Initial findings and comparisons in short form:
SPECS AS PER SWAROVSKI:
12xMagnification
42 mm Effective objective lens diameter
3.5 mm Exit pupil diameter
18 mm Exit pupil distance
113 m/1000m Field of view
6.5 °Field of view degrees
6.5 °Field of view with eye glasses (degrees)
71 ° Field of view apparent
2.6 m Shortest focusing distance
± 4 dpt Diopter adjustment
5 dpt Diopter correction at ∞
91 % Light transmission
56-74 mm Pupil distance / IPD
22.4 Twilight factor acc. to ISO 14132-1
The S 12 NL is great in hands. Hand falls right into place with the focusing wheel.
Focus is supersmooth. As good as the best I have had or tried.
Focusing knob requires more turning than the Meopta 15x56 from near distance to far. I prefer the Meopta turning ratio.
Field of View is reminiscent (I have yet to compare the two) of the 10x32 FL - which again, is a 10x and has excellent field of view. Impressive.
CA control in the center is very good, almost excellent but with some strange effects, more of that later.
Peripheral CA is quite high, starting earlier than I would like.
Rolling ball effect is visible - some might find it too much. I usually don't notice it unless it is severe. I would not call it severe, but noticeable.
Eye relief is great. I can even pull out the eye cups one stop and see the whole image - with glasses! Well done Swarovski!
Eye placement without glasses was initially more troublesome/finicky. This was a negative surprise. Took getting used to and black outs/kidney beaning is more of a thing with the Swaro for me and not really a thing on the Meopta.
Sharpness/resolution/clarity is top notch - it sees what the Meopta 15x sees when it comes to smaller details at far, albeit smaller. See more below.
Close focus distance is good, perhaps not best in class for minimum distance but it is stunning for clarity and sharpness.
Merging the image at close range works really well and provides a stunning image. For a 12X this is stellar performance.
Handholding the 12X NL is not for me. Works better at close range but far objects become wobbly after a few sec. This is more my inability with 12X magnification but as a comparison I could hold the Meopta 15X as good/bad as the Swarovski so no winner in handholdability for either bino. I did try the forehead support thingy on the 10X Nl prior to ordering the 12X but thought it was not a major improvement so I opted out on it.
Not too many birds at the nearest feeder today but the few that flew into the image beforeu dusk were popping out on the Swarovski with natural colors and great clarity. As expected, still nice though.
Watching a clearing across the field, currently a wintry landscape, I notice excellent central sharpness, wide field of view and a "calm" image, easy on the eyes.
However looking around that generous wide view CA does pop up quite early and a little to close to the center for my liking.
Panning the image placing the point of interest in the center takes care of this but the point of having such a wide view is a little lost with the CA disturbing the view. Peripheral CA is high, but this is so close to the image border that staring at that part of the image feels unnatural.
At medium distances looking at "monochromatic" objects against a bright backdrop there is a slight halo around the object and a new phenomenon occurs if you are slightly moving your head laterally in either direction - as you often do when you are standing behind the binoculars for some time. We are talking a few mm in either direction.
I will dub this phenomenon "CA flashing" as it flares up in a flash until when you center again. If there is an actual word for it - let me know!
It is not a very nice CA green/magenta flashing but if you are steady and on a tripod you will rarely see this. I had never seen it with the Meopta before but could replicate the phenomenon with the Meopta thought the Meopta is not so sensitive to it and shows it to a much lesser degree.
For clarity and sharpness at far the Swarovski is excellent.
It is however not besting the Meopta, I would say it is more of a tie between the two which speaks more for the Meopta as it costs less than 2/3 of the Swarovski. On the other hand the Swarovski is a 12X keeping up with a 15X, for the most part, more on that below.
The light gathering capacity is not too far off from each other but my other torture test was a high voltage marker not too far from the house which is on a power line, a white flag with black print on it. At daytime it is easy to read with both binoculars despite the Meopta having a 3x magnification advantage the Swaro keeps up.
However later on when light levels drop that marker becomes increasingly hard to read with the Swarovski, to the point you can only see that it has lettering of some sort. With the Meopta it is still visible - and clearly so - with the marker standing out proud from the background. This is impressive from the Meopta. During the whole interval the Meopta was mounted after the Swaro and at a slight "disadvantage" but it was still doing the job better than the Swaro.
The Meopta will be compared in the following post, should I need to edit this one as I am literally spitballing it at the moment.
EDITED: spelling, reformatting and added a few sentences to make more sense out of the rambling...