BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Themoog" data-source="post: 3516653" data-attributes="member: 140925">First lookDear All,Just to say that by sheer chance I found myself with 30 minutes to look at some binoculars in London today. Long story.Anyway, here's the long and the short of it.No Monarch HG's at all available. Awaiting stock.Briefly examined and looked through the following;Swarovski CL- P 10x25 greenSwarovski CL Companion 10x30 Sandstone/TravellerZeiss Conquest HD 10x42 ...er, black !Impressions (because with simply mere minutes to look at that's all it can be. Just looking out shop window - hardly the most challenging, contrasty or indeed interesting view)Swaro Cl-P's - Beautifully constructed and balanced little binocular. Perfect movement in the focus dial and fast and silky smooth action. No play.Enough ER for me. Nice pliable eye cups and stepless action on ER adjustment. Just the merest hint of loss of sharpness towards the edge and no discernible CA inside that. Very bright. Diopter adjustment not tested.Swaro CL Companion - Similarly well constructed and even better balance and ergonomics. Tougher focussing than I expected and a distinct flat spot in both directions. Some sloppy play. Enough ER again. Again, silky smooth stepless eye relief action and yielding eye cup rubber.No real detectable loss of sharpness across the entire field or if so as to be so fractional as not to bother me one bit. No CA but as with all of them, hardly a challenging situation. Also very bright. Diopter adjustment not tested.Zeiss Conquest HD - Reassuringly solid almost brutal and angular casings. Simple and purposeful aesthetic. 'Stealth Bomber' came to mind. Best focussing of all three. Precise, smooth, positive and seamless. ER felt a little more generous and more than sufficient. Slightly tougher and thicker eye cups but still of good quality and not at all unacceptable. Stepped (3?) ER stages which felt positive and robust. Not thenleast bit plasticy.Couldn't tell and instant difference in  overall image sharpness or CA but if anything seemed even brighter. Can't remember how close to the edge field abberations were, sorry. Diopter adjustment not tested.Take this as you will. Hardly a 'group test' eh? Hardly authorative either. Just some random thoughts on seemingly random sets. I wasn't there at a good time and I wasn't about to ask to get all the toys out. I had to be elsewhere and they were approaching their busy period.Leica NV and UV HD+ were available but boxed. Another time. With more time I would have tested Nikon Monarch 7s too as well as Opticron which I was pleased to see available. For me this is a marathon not a sprint.Thoughts; I wasn't wickedly impressed with the optics of any of them but marginally impressed with all of them, if that makes any sense. The build quality and finish of all of them I WAS impressed with. The noticable exception being the CL's focus. Maybe it was just a well thumbed demonstrator and not representative.Frankly, as much as they were all different sizes it was clear to see that they also had distinctive design characteristics and one will be attracted to some of these and not others depending on taste. It's as much about that as optics I daresay beyond a certain point.It's a little like golf clubs. I'm a Ping man, not good enough for Mizuno's or Titleist blades and just have never got on with Callaways or TaylorMade. Ping are maybe a bit 'boring' to my low handicap friends but they're great for me.....or they will be should my injuries ever permit me to loft them in anger again.All sterling equipment. Just not 'right' for me.One thing I DO know is that a 10x isn't for me just now. That's probably 45% of the available bins. crossed off with one swoosh of the pen. Pretty good afternoons' work.My journey has begun in earnest.All the bestTm</blockquote>

Verification