Hello from South Korea! (1 Viewer)

[jackjack]

As one of a binocular mania and birder in South Korea, I'm happy to register.
Got many information from this forum when I was Bino newbie.
As I have a hobby to collect and compare binoculars I'm happy to share information with you!

the photo is all of the binos I have right now.



and beleive it or not, have seen approximately 250 of them.


some of the famous one I have seen is

All series of swaro nl, el, cl 20~30(except el 12x50) + and more

zeiss victory sf 8x42, 10x42 / sfl 8x40, 10x40 / HT 8x42, 10x42, 10x54 / TFL 8x32 / 10x32 / 7x42 / 10x56 all of the coquest 32, 42 / all of the terra ed / dialyt 7x42 and more

leica noctivid 10x42 / ultravid 8x32, 10x32, 7x42, 8x20, 10x25 / trinovid bn 7x42 /duovid 42 and more

nikon edg 8x42 / monarch hg 8x30, 10x42 /hgl 10x32, 8x42 / monarch 7 8x30, 8x42, monarch my 8x30, 8x42, 10x42 / se 10x42, 12x50 /prostaff 3s, p7 and more

all of the kowa yf and bd2 (except 6.5x32 bd2) and more

meopta meostar hd+ 8x42, meopro air 8x42

fujinon hc 8, 10 / fmtr 7, 10 / all of the technostabis and more

canon 10x20is / 10x32 is /10x42L is /18x50 is

and others... (bushnell forge, pentax sd, opticrom aurora, alpen teton abbe, vortex diamodback, celestron nature dx, all or the svbony sv202, bresser pirsh ed and more)

If you need some information about bino I've seen please feel free to ask about it.
or any thing including korean birding and binoculars.

again, It will be happy to share some information with you guys thanks!

 

[delia todd]

Hi jackjack and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators. Great goodness... was my first reaction, owned three in my lifetime so far LOL

I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I look forward to hearing your news.

 

[Kits]

Welcome to Birdforum! Gosh - that is some collection!

 

[Foss]

Welcome Jackjack,
Do you have a favorite among the collection?

 

[Lisa W]

Hi, welcome to the forum. I think you will find us a friendly and helpful group.

 

[jackjack]

Welcome Jackjack,
Do you have a favorite among the

Welcome Jackjack,
Do you have a favorite among the collection?

optically best is swaro el 10x32. and I also like the 3D feel of nikon e2 8x30 (coating upgrade ver.)
besides the collection,
The bino I liked most is Zeiss victory HT 8x42. even a half step over than ht 10x42 and sf 8x42

 

[iseegeorgesstar]

Wow. Nice collection -- great way to start a post.

How do you like the steiner shadowquest for astronomy? Do you have a different binocular you prefer over it for the night sky?

 

[jackjack]

Wow. Nice collection -- great way to start a post.

How do you like the steiner shadowquest for astronomy? Do you have a different binocular you prefer over it for the night sky?

I mainly use bino at daytime so my nighttime compare results maybe not as accurate as day time comparisons.

some of the 7mm pupil bino I seen is nikon sp 7x50, orion reolux 7x50, fujinon fmtr 7x50, zeiss conquest 8x56.
orion resolux is much cheaper so It's perfomance can't match others.
only bino I compared directly to nighthunter is zeiss conquest 8x56.
steiner is bit brighter and larger sweepspot, but conquest has more sharpness and contrast.

one of my colleague have compared his nikon sp and my steiner and said steiner is significantly bright but sp has more contrast and flare/ghost suppression.

I think nighthunter's con is low contrast at it's price point. especially day, even little bit at night.
guess it's high brightness wash out it's color.
color accuracy is better then nikon sp, fuji fmtr, zeiss conquest and ht, but low contrast then others. although it's sharpness is still nice.

 

[iseegeorgesstar]

I mainly use bino at daytime so my nighttime compare results maybe not as accurate as day time comparisons.

some of the 7mm pupil bino I seen is nikon sp 7x50, orion reolux 7x50, fujinon fmtr 7x50, zeiss conquest 8x56.
orion resolux is much cheaper so It's perfomance can't match others.
only bino I compared directly to nighthunter is zeiss conquest 8x56.
steiner is bit brighter and larger sweepspot, but conquest has more sharpness and contrast.

one of my colleague have compared his nikon sp and my steiner and said steiner is significantly bright but sp has more contrast and flare/ghost suppression.

I think nighthunter's con is low contrast at it's price point. especially day, even little bit at night.
guess it's high brightness wash out it's color.
color accuracy is better then nikon sp, fuji fmtr, zeiss conquest and ht, but low contrast then others. although it's sharpness is still nice.

From what I understand the nikon sp's are achromats with no ed glass. Too bad they were put on "halt"/discontinued.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and great post.

 

[jackjack]

Wow. Nice collection -- great way to start a post.

How do you like the steiner shadowquest for astronomy? Do you have a different binocular you prefer over it for the night sky?

Seoul, the capital of South Korea has too much air pollution and street lights so 7mm pupill doesn't work well. so I prefer 10x56 and 12x56 at night. best preference is 10x56 Zeiss TFL. seems 10x56 SLC is little bit better optically to my eyes but it has much flare and gosting than tfl and ht.

between my collection, I like New MS APO 12x56. It's from kunming united optics in china. optically bit lower than MIJ, MIG top bions, but it have 72 degrees FOV (12x6) and sweetspot approximately of 80%
I think it's one of the best bino made in china. and it's price is on the top of MIC own brand binos too

 

[jackjack]

From what I understand the nikon sp's are achromats with no ed glass. Too bad they were put on "halt"/discontinued.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and great post.

in korea, sp can be found used around 300~400$ nearly half the price of fujinon fmtr used.
despite it has non ed glass, sp has one of the best CA corrections in the center of the view. but there are significant amount of CA near thr rim of it's fov.
I prefer sp over fmtr since it's little bit of yellowish coloring is more confortable and contrasty then fmtr's green coloring. but feels fmtr is brighter than sp at dark.
I really like nighthunter despite it's cons. It is very lightweight for 56mm, and I't argonomics and ease of view blows away both sp and fmtr.
itis 8x56 but feels like your seeing 7x50 with bigger FOV

 

[jackjack]

Hi jackjack and a warm welcome to you from all the Staff and Moderators. Great goodness... was my first reaction, owned three in my lifetime so far LOL

I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I look forward to hearing your news.

thanks I started briding after comparing optics
wonder what three binos yo have owned

 

[exup]

I recently picked up the Alpen Teton 10x42 with AK prisms..... it was a bit out of the ordinary. I am travelling at present and won't get a good look at it for a couple of months. The 5 minute check I did, it seemed quite good, sharp and bright.
You are one of the few other owners, they are not too common.
How do you find it performs?

 

[jackjack]

I recently picked up the Alpen Teton 10x42 with AK prisms..... it was a bit out of the ordinary. I am travelling at present and won't get a good look at it for a couple of months. The 5 minute check I did, it seemed quite good, sharp and bright.
You are one of the few other owners, they are not too common.
How do you find it performs?

I used 10x42. if I go right for the point, it is not very suitable for birding.
quite sharp for the mid range bino but not as 1000$ overs such as zeiss conquest and monarch hg. It surpress flare/glare very well and It was very bright. brighter then zeiss conquest 10x42 and even little bit brighter than SF 10x42 but little behind HT 10x42.
but the reason I don't recommed It for birding is the CA problem. It was the WORST CA controlled bino over 150$. even Nikon monarch 5 20x56 has less CA.
It bothers me many times even making hard to Identify birds frying, sitting against sunlight.

also Its focus depht is very shallow and It's focus is little bit on the heavy side. It makes me focus slower than other birds.
also. It has strong fall off over 30% of the side of the FOV
and some people may have some blackouts because It's eyecup is little short for It's eye relief.


the structure (abee prism, light leakage, slight greanish coloring, strong pincusion distortion...)
fells like the cheap version of Zeiss TFL.

It's build quality and brightness is very very good for Its price, but it has some serious CONs which I have mentioned above.


It will serve you very well on night time hunting. but I will be happy to recommend other pair of bino for birding.

 

[jackjack]

I recently picked up the Alpen Teton 10x42 with AK prisms..... it was a bit out of the ordinary. I am travelling at present and won't get a good look at it for a couple of months. The 5 minute check I did, it seemed quite good, sharp and bright.
You are one of the few other owners, they are not too common.
How do you find it performs?

plus, I found out It's Abee prism is little bit different then other Abee prism. one of my colleague can get access to Xray device, so I could get my teton X rayed.
first photo is Alepn tetons X ray and second photo is comparing with ordinary shaped Abee prism of victory HT.
don't know why the place the prism reversed. have asked through Alpen SNS but never got a reply...

 

[exup]

@jackjack
Excellent, thanks.

Funny the 5 minutes I did have with these..... I thought the depth of field was shallowish and the field was not as flat as I had hoped.
As DoF is predominantly driven by magnification, I was a bit surprised and noted to examine further. The non magnification factors must be at play to limit the DoF.

The lack of full flat field and drop off was seen, but not too bad. I had expected better, but my Canon 10x42L is the best I have seen, so maybe the bar is too high for a mid range bin at this price point. Kimmo has tested the full field sharpness and the Canon outperforms the SF, so to get better outer edge requires much higher cost, eg NL, which I wouldn't pay, without IS included.

I am not a hard core birder, so CA never really bothers me and I rarely see it in my use cases. I'm happy with a Canon 12x36 III, which also displays some CA, but the detail I get is unrivaled handheld, so this minor issue far outweighs the occasional CA for me.

What is strange about these Tetons is that there don't seem to be other 8/10x42s with AK prisms readily available on the market. That's why I bought them, as I like the GPO/ Geco 8x56 AK. As Alpen are unlikely to be manufacturing these themselves, it is a mystery who is supplying these?

 

[jackjack]

@jackjack
Excellent, thanks.

Funny the 5 minutes I did have with these..... I thought the depth of field was shallowish and the field was not as flat as I had hoped.
As DoF is predominantly driven by magnification, I was a bit surprised and noted to examine further. The non magnification factors must be at play to limit the DoF.

The lack of full flat field and drop off was seen, but not too bad. I had expected better, but my Canon 10x42L is the best I have seen, so maybe the bar is too high for a mid range bin at this price point. Kimmo has tested the full field sharpness and the Canon outperforms the SF, so to get better outer edge requires much higher cost, eg NL, which I wouldn't pay, without IS included.

I am not a hard core birder, so CA never really bothers me and I rarely see it in my use cases. I'm happy with a Canon 12x36 III, which also displays some CA, but the detail I get is unrivaled handheld, so this minor issue far outweighs the occasional CA for me.

What is strange about these Tetons is that there don't seem to be other 8/10x42s with AK prisms readily available on the market. That's why I bought them, as I like the GPO/ Geco 8x56 AK. As Alpen are unlikely to be manufacturing these themselves, it is a mystery who is supplying these?

Im curions about Where it made and wether it has some clones. I have sightron sv 8x42 and It seems optically clone to vortex razeo uhd, maven b2, Sig zulu 9/10. but I can't find clones of cheaper AK prisms. Alpen teton and Bushnell forge 15x56.
I heard alpen and bresser is under same company (Explorer scientific). In Korea they are both sold by dealer who sells other Explorer Scientific products.
And I also agree about canon IS. I used 10x42 for a while and 10x32 new is for a year. in my measure, their off axis sharpness (about 98% or more) is better then zeiss sf 10x42, nikon edg 8x42 vanguard endeavor ed 10x42, nikon se, fujinon fmtr.
honestly, only bino can beat them with off axis is Swaro EL.
and they are sharp in the center too. 10x32 has much more CA and lower color fidelity then 10x42 IS (maybe lack of L lens.) but I'ts sharpness is better than kowa genesis and nikon se. almost as Alpla bins. much better optically than fujinon 14x40. but I have to sell it because I'm too sensitive to CA and I hate It's eyecups

 

[exup]

Im curions about Where it made and wether it has some clones. I have sightron sv 8x42 and It seems optically clone to vortex razeo uhd, maven b2, Sig zulu 9/10. but I can't find clones of cheaper AK prisms. Alpen teton and Bushnell forge 15x56.
I heard alpen and bresser is under same company (Explorer scientific). In Korea they are both sold by dealer who sells other Explorer Scientific products.
And I also agree about canon IS. I used 10x42 for a while and 10x32 new is for a year. in my measure, their off axis sharpness (about 98% or more) is better then zeiss sf 10x42, nikon edg 8x42 vanguard endeavor ed 10x42, nikon se, fujinon fmtr.
honestly, only bino can beat them with off axis is Swaro EL.
and they are sharp in the center too. 10x32 has much more CA and lower color fidelity then 10x42 IS (maybe lack of L lens.) but I'ts sharpness is better than kowa genesis and nikon se. almost as Alpla bins. much better optically than fujinon 14x40. but I have to sell it because I'm too sensitive to CA and I hate It's eyecups

The new Sig Zulu 6 IS with (ED glass) and GPO HDs are on my 'to look at list' next.

The HT AK was reported as a hunters bin too ..... Maybe Alpen (yes part of ES now) simply introduced the Teton as a {£1000} cheaper alternative option, but not quite as refined.

 

[jackjack]

The new Sig Zulu 6 IS with (ED glass) and GPO HDs are on my 'to look at list' next.

The HT AK was reported as a hunters bin too ..... Maybe Alpen (yes part of ES now) simply introduced the Teton as a {£1000} cheaper alternative option, but not quite as refined.

In korea hunting is allowed in very limited occasions so, demands for hunting bino is almost 0%.
binos don't have the exact purpose. you san bird with Alpen teton and hunt with Nikon monarch.
but some minor characteristics define some binocular of it usage.

such as...(personal thoughts)

In birding, we usually use it at daytime so binos tend to have little bit of yellow and orange coloring to give more comfort (blue spectrum decrease) to eyes.
CA matters more than Brightness in day time uses too.
and to identify bird moving fast, focuse has to be fast so focus dept and amount of rotation of focuser have to be small.

I think Kowa, Nikon and Swarovski is doing it well in those usage.

I think hunting bino is opposite. It is more used in low light that birding, so Brightness matters then CA. and It's focus have to be more precise than fast because hunting mainly have a longer observation distance than birding...

I think Bushnell, Alpen and Zeiss doing it well.

but I think recent Zeiss such as SF and SFL tends to have more 'birding characteristics' then hunting. guess becuse of expanding of birding usage?
As in Asia, in which population of hunter is significantly lower than America, we welcome those changes.

the diffrence may seems minor but still enough to influence comfortness when it used at proper usages.

 

[Patudo]

Welcome, and glad you're here! It would be interesting to know more about the environments you bird in, the species you see, and which birds you're particularly interested in. I focus on watching raptors, particularly in the urban environment. I've read that northern goshawks can be found in large parks of some Korean cities like Seoul. They are very much a bird of the forest here in the UK but I've seen them in Berlin - amazing creatures!

Does South Korea have a significant commercial/sports optics industry? I guess the ROK must produce military binoculars, but we seem to hear very little about civilian optics.

PS. what's the large individual focus porro with the Bausch & Lomb style one-piece body design at the top right of your photo? It's to the right of the center focus porro with what looks like a label "Mantis" in red text.