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Message: <blockquote data-quote="brocknroller" data-source="post: 3235884" data-attributes="member: 665">King Parrot, Not all the Swaro bins I tested had less than smooth focusers. Two turned smoothly, but one of those was made 20 years earlier and wasn't WP so it probably had a different focus mechanism than modern Swaros. The other was an 8x32 EL made in 2009. Four out of six bins had focusers that turned less than smoothly, and two of those four were only slightly harder to turn in one direction than the other. The 10x42 SLC-HD I could have lived with, because I don't do close-in birding with 10x bins. The oldest sample was the worst, taking two fingers to turn in one direction. The focuser was "gritty" and needed servicing, though a hunter might not be bothered by it. Another BF member tested three 8x30 ELs (non-SV) in a store and found all three were harder to turn in one direction than the other, with one sample being more "sticky" than the others. You tried three that were smooth, he tried three that were sticky. We had another member report that Swaro brought a whole box of samples to a show and every one had "wonky" focusers! Another member said just the opposite, all the samples he tried at a show (not the same show) had smooth focusers. While I can attribute some of this to the different user's subjective evaluation of what constitutes a smooth focuser, it's too prevalent to write it off all to user's tastes, and my own experience finding sample variation with Swaro focusers confirms that. It's a crap shoot. One would hope that Swaro changed the design, but no, users are reporting the same issues with the new SLCs and the SV ELs. Some turn smoothly, some turn harder in one direction (I get the impression from reading BF that this is the "norm," but that it's usually a slight variation), and a few are really coarse and hard to turn, and this is right out of the box! When you add in models that have been used for years, the number of users reporting samples with sticky, harder to turn in one direction, and coarse focusers increases. Some of those might have started out turning smoothly, I don't know. Next time someone reports this with an old sample, I will ask. Hunters are still Swarovski's "bread and butter." I think that's why they haven't addressed this issue, that and they probably don't want to absorb the cost, because the prices of Swaros alphas are already so stratospheric they couldn't raise the price more and stay competitive. The shame is that Swarovskis are otherwise excellent binoculars. When it comes to focusers, Nikon and Zeiss are the Kings. :king::king:You just happen to be a lucky guy. Play the lottery! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA_zS6-dO7Q" target="_blank">King Creole</a></blockquote>

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