rollingthunder
Well-known member
Having tried almost the complete EL and NL range whilst birding in Eilat recently I was knocked out by these and the 12x spec. Like most birders 'of a certain age' I have half (at least) a dozen pairs of all the usual magnifications of 7x 8x and 10x and of course objective lens sizes of 30,40,42 and 50mm. My go to 'bins since purchasing in 1981 have been my faithful Zeiss 7x42b GAT's - the image clarity, all round excellent optics (excelling in crepuscular mode) meant they have not let me down. Indeed a friend, who works for a subsidiary of Zeiss, kindly sent them back to Oberkochen during Covid and got them completely serviced under the 'lifetime' guarantee all FOC. Bear in mind that when I purchased these in 1981 for £400 I was using my Zeiss East 10x50 Jenoptem which were 50 quid new back in the day so this represented a quantum leap in pricing and I had to borrow the money..........from my kid brother who was just getting into birding. They arrived just in time for my first jaunt to the Magic Isles aka The Scillies and for the first week more people looked through them than, well, I stopped counting - being hot off the foundry my pair were the only ones on the islands. These will now be my reserve pair like an old stud put out to grass having served their purpose.
Like many I have baulked at the thought of 12x optics as sceptically I have thought that FOV would be greatly reduced and issues of light gathering etc. 4+ decades later I am astonished at the current quality of high end optics. Back in the day it was a 2 horse race with wannabes like myself aspiring to either Zeiss or Leica. Other brands were somewhere in the middle having been blown into the weeds by the aforementioned. The 12x42 NL Pure have nearly the same FOV as my 7x with, wait for it, nearly twice the magnification! If you factor in both the edge resolution drop off and loss through eye relief with my spectacles I would say the Swarovski are possibly a larger FOV than my Zeiss. The image is bright, large and crisp and the feel/grip is almost like an extension of my hands. You just know when you are handling quality. As for the price I personally do not think they are overpriced bearing in mind over 4 decades my Zeiss were an equivalent 'investment'. Yes £2,550 is a lot of money but you are buying a Rolls Royce not a Del Boy Plastic Pig. At 840g they are not heavy. They come with a very comfortable neck strap, integrated and removable objective lens covers, double eyepiece detachable rain guard, smart carry bag and a little brush c/w bar of soap to clean the Green armour and of course a Swaro soft cloth. The whole kit and caboodle comes packaged like stuff from Apple does - another sign of quality and attention to detail imo.
In addition I purchased the Pro rain and dust cover. At 60+ quid it is a very expensive add-on. It works well but is designed to cover the optics and focussing without the forehead rest. As I bought the latter it is unlikely I will now use the dust cover but hey ho. The forehead rest would appear superfluous and at ca£127 it will probably remain so for many. I tried this in Eilat on both 10x and 12x and was impressed with the extra stability as you now have 3 points of contact i.e. a triangulation and we all know how inherently stable those are. I purchased mine from The Birders Store in Worcester a shop 'run by birders for birders' and started by my mate Brian Stretch. Excellent service is a given and I had an option for a free gift - I chose the Swarovski Pro harness and look forward to using it during my day long vigils this coming September at Batumi, Georgia.
Finally, why 12x? Having used 7x almost exclusively and 10x occasionally I feel the need for that 'extra reach' that these new optics will give. That little bit extra, combined with the superlative optical qualities, when searching for passerines in scrub can just clinch that elusive ID feature. Casual seawatching and sifting through local Gulls in the Winter are other reasons. The pleasure in using quality equipment for my prime hobby meant I felt that the time had come for that 'final upgrade' for a piece of equipment that I use daily.
Good birding -
Laurie -
Like many I have baulked at the thought of 12x optics as sceptically I have thought that FOV would be greatly reduced and issues of light gathering etc. 4+ decades later I am astonished at the current quality of high end optics. Back in the day it was a 2 horse race with wannabes like myself aspiring to either Zeiss or Leica. Other brands were somewhere in the middle having been blown into the weeds by the aforementioned. The 12x42 NL Pure have nearly the same FOV as my 7x with, wait for it, nearly twice the magnification! If you factor in both the edge resolution drop off and loss through eye relief with my spectacles I would say the Swarovski are possibly a larger FOV than my Zeiss. The image is bright, large and crisp and the feel/grip is almost like an extension of my hands. You just know when you are handling quality. As for the price I personally do not think they are overpriced bearing in mind over 4 decades my Zeiss were an equivalent 'investment'. Yes £2,550 is a lot of money but you are buying a Rolls Royce not a Del Boy Plastic Pig. At 840g they are not heavy. They come with a very comfortable neck strap, integrated and removable objective lens covers, double eyepiece detachable rain guard, smart carry bag and a little brush c/w bar of soap to clean the Green armour and of course a Swaro soft cloth. The whole kit and caboodle comes packaged like stuff from Apple does - another sign of quality and attention to detail imo.
In addition I purchased the Pro rain and dust cover. At 60+ quid it is a very expensive add-on. It works well but is designed to cover the optics and focussing without the forehead rest. As I bought the latter it is unlikely I will now use the dust cover but hey ho. The forehead rest would appear superfluous and at ca£127 it will probably remain so for many. I tried this in Eilat on both 10x and 12x and was impressed with the extra stability as you now have 3 points of contact i.e. a triangulation and we all know how inherently stable those are. I purchased mine from The Birders Store in Worcester a shop 'run by birders for birders' and started by my mate Brian Stretch. Excellent service is a given and I had an option for a free gift - I chose the Swarovski Pro harness and look forward to using it during my day long vigils this coming September at Batumi, Georgia.
Finally, why 12x? Having used 7x almost exclusively and 10x occasionally I feel the need for that 'extra reach' that these new optics will give. That little bit extra, combined with the superlative optical qualities, when searching for passerines in scrub can just clinch that elusive ID feature. Casual seawatching and sifting through local Gulls in the Winter are other reasons. The pleasure in using quality equipment for my prime hobby meant I felt that the time had come for that 'final upgrade' for a piece of equipment that I use daily.
Good birding -
Laurie -
