Leica Noctivid 10x42, Swaro NL Pure 12x42, or Zeiss Victory SF 10x42 (1 Viewer)

[Paultricounty]

I just got off the phone with my reliable Swarovski contact on this issue. There was no change to the optics since the upgrade to SV. Then SV upgrade became the SV FP (field pro). When the NL's came out, swaro changed the focus mechanism on the EL's to a less expensive design, to be able to lower the price and still keep the optical quality of the EL. This resulted in a longer short focus, but all else stayed the same.

Therefore the difference looking down the barrels are not different from something made a month ago or a two years ago. The difference the OP sees is the change Swaro made to the focuser, not the optics. There is no less flat field or difference of color rendition from SV, SV FP and SV FP with changed focus mechanism. Of course there could be a small amount of unit variation I suppose in color, if your eye can pick that up, but id be extremely surprised.

Paul

 

[Paultricounty]

That thread has covered construction details; Swaro seem to have created an extremely confusing resale situation here, not only pre-Classic vs Classic, but early Classic vs late-simplified Classic. (And that's just FP, as opposed to pre-FP SV, as opposed to pre-SV, all without any labeling...) You're right, optically no one has yet followed up on the "less flat" comment, which seems rather unlikely to me also.

I don't think its that confusing, but I'm coming into the game from inception of the SV model. That was advertised as improvements from the prior model, which you may know more about than me. When SV was updated, optics stayed the same and Swaro advertised SV FP , Field pro being cosmetic upgrade or improvement, if you will. The confusion you speak of , and I might agree is when they changed the focuser mechanism, theres nothing about that from Swaro that I know of. Thats like a surprise from Swaro, kind of like the new Apple Iphone having less battery life than the last generation .

Maybe they thought nobody would notice if the optics were the same and with a $500 lower sale price. Or maybe they thought people wouldn't care. For me if I had the choice and I can save $500 and only lose three feet of close focus, id take it. I have other binoculars that don't weigh almost 30oz to look at butterflies and fire ants.

Paul

 

[GrampaTom]

...........The confusion you speak of , and I might agree is when they changed the focuser mechanism, theres nothing about that from Swaro that I know of. Thats like a surprise from Swaro, kind of like the new Apple Iphone having less battery life than the last generation .

Maybe they thought nobody would notice if the optics were the same and with a $500 lower sale price. Or maybe they thought people wouldn't care. For me if I had the choice and I can save $500 and only lose three feet of close focus, id take it. I have other binoculars that don't weigh almost 30oz to look at butterflies and fire ants.

Paul

Paul, this was well publicized at the time summer, 2020. NLs announced, Els lowered in price so they wouldn't confuse things with the NL, costs lowered by reducing the short focus mech to help protect margin.

Sorry Paul, I had the date wrong, corrected above

 

[tenex]

Swaro seem to have created an extremely confusing resale situation here, not only pre-Classic vs Classic, but early Classic vs late-simplified Classic.

I should withdraw that, having based it on Bert's claim in the other thread for which I'm aware of no other evidence:

The modifications in the EL took place in the last couple of months.

I therefore supposed that when he said

I have had the previous and new version quite short after eachother.

he was talking about having seen two versions of the Classic, but that is surely not the case.

So there is one EL Classic, and it has had the simplified focus mechanism and internal construction shown in just-posted photos for the past couple of years.

 

[Paultricounty]

Paul, this was well publicized at the time summer, 2020. NLs announced, Els lowered in price so they wouldn't confuse things with the NL, costs lowered by reducing the short focus mech to help protect margin.

Sorry Paul, I had the date wrong, corrected above

Hi Tom,
I think you may have misunderstood my post. I know about the info you put forth in your reply. I was responding to what seemed like miss information in the original post. It kind of led me and possibly a few others to get the impression that Swarovski completely changed the EL very recently to be more like SLC. Of course that’s not the case.

Paul