Pinewood
New York correspondent
Hello,
About fourteen years ago, I bought the 10x32mm FL. Less than a year later, I bought the 8x32mm FL. Both purchases were demos from cameralandny.com, when the shop was located on Lexington Avenue in New York City.
Both models have good field of view: Zeiss list the 8x as having a 64º apparent field of view, and the 10x as having a 69º apparent field of view. The former is very good, the latter is even better.
Their fiberglass reinforced polycarbonate bodies, generated a lot of criticism from bird watchers but at least one user on Cloudy Nights wrote that they were tough and were the best built binoculars on the market.
Designing a binocular with bot a good FOV and good eye relief, 15.5mm for the 8x and 15.3mm for the 10x, was very laudable for this eyeglass wearer.
After obtaining the 8x, I put my Leica 8x32BN binocular in cupboard, which it has rarely left. That Leica was far more friendly than my Nikon 8x32 SE, which it replaced.
The close focus of both models is listed at 2m and I do not need closer than that. The focussing is extraordinarily smooth but it did have a problem: it was too easy to pull the dioptre setting out when removing the binocular from a case. Since I generally do not use a case, it was not a problem. Awareness of that propensity is enough to avoid the trouble.
I generally carry only the 8x, which is obviously my binocular of choice. Even though I could hold the 10c32 FL more steadily than it predecessor the 10x40 ClassiC, I am still not happy with 10x. On occasion, I carry a lower powered glass,like my MeoPro 6.4x32, and the 10x, which works very well. The 10x provides the extra reach, I need across a lake or across a large meadow.
After more than a decade of use, I have very satisfied. As I own a 1917 Zeiss 6x24, which still functions. I have hopes to use my FL's for many years to come before it becomes truly obsolete. As it is still in production, and since Zeiss does not seem interested in a new 8x32 SF, I think that service, if needed, should be no problem for many years.
I know that individuals may have a different take on these binoculars but in the past fifteen years I have owned the FL, the Nikon SE 82, the Nikon 8x30 EII, and the Leica 8x32BA, but the 8x32 FL has met my needs. I am not attracted to either flat field binocuars or toe
About fourteen years ago, I bought the 10x32mm FL. Less than a year later, I bought the 8x32mm FL. Both purchases were demos from cameralandny.com, when the shop was located on Lexington Avenue in New York City.
Both models have good field of view: Zeiss list the 8x as having a 64º apparent field of view, and the 10x as having a 69º apparent field of view. The former is very good, the latter is even better.
Their fiberglass reinforced polycarbonate bodies, generated a lot of criticism from bird watchers but at least one user on Cloudy Nights wrote that they were tough and were the best built binoculars on the market.
Designing a binocular with bot a good FOV and good eye relief, 15.5mm for the 8x and 15.3mm for the 10x, was very laudable for this eyeglass wearer.
After obtaining the 8x, I put my Leica 8x32BN binocular in cupboard, which it has rarely left. That Leica was far more friendly than my Nikon 8x32 SE, which it replaced.
The close focus of both models is listed at 2m and I do not need closer than that. The focussing is extraordinarily smooth but it did have a problem: it was too easy to pull the dioptre setting out when removing the binocular from a case. Since I generally do not use a case, it was not a problem. Awareness of that propensity is enough to avoid the trouble.
I generally carry only the 8x, which is obviously my binocular of choice. Even though I could hold the 10c32 FL more steadily than it predecessor the 10x40 ClassiC, I am still not happy with 10x. On occasion, I carry a lower powered glass,like my MeoPro 6.4x32, and the 10x, which works very well. The 10x provides the extra reach, I need across a lake or across a large meadow.
After more than a decade of use, I have very satisfied. As I own a 1917 Zeiss 6x24, which still functions. I have hopes to use my FL's for many years to come before it becomes truly obsolete. As it is still in production, and since Zeiss does not seem interested in a new 8x32 SF, I think that service, if needed, should be no problem for many years.
I know that individuals may have a different take on these binoculars but in the past fifteen years I have owned the FL, the Nikon SE 82, the Nikon 8x30 EII, and the Leica 8x32BA, but the 8x32 FL has met my needs. I am not attracted to either flat field binocuars or toe