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7x42 Ultravid (1 Viewer)

I'm still using the 7x42 UV HD a lot, basically as an everyday-carry except today (dentist).

It's a very nice binocular for any usage. However it is at ranges of several hundred meters - or yards, that I find it most amazing. My feeling is the view gets better with distance, whether this is because it really is sharper there or because the glass cuts some blue/UV light and thus subjectively cuts trough the haze of urban distance.

What is also astonishing is the ease with which one can move from eye-view to bino-view, there is no difficulty in getting the look and finding the target. Even though I wear glasses, I can see a catch a bird fly and catch it with no hesitation, can follow a flight or a line of architecture with no difficulty or seasickness.

Stability is superb, at least for my hands. The bino brightness matches reality nicely. I enjoy the move back and forth from eye-view to bino-view, and can feel my eyesight evolving and improving.

I took the glass on a riverboat trip down the Seine, and the perspectives and alignments down the river were definitely worth the price of admission. But I still find myself thinking of an SF ...

Edmund

PS. Today I saw some well-fed gray-and-white city pigeons (genus RatsWithWings Parisi) and a brownish female blackbird, walking and feeding on the ground in a park. I just stood still as I didn't have the glasses, and the bird dipped into hedges to avoid people walking by, then came back, and I sketched it on the back of my dentist's prescription, which allowed me to get a good memory image. The binocular has done wonders for my ability to "look", even without the instrument. And being a guest on this forum has made me notice birds.
 
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Hi Edmund,

The big 6mm exit pupil helps to get the bino aligned to your eyes very easily and quickly when needed.
Also, the wide true field of view helps following birds in flight.

The 7x42 Uvid+ is near perfect for me. I wish it could be a little lighter by 3-4 ounces or so. That's about the only thing I can think of that I'd like to change.

Glad you're enjoying your Ultravid. Hope you have a great weekend and see some more nice birds with it.
 
Hi Edmund,

The big 6mm exit pupil helps to get the bino aligned to your eyes very easily and quickly when needed.
Also, the wide true field of view helps following birds in flight.

The 7x42 Uvid+ is near perfect for me. I wish it could be a little lighter by 3-4 ounces or so. That's about the only thing I can think of that I'd like to change.

Glad you're enjoying your Ultravid. Hope you have a great weekend and see some more nice birds with it.

Hi Beth -

I am enjoying it. Just realised I saw a black-backed gull over the Seine, in addition to the swimming cormorant! There seems to be a largeish gull colony in Paris now, I sometimes hear the cawing in the late afternoon.

Hope you too get to see some nice birds!

Edmund
 
Here's a question: does the 7x42 have the titanium rod, or just the 8x32? I've only seen it mentioned by Leica in conjunction with the 8x32 - I've thought as maybe an effort at pushing the specific lightness of that glass.
 
I believe all Ultravids have a titanium focus screw. Only the short-lived Trinovid BR 42 was said to have steel instead, as a lower-priced model.
 
Here's a question: does the 7x42 have the titanium rod, or just the 8x32? I've only seen it mentioned by Leica in conjunction with the 8x32 - I've thought as maybe an effort at pushing the specific lightness of that glass.
Here's an original brochure for the Ultravid BR/BL series when they first came out: http://www.company7.com/library/leica/ultravid.pdf

The titanium central hinge shaft is mentioned four times with no reference to it only being in specific models, so it's safe to assume it's in all of them.

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I know Leica will bring out some new 7x product or products in the autumn, but good enough right now is quite good enough for me - I don't think I'll need an upgrade for what I do.
Wish this had been true, but at least there's still the 7x42 Ultravid and 7x35 Retrovid.
 
Well I don’t know about the specifics of binocular focus mechanisms, but a titanium rifle action will generally use stainless steel for the bolt locking lugs to prevent galling; and the ultra smooth gears in my custom Japanese spinning reels use C6191 marine bronze for the gears when other components are titanium, so it may not be so far-fetched...
When I first read of the titanium shaft I just naturally assumed there would be a bronze mating gear for smoothness. If there's not, it could be a nice upgrade.
 
I wish Leica could produce a little 7x28 UVHD+... Sadly the 7s are out of fashion despite their many advantages; I wonder if the pendulum will swing the other way at some point.
That 7x28 Ultravid HD+ is one of the main binoculars I would ask Leica to make, if they were interested in hearing such things. I hope that at some point the pendulum will swing in the right direction and give us a lot wider range of lower power options.
 
Galling between Ti and Ti. I have several flashlights whose screw-on head turns them on or changes brightness. The aluminum ones work fine; the fancy titanium one turns roughly even with silicone grease in the threads. Why Ti does this I don't know.
 
Galling between Ti and Ti. I have several flashlights whose screw-on head turns them on or changes brightness. The aluminum ones work fine; the fancy titanium one turns roughly even with silicone grease in the threads. Why Ti does this I don't know.
While titanium doesn't have a natural tendency towards smoothness, I've had all-titanium flashlights where the threads are very smooth and I believe it largely boils down to how much effort is put into the finish work. The Modamag Draco and most all McGizmo lights are famous for their titanium on titanium smoothness.
 
Those probably cost at least 10x what mine did. So maybe Leica could do titanium gears, but why bother when it's so much easier, cheaper, and possibly more reliable not to.
 
...maybe Leica could do titanium gears, but why bother when it's so much easier, cheaper, and possibly more reliable not to.
No benefit to having both parts made of titanium in a binocular, and definitely beneficial to take advantage of the natural lack of friction in copper alloys.
 
Certain market impressions, get started and hang around for a long time. For example galling has been an issue in the past with stainless steel, it was said to be hard to machine, hard on cutters. Given that theres something like 3000 alloys of steel alone, things are not so simple. More recently Titanium, in its earliest uses particularly as consumer product material, say bicycles was thought to have a galling issue. Keeping in mind that the Soviets have used it for submarine hulls, we have to wonder what do we consumers really know about it? Going from one consumer product say flashlights, to another in this case binoculars, from the outside looking in, consumer's point of view, is tricky. I have machined brass, steel, stainless, Titanium, aluminum, plastics. Have heat treated a couple different kinds of steel, and experienced the differences in subsequent machining. As most of these, to include bronze, are currently used in manufacturing, rather widely, they are regularly made to work. Some of those flashlights are gorgeous. So to knives, with lots of Ti in them, often held together with SS screws. I bet I'm not alone spending time with each of these things. It comes down to the specific alloy of the named metal, its hardness (heat treat), the type of cutter, feeds and speeds, CNC vs "manual." Engineers know this.

My question though Trinovid would be this, Why bronze as a gear mated to a titanium shaft? Titanium's benefits are lighter weight than say steel, by almost half. It needs to be said, that shaft is small and makes a very small contribution to total weight. Every little bit helps? Its strength is good. Ti is also highly corrosion resistant so no worries of long term corrosion in something effectively sealed up like a bino. It is reasonably hard as a wear surface, so gear to gear might be OK long term. I dont have that knowledge. Am a wee bit skeptical. But bronze? Its heavier than either steel (arguably a better material for a gear), or Titanium. Using bronze potentially negates the weight benefit of titanium for the shaft. Its softer than both so long term wear and tear, back and forth movement may not be so good. Thinking about how fussy some here are on BF are on focuser feel, maybe this isnt the best long term solution? Ti/Bronze vs SS/SS? And thats just talking about these 3 materials. There are so many more.

Re cost, both raw material and processing costs need to be combined to properly evaluate. It was shocking to learn that Aluminum, in its earliest history was once more expensive than gold.

In the modern world of materials science, Bronze as a gear to mate with a Ti shaft seems.... well sort of like going back to the bronze age. Im open to an explanation of this. I'd really, like to know why this would be the better choice?
 
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