My employer is about to start carrying the BX-5 and I know literally nothing about them. Does anyone have any insight on what they are going to compare to, quality of the build, glass, coatings, etc? At that price point it seems like it's going to compete with Meopta and Steiner but until I get my hands on I can't make a clear determination for myself. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.
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Leupold BX-5 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter wsrose
- Start date
A have a Leupold BX-5 15x56, and this is what a wrote about it in another context:
“…. It is a heavy and sturdy upper middle class instrument made in Japan, heavier than most other current 15x56s, with excellent finish and mechanics, a good central sharpness and a moderately wide sweet spot, but only mediocre edge sharpness. Attention to a proper placement of the eyes behind the eyepieces is necessary in order to prevent images with significant color fringes….“
More about it here:
Canip
“…. It is a heavy and sturdy upper middle class instrument made in Japan, heavier than most other current 15x56s, with excellent finish and mechanics, a good central sharpness and a moderately wide sweet spot, but only mediocre edge sharpness. Attention to a proper placement of the eyes behind the eyepieces is necessary in order to prevent images with significant color fringes….“
More about it here:
Canip
Thank you VERY much, this is basically exactly what I was hoping for.
Canip is spot on. I would also like to add a few things. While these are very good binos, pay attention to build quality. After using/examination of multiple copies in 8x42 and 10x42 I noticed the majority had slight slop in the diopter ring and very loose hinges. The diopter ring in a handful of copies had a slight movement back and forth of free play. It wouldn’t change focus, but it was noticeable/irritating.
However the most irritating thing for me was the loose hinges. I only found two copies with proper hinge tension out of maybe about 7 or 8 that I handled. The majority of them would flop closed on themselves if held by one barrel.
Outside of those quality control gripes, they are optically excellent and very solid yet light binoculars.
In regards to some comparisons, The BX-5 would be comparable to a Razor HD and Tract Toric UHD. However, the Maven B series, Conquest HD, and Trinovid HD are steps above both Leupolds
Compared to Leupold’s own BX-4,
I believe both the BX-4 Pro Guide HD and BX-5 Santiam HD use the same glass so they are equal there. The differences I notice are size, build quality, color rendition, contrast, internal reflections, field of view, and resolution. When listed out like that it looks like a lot, but in reality their images are more similar that different.
The BX-4 is smaller and more compact, has more of cooler color tones, less contrast, more internal reflections, has a smaller field of view, and are able to resolve less. The biggest optical flaw or frustration, however you see it, are they show more reflections that can present the image as more washed out compared to the BX-5. This is probably why the BX-5 appears more contrasted and able to resolve minute details better.
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