8x30 SFL appreciation (1 Viewer)

[b-lilja]

Went on a lovely hike on Tuesday with my nephew to the Sunrise corner of Mt. Rainier. We hike all the way to the 3rd summit of Burroughs Mt., which is essentially a long tundra ridge peaking at 7800' that sits just a few thousand feet from the north face of Mt. Rainier. Mt. Rainier itself is an incredible mountain - over 14,000' high, starting pretty much at sea level - my understanding is that it has greater vertical relief than Mt Everest from its surroundings.

I strapped my 8x30 SFLs on at the beginning of the hike using a trusty Rick Young basic harness - a minimum viable product if there ever was one. I bonded with these bins in a way I hadn't before. Light and small enough to pretty much disappear for the nine miles and 2500' vertical of the hike's duration, they provide a big bin experience.

Some highlights:

• Pair of Prairie Falcons playing around - high in the sky, next to their apparent nesting area, all with the stunning backdrop of the Rainier glaciers
• Baby Mountain Chickadees cavorting in firs
• Funny little duo of juvie Horned Lark and American Pipit - great close looks
• Hoary Marmots running around

Just great bins. Turning the diopter back and forth a bunch of times loosens it up perfectly. The objective covers still pop off; I am going to mess with this a bit more - planning to try some mineral oil.

 

[yarrellii]

Lovely account! A picture ("worth a thousand words") would round up the thread nicely, if I may say it

 

[MiddleRiver]

Went on a lovely hike on Tuesday with my nephew to the Sunrise corner of Mt. Rainier. We hike all the way to the 3rd summit of Burroughs Mt., which is essentially a long tundra ridge peaking at 7800' that sits just a few thousand feet from the north face of Mt. Rainier. Mt. Rainier itself is an incredible mountain - over 14,000' high, starting pretty much at sea level - my understanding is that it has greater vertical relief than Mt Everest from its surroundings.

I strapped my 8x30 SFLs on at the beginning of the hike using a trusty Rick Young basic harness - a minimum viable product if there ever was one. I bonded with these bins in a way I hadn't before. Light and small enough to pretty much disappear for the nine miles and 2500' vertical of the hike's duration, they provide a big bin experience.

Some highlights:

• Pair of Prairie Falcons playing around - high in the sky, next to their apparent nesting area, all with the stunning backdrop of the Rainier glaciers
• Baby Mountain Chickadees cavorting in firs
• Funny little duo of juvie Horned Lark and American Pipit - great close looks
• Hoary Marmots running around

Just great bins. Turning the diopter back and forth a bunch of times loosens it up perfectly. The objective covers still pop off; I am going to mess with this a bit more - planning to try some mineral oil.

Interesting as I just posted in another thread about a recent 2000' eleve-gain hike where I also carried 8x30SFL and was glad for it! Our experiences are very similar ;-)

One comment on 'mineral oil'. On 'rubber' materials I use pure silicone lube. I still have a little squeeze tube branded Nikon, which was supplied for their Nikonos cameras which has several o-rings. I've since researched and it's a 'safe' lube which will not risk deteriorating plastics and rubber.

 

[pbjosh]

Indeed at least in the bike world reputation is that mineral oil can cause rubber to swell / deform. On one hand I have a fair understsnfing of mineral oil and both natural and synthetic rubber. On the other hand I’m sure that there are different formulations of mineral oil with different additives and that the word rubber is near meaningless in defining something nowadays. So I cannot say really at all but would still tread lightly.

On the SFL, I am still withholding on forming a solid opinion but my initial impression is the 8x30 is the best in that class by some margin and the 10x40 seemingly also best in its weight class if you don’t include alpha x32 models.