eitanaltman
Well-known member
Brief Preamble
I was an active participant here many years ago, but I took a 5+ year break from the binocular merry-go-round (and this forum, to remove temptation!) after having kids + buying a house and the resultant lack of disposable funds. I sold off everything except a single pair of Minox BD 8x32 BR (and my wife's Nikon M7 8x30) and just stopped worrying about gear for a few years. But now I've rejoined the party in the past ~6 months. A combination of the kids getting older, financial situation getting healthier, and the free time/budget afforded by the current Covid shutdown meant that I could re-engage my binocular sickness at a level of quality I couldn't afford previously.
Long ago, I decided that 8x32 was my preferred format and stuck with that during my hiatus. But after too many walks at the local ponds/lakes where I didn't feel like dragging the scope with me and got frustrated trying to ID distant birds, I decided to enter the 10x42 world and began hunting for good deals. Previously, I had stuck to binoculars in the $200-300 range (new or used) like Zen-Ray, Vortex, etc. I learned the truism that you need to pay more for a quality 10x than an 8x, since every flaw will be magnified proportionately. Now, almost a decade later, with several vacations cancelled and finances generally in better shape, I decided to dabble in the mid tier to "sub alpha" range. I even snagged a used Leica Ultravid HD 8x32 as a present for my wife (this was her dream binocular, and it has come in handy as a benchmark "alpha" optic against which to have a reference for comparison).
Chapter 1: The 10x42 Saga Begins
I started with a snap decision to grab a pair of Tract Toric UHD 10x42 (original version, not the newer Schott HT) from the classifieds here back in Dec/Jan. I was blown away by the brightness, clarity, neutral color, and especially the razor sharp views. I could see distant details that my trusty little Minox BD 8x32 BR could not resolve, this was a new level of optical performance and a new itch that had to be scratched!
In late Feb, I led several local tours at the San Diego Bird Festival as I do every year. The Torics continued to impress -- one of my favorite moments was at a local grassland valley which is known for its variety of wintering raptors. The Torics enabled me to identify birds at distances, at one point I picked up on a soaring raptor at an enormous distance and was able to make out the subtle aspects of color and proportions that indicated the desirable Ferruginous Hawk, when most folks (those who could even see it) were assuming it was a Red-tailed Hawk. There is NO WAY that I would have made that ID with the old Minox.
Also, one of the highlights is the Festival's optics fair where each year I get the opportunity to sample a wide variety of glass. The vendors there are great, and let birders take the optics outside for extended stretches to compare in real conditions. My primary goal was determining how well the Toric UHD held up to the ~$1 sub-alpha competition.
I was able to compare closely to the Zeiss Conquest HD 10x42 and Vortex Razor HD 10x42, which I am convinced all share a very similar lineage and are essentially the same basic Kamakura platform (and this was only reinforced by close inspection of their physical proportions and mechanicals). Long story short, as I have commented elsewhere, although the differences were slight I felt the Tracts had the best optics of the pack overall. Specifically, they excelled in clarity/sharpness for long-distance viewing, which is my primary criteria for using a 10x over my typical 8x option (as in my raptor ID anecdote above). All three had very similar optics overall, with the differences coming down to subtle things like color balance (the Tract and Razor are much more neutral than the Conquest) or CA (the Razor HD beats the Toric and Conquest).
The Tracts also clearly beat some of the well respected mid-price options I tried including the Kowa BD XD II and the (MiC) Vortex Viper HD. The subtle improvements in brightness, clarity, and sharpness / micro-contrast were relatively easy to pick out, as opposed to the Toric vs Razor vs Conquest comparison where I really had to work hard to see clear differences (which to me means they are likely not differences worth worrying about, i.e. they are on the same tier).
The Tracts were only clearly beaten by the uber-alphas (Swaro SV / Zeiss SF / Leica NV), and even if it could be argued that the Razors or Conquests were better, the point was that the Tracts are clearly playing at the $1k+ level optically, which is a good thing! The Kowa Genesis felt a little "crisper" with that special sauce micro-contrast they have and the near total absence of CA, but otherwise wasn't clearly better either. So I moved having assuaged any nagging doubt that I should have waited for a used Conquest or Razor instead (which still would have cost 50-75% more than what I paid for the Tracts).
Chapter 2: Tract Toric UHD 10x42 (gen 1) vs Minox HG 10x43 MiG
Once of the small things that bothered me about the Torics was the weight, having been used to 8x32 for so long. So, when I stumbled upon a Minox HG MiG 10x43 on eBay for only $400, I snapped them up. Not only do I have a soft spot for Minox, I figured this would be a good opportunity to compare the Tracts to a premium, well reviewed $1k German optic with good reviews, equal FOV, and lighter weight in actual field use over the course of several weeks.
Long story short, the Tract Torics win again on optics, the Minox HG win on build quality, mechanics, and "luxury feel" of the materials.
To be clear, the Minox HG are VERY good glass. They are very bright and clear, pretty darn sharp, with a relaxing wide FOV and that nebulous "clarity" and "depth" you get from high quality, well corrected optics The Torics however were not only a bit brighter and sharper, but have more neutral color and superior CA performance (the latter a known weakness of the Minox HG series). Field of view was essentially equal (as the specs imply), both have generous "apparent sweet spots" in real world use, minor pincushion, and blurring towards the edge that is mostly field curvature. The only area optically where the Minox HG were clearly superior was in glare/flare control, where the Torics are very good but the Minox are stellar.
The Minox however LOOK and FEEL much more expensive. If you handed these two binoculars to a random person and asked which cost more money, I am confident everyone would say the Minox HG without hesitating. Like other Minox binoculars I've used, they just FEEL solid the moment you pick them up, not just the "density" but the quality of the rubber armor, the texture and feel of the focus knob and diopter mechanisms, the operation of the twist-up eyecups, etc. It's like when you slam the door of an expensive Mercedes vs a Toyota/Honda, just the feel and the solid "thunk" sound makes your brain go "yeah, that's well made."
Not that the Tracts don't feel "solid". They do. They also have a reassuring weight and solidity to them when you pick them up, hinge tension is excellent, the eyecups are robust. However, the quality of the rubber armor, eyecups, focus knob, and overall "workmanship" is clearly a big step down from the Minox HG, and more in line with ~$400-500 binoculars like Vortex Viper HD, Kowa BD XD, or Meopta Meopro. The difference is really apparent when comparing the accessories -- the objective covers and rainguard provided with the Tract are clearly generic off-the-shelf options like you'd get with a random $300 ChinaED clone, whereas those provided with the Minox HG are basically equal to what Leica provides with Trinovid/Ultravid models (thicker, more durable rubber, more secure fit, and a contoured shape that was clearly custom designed for that model).
Interestingly, however, despite the Minox being a few oz lighter on paper, they do not feel any lighter in the hand. I attribute this to the Tracts having superior balance and ergonomics for me, I suppose. But whatever the reason, the reduced weight of the Minox HG did not do much for me in actual handheld field use.
Chapter 3: Adventures with KamaTech, and the Leica Trinovid (2012-2015) enters the picture
As noted in the Kamakura anecdote thread, over time I became more aware of a focusing problem with the Torics (the barrels' focus was aligned turning CCW but when turning the focus knob CW the barrels were not focusing together). So I reached out to Tract and they asked me to send them to KamaTech with a note describing the problem.
While the Tracts were in the shop, I spent more time using the Minox HG as my primary optic, and solidified my impression that while they were very good, they weren't for me. The deal breaker was (1) they didn't feel as "razor sharp" at long distances like the Torics, and (2) the below-average CA control, in this respect the Minox HG was comparable to my 15 year old Monarch ATB 10x42 (which isn't praise). I don't need perfect CA control, it just has to be good enough that it's not bothersome for real world viewing.... the Minox HG did not qualify..... that said, if I ever see a sweet deal on an APO version of this optic I might have to try it, as if that flaw was corrected they would be a serious contender for the top tier of ~$1K sub-alpha glass.
So I sold the Minox HG to a buddy who was looking for an upgrade from his entry level Vortex and was stoked to get a premium $1K German optic for only $400. Then, I snagged a pair of 2012-2015 vintage Leica Trinovid 10x42 from the classifieds. A step up in price ($700 used vs $400 for the Tract and Minox) but worth it. More on that later....
Fast forward 3-4 weeks. The "repaired" Tract Torics show up. I open the packaging, anxious to compare them to the Trinovids. The moment my finger touched the focus knob, before I even looked through them, I thought "uh oh". Whereas before, the focus knob was smooth with consistent tension, I could tell immediately the action was now loose, uneven, and sloppy, with significant free play. It took less than a minute of observation to confirm that not only was the focus knob operating worse than before I sent it in, the core problem of "dragging" focus in one barrel when turning the knob CW was exactly the same as before.
I reached out to Jon LaCorte from Tract, with whom I had been corresponding, to relay the bad news. To his credit, he responded promptly and declared this unacceptable, and offered to send me a brand new replacement.
Moreover, my suspicion that the KamaTech service folks had not even understood the problem or done a basic visual inspection to confirm that it was fixed was strengthened. Best I can tell based on my correspondence, they never read my note and instead just took it apart, saw nothing obviously broken, put it back together (and did a sloppy job), and then sent it on back to me as "repaired". Anyone who understood the problem would be able to test and confirm it in 30 seconds, so it's clear they had zero idea what they were fixing.
I also asked JL if I could send him my pair so he could see for himself what KamaTech was doing to his company's reputation. He agreed, and of course confirmed that the problems I described were 100% real.
So, while this was a frustrating chapter in the saga, perhaps some good will come out of it and Tract (and perhaps Maven as well) can crack down on the sloppy repair work being done at the KamaTech facility here in San Diego. And JL was always very responsive and attentive, so kudos to him for doing the right thing and taking these problems seriously and trying to make them right. Thus are the perils of relying on subcontractors to represent your company, I really hope they work it out as the Tracts are honestly a phenomenal value optically and the founders seem to really care about the product quality and customer satisfaction.
I was an active participant here many years ago, but I took a 5+ year break from the binocular merry-go-round (and this forum, to remove temptation!) after having kids + buying a house and the resultant lack of disposable funds. I sold off everything except a single pair of Minox BD 8x32 BR (and my wife's Nikon M7 8x30) and just stopped worrying about gear for a few years. But now I've rejoined the party in the past ~6 months. A combination of the kids getting older, financial situation getting healthier, and the free time/budget afforded by the current Covid shutdown meant that I could re-engage my binocular sickness at a level of quality I couldn't afford previously.
Long ago, I decided that 8x32 was my preferred format and stuck with that during my hiatus. But after too many walks at the local ponds/lakes where I didn't feel like dragging the scope with me and got frustrated trying to ID distant birds, I decided to enter the 10x42 world and began hunting for good deals. Previously, I had stuck to binoculars in the $200-300 range (new or used) like Zen-Ray, Vortex, etc. I learned the truism that you need to pay more for a quality 10x than an 8x, since every flaw will be magnified proportionately. Now, almost a decade later, with several vacations cancelled and finances generally in better shape, I decided to dabble in the mid tier to "sub alpha" range. I even snagged a used Leica Ultravid HD 8x32 as a present for my wife (this was her dream binocular, and it has come in handy as a benchmark "alpha" optic against which to have a reference for comparison).
Chapter 1: The 10x42 Saga Begins
I started with a snap decision to grab a pair of Tract Toric UHD 10x42 (original version, not the newer Schott HT) from the classifieds here back in Dec/Jan. I was blown away by the brightness, clarity, neutral color, and especially the razor sharp views. I could see distant details that my trusty little Minox BD 8x32 BR could not resolve, this was a new level of optical performance and a new itch that had to be scratched!
In late Feb, I led several local tours at the San Diego Bird Festival as I do every year. The Torics continued to impress -- one of my favorite moments was at a local grassland valley which is known for its variety of wintering raptors. The Torics enabled me to identify birds at distances, at one point I picked up on a soaring raptor at an enormous distance and was able to make out the subtle aspects of color and proportions that indicated the desirable Ferruginous Hawk, when most folks (those who could even see it) were assuming it was a Red-tailed Hawk. There is NO WAY that I would have made that ID with the old Minox.
Also, one of the highlights is the Festival's optics fair where each year I get the opportunity to sample a wide variety of glass. The vendors there are great, and let birders take the optics outside for extended stretches to compare in real conditions. My primary goal was determining how well the Toric UHD held up to the ~$1 sub-alpha competition.
I was able to compare closely to the Zeiss Conquest HD 10x42 and Vortex Razor HD 10x42, which I am convinced all share a very similar lineage and are essentially the same basic Kamakura platform (and this was only reinforced by close inspection of their physical proportions and mechanicals). Long story short, as I have commented elsewhere, although the differences were slight I felt the Tracts had the best optics of the pack overall. Specifically, they excelled in clarity/sharpness for long-distance viewing, which is my primary criteria for using a 10x over my typical 8x option (as in my raptor ID anecdote above). All three had very similar optics overall, with the differences coming down to subtle things like color balance (the Tract and Razor are much more neutral than the Conquest) or CA (the Razor HD beats the Toric and Conquest).
The Tracts also clearly beat some of the well respected mid-price options I tried including the Kowa BD XD II and the (MiC) Vortex Viper HD. The subtle improvements in brightness, clarity, and sharpness / micro-contrast were relatively easy to pick out, as opposed to the Toric vs Razor vs Conquest comparison where I really had to work hard to see clear differences (which to me means they are likely not differences worth worrying about, i.e. they are on the same tier).
The Tracts were only clearly beaten by the uber-alphas (Swaro SV / Zeiss SF / Leica NV), and even if it could be argued that the Razors or Conquests were better, the point was that the Tracts are clearly playing at the $1k+ level optically, which is a good thing! The Kowa Genesis felt a little "crisper" with that special sauce micro-contrast they have and the near total absence of CA, but otherwise wasn't clearly better either. So I moved having assuaged any nagging doubt that I should have waited for a used Conquest or Razor instead (which still would have cost 50-75% more than what I paid for the Tracts).
Chapter 2: Tract Toric UHD 10x42 (gen 1) vs Minox HG 10x43 MiG
Once of the small things that bothered me about the Torics was the weight, having been used to 8x32 for so long. So, when I stumbled upon a Minox HG MiG 10x43 on eBay for only $400, I snapped them up. Not only do I have a soft spot for Minox, I figured this would be a good opportunity to compare the Tracts to a premium, well reviewed $1k German optic with good reviews, equal FOV, and lighter weight in actual field use over the course of several weeks.
Long story short, the Tract Torics win again on optics, the Minox HG win on build quality, mechanics, and "luxury feel" of the materials.
To be clear, the Minox HG are VERY good glass. They are very bright and clear, pretty darn sharp, with a relaxing wide FOV and that nebulous "clarity" and "depth" you get from high quality, well corrected optics The Torics however were not only a bit brighter and sharper, but have more neutral color and superior CA performance (the latter a known weakness of the Minox HG series). Field of view was essentially equal (as the specs imply), both have generous "apparent sweet spots" in real world use, minor pincushion, and blurring towards the edge that is mostly field curvature. The only area optically where the Minox HG were clearly superior was in glare/flare control, where the Torics are very good but the Minox are stellar.
The Minox however LOOK and FEEL much more expensive. If you handed these two binoculars to a random person and asked which cost more money, I am confident everyone would say the Minox HG without hesitating. Like other Minox binoculars I've used, they just FEEL solid the moment you pick them up, not just the "density" but the quality of the rubber armor, the texture and feel of the focus knob and diopter mechanisms, the operation of the twist-up eyecups, etc. It's like when you slam the door of an expensive Mercedes vs a Toyota/Honda, just the feel and the solid "thunk" sound makes your brain go "yeah, that's well made."
Not that the Tracts don't feel "solid". They do. They also have a reassuring weight and solidity to them when you pick them up, hinge tension is excellent, the eyecups are robust. However, the quality of the rubber armor, eyecups, focus knob, and overall "workmanship" is clearly a big step down from the Minox HG, and more in line with ~$400-500 binoculars like Vortex Viper HD, Kowa BD XD, or Meopta Meopro. The difference is really apparent when comparing the accessories -- the objective covers and rainguard provided with the Tract are clearly generic off-the-shelf options like you'd get with a random $300 ChinaED clone, whereas those provided with the Minox HG are basically equal to what Leica provides with Trinovid/Ultravid models (thicker, more durable rubber, more secure fit, and a contoured shape that was clearly custom designed for that model).
Interestingly, however, despite the Minox being a few oz lighter on paper, they do not feel any lighter in the hand. I attribute this to the Tracts having superior balance and ergonomics for me, I suppose. But whatever the reason, the reduced weight of the Minox HG did not do much for me in actual handheld field use.
Chapter 3: Adventures with KamaTech, and the Leica Trinovid (2012-2015) enters the picture
As noted in the Kamakura anecdote thread, over time I became more aware of a focusing problem with the Torics (the barrels' focus was aligned turning CCW but when turning the focus knob CW the barrels were not focusing together). So I reached out to Tract and they asked me to send them to KamaTech with a note describing the problem.
While the Tracts were in the shop, I spent more time using the Minox HG as my primary optic, and solidified my impression that while they were very good, they weren't for me. The deal breaker was (1) they didn't feel as "razor sharp" at long distances like the Torics, and (2) the below-average CA control, in this respect the Minox HG was comparable to my 15 year old Monarch ATB 10x42 (which isn't praise). I don't need perfect CA control, it just has to be good enough that it's not bothersome for real world viewing.... the Minox HG did not qualify..... that said, if I ever see a sweet deal on an APO version of this optic I might have to try it, as if that flaw was corrected they would be a serious contender for the top tier of ~$1K sub-alpha glass.
So I sold the Minox HG to a buddy who was looking for an upgrade from his entry level Vortex and was stoked to get a premium $1K German optic for only $400. Then, I snagged a pair of 2012-2015 vintage Leica Trinovid 10x42 from the classifieds. A step up in price ($700 used vs $400 for the Tract and Minox) but worth it. More on that later....
Fast forward 3-4 weeks. The "repaired" Tract Torics show up. I open the packaging, anxious to compare them to the Trinovids. The moment my finger touched the focus knob, before I even looked through them, I thought "uh oh". Whereas before, the focus knob was smooth with consistent tension, I could tell immediately the action was now loose, uneven, and sloppy, with significant free play. It took less than a minute of observation to confirm that not only was the focus knob operating worse than before I sent it in, the core problem of "dragging" focus in one barrel when turning the knob CW was exactly the same as before.
I reached out to Jon LaCorte from Tract, with whom I had been corresponding, to relay the bad news. To his credit, he responded promptly and declared this unacceptable, and offered to send me a brand new replacement.
Moreover, my suspicion that the KamaTech service folks had not even understood the problem or done a basic visual inspection to confirm that it was fixed was strengthened. Best I can tell based on my correspondence, they never read my note and instead just took it apart, saw nothing obviously broken, put it back together (and did a sloppy job), and then sent it on back to me as "repaired". Anyone who understood the problem would be able to test and confirm it in 30 seconds, so it's clear they had zero idea what they were fixing.
I also asked JL if I could send him my pair so he could see for himself what KamaTech was doing to his company's reputation. He agreed, and of course confirmed that the problems I described were 100% real.
So, while this was a frustrating chapter in the saga, perhaps some good will come out of it and Tract (and perhaps Maven as well) can crack down on the sloppy repair work being done at the KamaTech facility here in San Diego. And JL was always very responsive and attentive, so kudos to him for doing the right thing and taking these problems seriously and trying to make them right. Thus are the perils of relying on subcontractors to represent your company, I really hope they work it out as the Tracts are honestly a phenomenal value optically and the founders seem to really care about the product quality and customer satisfaction.
