Here are the new Victorys: Victory HT (1 Viewer)

[frank.e.oy]

Here are the new Victorys that will be available from may 2012:

Zeiss Victory HT

2 Models for the start:
Zeiss Victory HT 8x42
Zeiss Victory HT 10x42

 

[xu42]

I have already known the name HT, but never seen the picture. Thank you.

 

[Chosun Juan]

Hmm .... FOV, ER same-ish .... tr improved up to 95% (although don't tell allbino's that!), and weight up by ~ 1oz.

I wonder if the chassis is magnesium as rumoured, or still glass fibre reinforced polyamide.

The twin bridge /focuser construction looks like a typically terrific teutonic elegantly efficient engineering solution, so I doubt that's where the extra weight has come from.

I wonder how it functions from an ergonomic standpoint? ..... the photo's look interesting to say the least! ..... I suppose a lot will be down to the CoG and weight distribution /polar moments of inertia.

No game changer for me due to the FOV /ER (which unfortunately puts it out of contention for me), but I'll bet it's a nice very bright view.

Enjoy if you can. Sigh. |8(| :cat:



Chosun :gh:

 

[tonimaroni]

More pictures: www.foto-wannack.de

 

[temmie]

I am quite happy with the looks.
I hope the focusser is as smooth as the Nikon HG-L...

No improvements on FOV and ER, and about the weight of the new Trinovids (only 30g lighter than Swarovisions...)
I hope to have a look through them any time soon and wonder how much they will cost after they are out for some time (they are now at just below 2000 EUR), given the low price of the new Conquest.

Somebody I know at Zeiss told me that this Victory line was engineered and will be marketed more with hunters in mind, so not a surprise for me these are a bit heavier...

 

[FrankD]

Hmm, the hinge design was the first thing that struck me about the new model. An open bridge plus shortened distance between the bridges. I wonder how my fingers will fit in there. Interesting.

As for the specs...a 408 foot field of view is good but not eye-opening considering the past model. Increased light transmission is very nice but I wonder how they handle the size of the sweet spot.

For Henry, here is a cross section of the eyepiece design. Maybe he can offer some insights....

 

[vop]

:-CThey also ditched the 7x42! You bastards!!:C

 

[FrankD]

Yes, I noticed that as well.

The good news is that the current 7x42s should drop in price as they are being discontinued!

 

[james holdsworth]

HT Schott glass explained, to some degree.....

http://www.us.schott.com/english/news/press.html?NID=369

 

[RJM]

Well now we know the secret sauce is Schott HT glass. Begs the question, what happened to the FL objectives?

 

[henry link]

The FL glass will still be there. The few HT glasses are confined to higher index types. You can see the internal tramsmittance difference between the HT types and the types they replace at the Schott website linked to in this PDF about HT glass.

http://www.schott.com/advanced_opti...hott_newsletter_advanced_optics_032010_en.pdf

As you can see there is not a huge difference for BK7, but it can be substantial for high dispersion glasses in the blue/violet.

We can't tell what specific elements use HT glass in the new binoculars, but the only ones that would really matter much are the prisms and the lens elements that use high index glass. Unfortunately, there's no mention of better off-axis corrections to compete with Swarovski and the "Comfort Focus" looks like lots of old Porros from 20 years ago.

 

[ceasar]

HT Schott glass explained, to some degree.....

http://www.us.schott.com/english/news/press.html?NID=369

Yep, the glass is made right here in Northeastern PA in Duryea, hometown of a couple of my trout fishing buddies.:t:

And a former girl friend.

Bob

 

[Chosun Juan]

Hmm, the hinge design was the first thing that struck me about the new model. An open bridge plus shortened distance between the bridges. I wonder how my fingers will fit in there. Interesting.

With extreme difficulty! (maybe the assistance of a 2 ton SUV would help?!)

Actually Frank, looking at the OP's link, the "in hand" pictures seem to indicate just a focusing finger on top, and grip in front of the bridge - I doubt if you'd even get a spare fingertip anywhere in there, top or bottom ..... maybe there's a thumb indent under there somewhere.

Well now we know the secret sauce is Schott HT glass. Begs the question, what happened to the FL objectives?

From James' link above, Schott seem to make special mention of the HT glass in 'long optical paths' (such as the ABK prisms) to reduce transmittance losses. I'd say the objectives are still FL glass.

[EDIT]: That's what Henry said too ..... must learn to type faster!

Chosun :gh:

 

[ceasar]

Pretty spare styling. Looks like they were designed by someone like Gerd Muller, the Bauhaus designer of the Lamy 2000 Pens.

Bob

PS: I just noticed that their bridge is about as small (or narrow) as the Swarovski CL's bridge is. Although it seems to be more robust.

 

[henry link]

I did some rough estimates of how much transmission would improve if just the prism glass in the FL were replaced with one of the new HT glasses that Zeiss refers to as a "prism glass" (N-SK2HT, since we know N-B7HT wouldn't be suitable). This is based on 75mm travel through glass in the prism and the old prism glass being the non-HT version, N-SK2.

400nm, +1.8%
450nm, +2.7%
500nm, +1.5%
550nm, +0.6%
600nm, +0.6%
650nm, +0.6%

A nice boost in the blue, but not much help at the red end.

Edit: FWIW, If the current prism glass is BAK4, the transmission improvement would be totally insignificant at wavelengths of 500nm or longer (+0.3%), but would be around +3% at 400nm.

 

[ceasar]

Here are the new Victorys that will be available from may 2012:

Zeiss Victory HT

2 Models for the start:
Zeiss Victory HT 8x42
Zeiss Victory HT 10x42

Does that "1.945,-- Euro" up in the right hand corner of the 8 x 42 link mean Euros? I'm not much on International Finance. If it does, that works out to about $2600.00 US funds!:eek!:

No wonder they dropped the 7 x 42's. At that price they were doomed to sell at a glacial pace.

Bob

 

[etudiant]

Is that "1.945,-- Euro" up in the right hand corner of the 8 x 42 link mean Euros? I'm not much on International Finance. If it does, that works out to about $2600.00 US funds!:eek!:

No wonder they dropped the 7 x 42's. At that price they were doomed to sell at a glacial pace.

Bob

It does seem the alpha makers are retreating into a small niche.
How many can afford 2000E binoculars?
Who wants to bet that the market will shift to the Zen Rays and Sightrons?

 

[vop]

I did some rough estimates of how much transmission would improve if just the prism glass in the FL were replaced with one of the new HT glasses that Zeiss refers to as "prism glass" (N-SK2HT, N-SK7HT). This is based on 75mm travel through glass in the prism and the old prism glass being the non-HT version of the same glass.

400nm, +1.8%
450nm, +2.7%
500nm, +1.5%
550nm, +0.6%
600nm, +0.6%
650nm, +0.6%

A nice boost in the blue, but not much help at the red end.

I wonder if that will move the color balance even more towards the blue-green end.

 

[henry link]

It would, unless the transmission curve of the coatings is adjusted to compensate.

 

[ceasar]

Yes, I noticed that as well.

The good news is that the current 7x42s should drop in price as they are being discontinued!

I'm afraid that they will still be expensive. Swarovski's 7 x 42 B SLC's are selling for about $1500.00 at Cameraland and their current price of the 7 x 42 Victory is close to $1900.00.

And the bad news is that the choice of alpha 7 x 42's will be restricted to Leica and Nikon.

Bob