cowsandgrass
Active member
Hello Bird Forum members. I have been studying this site for years, soaking in the immense collective wisdom of this group. I truly appreciate the value of this site and the contributions of its members. I would love your help and guidance as I try to decide on my next optics purchase.
I recently had my vehicle burgled and my binoculars and spotting scope were absconded with leaving me in a dilemma on what to replace them with. I am looking for recommendations on a compact 30/32mm alpha binocular. My priorities are 1) Sharpness/clarity in the center of image, 2) Easy relaxing view (I define ease of view as having forgiving eye placement and an immersive view; ie. not tunnel like), 3) Glare Control.
A little bit of background about myself. I am a rancher in the wide-open planes of South Dakota. I am also a wildlife enthusiast and dabble in birding. I use binoculars every day to help me do my job and, more importantly, soak in the beauty and intrigue of my surroundings. I have a set of binoculars with me wherever I go. They generally ride on the dash of my truck but also move with me to whatever mode of conveyance I am using (horse, tractor, ATV, boat, foot). My optics get treated kind of roughly and I value the build quality of alpha/near alpha companies because of this.
For the past 5 years I have relied on a pair of Swarovski ELSV (field pro model). These bins held up well to my treatment and served my purpose. I did have a few objections to these. First, and most damning, was the severity of veiling glare. In the wide-open planes with unrelenting sun I could not look anywhere withing 90 degrees of a rising or setting sun without having either bright crescents or completely washed-out views. The second, less severe, issue was with the focus mechanism. When riding on the dash (or on my chest) the focus would slowly turn itself completely in one direction (not sure which way) so that every time I picked them up I would have to completely re-focus. It seemed to me that there must have been a spring of some sort in the mechanism that would pull the focus back as the binoculars bounced and vibrated. I did notice that the focus resistance was significantly different depending on which way I was spinning the wheel. The last issue I had was compactness. Although the ELSV32 was thin it was a long binocular making it a little harder to shove into a coat pocket or stow away discretely.
In regard to ease of view, I do not wear glasses and my face shape means that I wish almost every available pair of binoculars would come with slightly longer eyecups. The easiest eye-placement and most immersive view I have ever got in a 32mm bin was with NL 32's. With the NLs I can shove the eyepieces deep into my sockets and move my eyes freely around the view. The worst was with MHG30's. With these it was difficult to get my eyes positioned in the first place and then any eye movement would cause complete blackouts.
My other set of binoculars is a 2012 SLC 42mm. I use these as a reference standard as I really like the view, they do well with glare, and they have decent ease of view/easy eye placement. I cannot shove the eye pieces all the way into my eye-sockets but I can easily find a comfortable position that allows me to see the full field of view and even move my eyes around the image slightly without blackouts. I do have some minor trouble with blackouts during panning. In a perfect world I will be able to find a compact 30/32mm bin that is at least as good as my SLC.
I think I have narrowed my search down to 3 choices. Ultravid HD+ 32, SFL 30, or the old model CL-Companion. Call me vein but I just hate the looks of the new model companions. I could be persuaded to abandon compactness for an NL32 but they seem to have the same glare problems as my old ELSV.
I have been trying out a set of Leica Ultravid HD+ and I really like them, the image quality and glare control is amazing. The only issues I have with these are the "slight" tunnel like view and the long monobridge design that I can’t wrap any fingers around. The view through the UVHD32 is more tunnel like than the SLC. The UVHD32 ease of view/eye placement is nearly identical to the SLC. How would the old model CL, or the SFL compare to this regarding my 3 criteria above?
Sorry about the long post but I wanted you all to have as much context as possible. Thank you in advance for your opinions and experience.
Bob
I recently had my vehicle burgled and my binoculars and spotting scope were absconded with leaving me in a dilemma on what to replace them with. I am looking for recommendations on a compact 30/32mm alpha binocular. My priorities are 1) Sharpness/clarity in the center of image, 2) Easy relaxing view (I define ease of view as having forgiving eye placement and an immersive view; ie. not tunnel like), 3) Glare Control.
A little bit of background about myself. I am a rancher in the wide-open planes of South Dakota. I am also a wildlife enthusiast and dabble in birding. I use binoculars every day to help me do my job and, more importantly, soak in the beauty and intrigue of my surroundings. I have a set of binoculars with me wherever I go. They generally ride on the dash of my truck but also move with me to whatever mode of conveyance I am using (horse, tractor, ATV, boat, foot). My optics get treated kind of roughly and I value the build quality of alpha/near alpha companies because of this.
For the past 5 years I have relied on a pair of Swarovski ELSV (field pro model). These bins held up well to my treatment and served my purpose. I did have a few objections to these. First, and most damning, was the severity of veiling glare. In the wide-open planes with unrelenting sun I could not look anywhere withing 90 degrees of a rising or setting sun without having either bright crescents or completely washed-out views. The second, less severe, issue was with the focus mechanism. When riding on the dash (or on my chest) the focus would slowly turn itself completely in one direction (not sure which way) so that every time I picked them up I would have to completely re-focus. It seemed to me that there must have been a spring of some sort in the mechanism that would pull the focus back as the binoculars bounced and vibrated. I did notice that the focus resistance was significantly different depending on which way I was spinning the wheel. The last issue I had was compactness. Although the ELSV32 was thin it was a long binocular making it a little harder to shove into a coat pocket or stow away discretely.
In regard to ease of view, I do not wear glasses and my face shape means that I wish almost every available pair of binoculars would come with slightly longer eyecups. The easiest eye-placement and most immersive view I have ever got in a 32mm bin was with NL 32's. With the NLs I can shove the eyepieces deep into my sockets and move my eyes freely around the view. The worst was with MHG30's. With these it was difficult to get my eyes positioned in the first place and then any eye movement would cause complete blackouts.
My other set of binoculars is a 2012 SLC 42mm. I use these as a reference standard as I really like the view, they do well with glare, and they have decent ease of view/easy eye placement. I cannot shove the eye pieces all the way into my eye-sockets but I can easily find a comfortable position that allows me to see the full field of view and even move my eyes around the image slightly without blackouts. I do have some minor trouble with blackouts during panning. In a perfect world I will be able to find a compact 30/32mm bin that is at least as good as my SLC.
I think I have narrowed my search down to 3 choices. Ultravid HD+ 32, SFL 30, or the old model CL-Companion. Call me vein but I just hate the looks of the new model companions. I could be persuaded to abandon compactness for an NL32 but they seem to have the same glare problems as my old ELSV.
I have been trying out a set of Leica Ultravid HD+ and I really like them, the image quality and glare control is amazing. The only issues I have with these are the "slight" tunnel like view and the long monobridge design that I can’t wrap any fingers around. The view through the UVHD32 is more tunnel like than the SLC. The UVHD32 ease of view/eye placement is nearly identical to the SLC. How would the old model CL, or the SFL compare to this regarding my 3 criteria above?
Sorry about the long post but I wanted you all to have as much context as possible. Thank you in advance for your opinions and experience.
Bob
but flat field has nothing to do with pincushion distortion. There are flat field binos with or without it. Flat field just means everything in the same distance to the observer will be sharp when the bino is focused at that distance. Even flat field binos will have some pincushion distortion most of the time or you will get rolling ball effect.
