but if I had to pick the best performer I would probably pick the FL.
Scattered light when viewing near the sun – the FL did perform better when viewing at an angle towards the setting sun. The EL suffered a bit more with image wash-out and flare compared to the FL. In the Fl, this was only a factor when looking at an angle of ~25 degrees or so on to the setting sun. Very few flares observed with the FL and comparatively little wash-out.
One interesting observation was the view through drifting smoke from a bonfire - sounds ridiculous, but one thing that I am interested in is whether any binocular would outperform another in early morning mist/fog conditions, which could be affected by the relative transmission of different light frequencies. I’m not saying that smoke can approximate mist/fog, but for what it is worth, the EL50 was able to ‘cut through’ the smoke better than the FL56. Probably a titbit useful only to fire and rescue services... !
‘Unfortunately’, what started out as a dull overcast day turned into quite a clear, bright evening with a clear view of the setting sun. This meant that conditions were considerably brighter than I had hoped and I did not get the chance to observe though the dusk into darkness (due to time constraints). As it was, I could not detect significant difference in brightness between the EL50 and FL56, which I had hoped to do. I will say, that often the EL50 gave the impression of a brighter image, I think because it has a very pleasing image in terms of colour and image contrast and because the field of view is sharp to the edge; whereas looking into shadow at a distance, the FL field of view started to appear dull around the edges by comparison.
On balance, I would have to say the winner of round one would be the EL 10x50. However, there were still some important comparisons that I was not able to make, the main one being twighlight performance and I need to know if ultimately the larger exit pupil of the x56 will make enough of a difference to counter the edge performance for my specific use requirements; and also whether the ‘rolling ball’ effect is just a difference or an issue.
