High grade AK prism battle?! Vortex Razor UHD VS Zeiss Victory HT (in 8x42 format) (1 Viewer)

[jackjack]

(Previous post about Vortex razor UHD and Sightron SV)

Thread 'Vortex Razor UHD and Sightron SV. Is it a identical clone binocular? Comparison in 8x42 format.' Vortex Razor UHD and Sightron SV. Is it a identical clone binocular? Comparison in 8x42 format.

hello

this time, I will post the comparison of two AK (Abee Koenig prism)bino.

Vortex Razor UHD (UHD) Zeiss Victory HT (HT)

in 8x42, HT is the most expensive AK prism bino (about 2500$ in Korea) and Vortex razor UHD comes right below FL(about 1800$ in Korea).

and also, it will be the comparison of best 8x42 AK made in Asia (UHD. Japan) and Europe (HT. Germany)



photo of HT / UHD

UHD is longer and bit wider

OHD have slimmer barral with thum thrud


HT is much lighter then UHD

UHD have a tripod adapter hole but HT doesn't

ocular lens is bigger on UHD


UHD's stated ER is bit longer then HT (16.7 / 16)mm

but as in the photo, UHD's ocular is deeper possessed.

so usuable ER is actually longer in HT

and also, HT's eyecup could be adjusted to higher position. so it can prevent some blackout cause by eyecup bit short compared to ER


objective lens is more deeply possessed in HT

HT have bigger and lower placed focus wheel

so it is much easier to get access to the focus wheel


HT has typical violet coating of Zeiss bino

UHD's lens is more greener

light leakage is much better controlled in UHD(down)
HT have some leakage similer to it's former. FL


UHD have more luxurious Accessories



exit pupil is much bigger on HT

It is mainly caused by low magnification of HT


x3 zoom placed together

it seems HT is about 0.2 magnification smaller then UHD

 

[jackjack]

OPTICS

Brightness

HT / UHD


Photo is taken under same setting.

UHD is bright bino. excelling NV, SFL, EL, NL, EDG in terms of brightness.

but HT is even one step over.

not only low light brightness difference is significant in addition of bigger exit pupil, but also, it is enough to feel immediate brightness increase under dayling too


Field of View

FOV comparison of 4 binos

from the top to bottom,

Nikon EDG 8x42 (7.65 approx)
Zeiss HT 8x42 (7.7 approx)
SRBC 10x42 redused 0.8 mag (7.8 approx)
Vortex razor UHD 8x42 (7.95 approx)




Color


HT / UHD



as you see from the photo,
HT color slightly biased to green and UHD to red.

color fidelity is better in UHD, but contrast feel bit higher in HT

Central sharpness

HT / UHD




HT is sharper then UHD. so it can overcome bit of resolution disadvantages caused by smaller real magnification.

UHD's central sharpness is bit less then Zeiss CHD and HT is bit above.

so sharpness level is

UHD < CHD < HT < NL < EL

Edge sharpness

HT / UHD




UHD maintain it's sweetspot up to 77 ~ 80%

and HT only about 72 ~ 75%

UHD also has significantly wide view so it's sweetspot is considerably lareger then HT

Distortion

HT / UHD




HT shows strong pincusion distortion not as the former FL but much significant then average bino such as Nikon M7, Kowa BD, Zeiss SF.

UHD supress pincusion distortion very well. not as good as Swaro EL&NL or SRBC but enough to feen natural against straight lines objects also avoiding rolling ball effect while panning which is cause by over correction of Pincusion distortion.

so, the distortion is much natural in UHD.

Chromatic abberation


HT / UHD

just a small differ but HT control CA better then UHD both on edge and center
and they also have different CA spectrum.

HT's CA shows mainly in blue and red spectrum and UHD shows more yellowish green and violet

Glare suppression

HT

UHD


HT suffers from some glare despite it is Zeiss product...
better then Swaro but significantly lower then other high grade binos such as Nikon EDG, Zeiss SFL, Zeiss SF, Leica UV

UHD's glare suppression is on the top of the pack with Leica Noctivid

 

[jackjack]

Comparison summery and Conculsion

in terms of view
HT leads UHD with better sharpness, color satuation, and most significant differ of all, image brightness.

UHD leads in size of sweet spot, glare and ghost suppression and just a bit better color fidelity
(they both under level of Swaro EL and Zeiss SFL in terms of color fidelity but they shows really nich colorfidelity compared to bino such as Nikon EDG, Zeiss FL, meopta meostar)

in terms of ergonomics,

dispite of the longer, heavier body,
UHD is more easy to hold because of slimmer barral with better ergonomically made.

HT leads in nicer acces to focus wheel and better eye placement both with glasses and without

and
accessories is better in UHD except for undersized bino pouch.


So. Conculsion,

which one is better bino,

I definitely go to HT.

Main reason of using Abee Koenig prism is to enhance image brightness.

for that reason, HT is already a clear winner.

for whom serching for brightest bino, HT's brightness advantage alone is enough to justify 700$ higher price then UHD.

and also, HT manage to made their AK bino

much lighter and smaller.

that put the end to the battle.

HT 8x42 is not the flattest nor the sharpest bino.
but at least between my experiences of approx 340 kind of binos, no 8x42 will get near to brightness of HT.
pity that Zeiss discontinued them.


UHD is a nice bino. more all rounded bino then HT with better optical abberation control and state of art glare and ghost control.

but in my opinion, they could do better with that high price.
That price have to be included with famouse Vortex warranty.

at least UHD is still significantly brighter then most of 8x42 roof prism I have seen, so it can be good choice for night time hunter unless they got their hands on HT

 

[tenex]

exit pupil is much bigger on HT

It is mainly caused by low magnification of HT

Are you sure about this? Has anyone actually measured the magnification of these two models? (Allbinos has not)

 

[Montereyman]

I bought the Vortex Razor HD and the UHD in 12x50 and the imaging provided by the UHD was not noticeably better than the HD binocular. The UHD may be better on paper but in actual use I could not see a gain with these binoculars that cost 50% more than the HD version with the older optical formulation.

At 12x magnification any issues with imaging is a great deal more apparent than with an 8x binocular. With 8x binoculars even a low end Nikon Monard 5 is OK.

Better coatings can reduce flare with backlit subjects but it makes no sense to try to view a bird if one needs to look into the sun to do so. The iris naturally contracts with bright light and the subject is going to be darker and less easy to see much less identify. I am more concerned with minimal CA and not having fringing around a subject and that is a result of the optical design and precision in the manufacturing of the optical device.

 

[jackjack]

Are you sure about this? Has anyone actually measured the magnification of these two models? (Allbinos has not)

yes I'm sure about HT smaller then exact 8 power.
but I don't know really EXACT power of HT