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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Newbflat" data-source="post: 3188583" data-attributes="member: 75345">So the Nikon 8x30 Monarch 7's showed up early and and I took  them all for a spin this afternoon, here are a few initial impressions. For the record the M7's are #0006954.  This review might evolve over the next few days so I reserve the right to totally change my mind at a moments notice.. First, the M7's are a bit bigger than I remembered. Not by much but there not quite at tiny at my memory/ hopes wanted.  So in reality there is no obvious winner here. The M7's are a bit smaller and lighter but not enough to really be much of a factor in my decision. So its down to nothing but performance.  The M7's are sharper than my pair of Mojave's . Not by much but it's there. I'm not sure but I might be having an issue with the diopter adjustment in the Mojave's . I just can't seem to get my right eye as sharp as I would like. More to come on this as I keep messing with it. The ZR 7x36 ED2's are still sharpest of the three center field. Not buy a huge amount but the clear winner. Tree branches against a bright gray/white sky shows the M7's as having less CA center field than the Mojave's but I can still see just a touch in the M7's. I think the Mojave's are a little better controlled across the full view but the M7's are better in the center. Nether have enough to really bother me when I'm not being anal and looking for it. Wouldn't want any more though. Focusing. I'm not really liking the focus on the Mojave's after using them for a few days. At first I liked the zero lash and still do but in the field focusing is too slow and vague (2 turns lock to lock). It's also a little hard to turn and jurky. Kind of like the tightness adjustment is a touch too tight.  Trying to follow fast moving birds was hard to do. Focusing is slow and I had to focus back and forth about 1/3 of a turn to try and zero in on what's sharpest...too much searching.  The Nikons are much quicker focusing (1.2 turns LtoL) and with far less searching. Maybe three times faster acquisition on a stationary target if out of focus at first, maybe even faster on a moving target....at least for me. Following an Anna's hummer 20 feet away flying all around and back and forth threw a small tree was WAY easier with the M7's. I would also like to thank the hummer for spending a generous amount of time flying about the same tree for me to have a good look threw all three binoculars on hand! The Nikon beats the other two for quick focusing/ fast bird following but the ZR's are close with there greater depth of field. Field curvature is fine. What I mean buy that is I didn't really notice anything one way or another panning around. Yes I can see it if I look for it but as some people are not really bothered by CA unless it's really bad, I'm not really bothered by field curvature. The the ZR 7x36's don't bother me at all so that should say something.  But my ZR primes did a little with the flat field. Both the Mojave's and the M7's seem close to each other but then again I'm not the one to ask. Glare...  Well for me this was a surprise. With the same torture test as a few days ago the winner was the M7's ... Sort of. I haven't experienced any veiled glare, at least what I think of as veiled glare in the M7's.  I do see glare/ reflections in the form of bright crescents on the bottom and lower sides projecting into the view to different degrees, but they are very eye placement dependent. It is definitely more annoying than in the Mojave's but I did find it in the Mojave's as well. In the Nikons it was there even when the sun was at 90° to the lenses or more... Not on in the Mojave's. I had to get more like 45° towards the sun before it showed.  Oddly I found more of what I think of as veiled glare in the Mojave's than the Nikons. Just to be clear, I consider 'veiled glare' to be like a haze or a light greying/ washing out of contrast across the full field. Not reflections in the corners that while bright have sharp edges and come and go with eye placement ( not sure what those are are called).  The Nikons did significantly better during all stages of the torture test than the Mojave's in terms of contrast, sharpness and noticeable veil. The blacks were blacker and the image brighter ( could see more) than the Mojave's. In comparison the Mojave's had a light veil and the contrast was suffering. But!.. There is less internal reflection and It was easer to place my eyes in a way that minimized reflected crescents around the edges and bottom of the field.  The M7's were more difficult to minimize the reflections (or whatever there called) and they never went away fully. But the image over all was clearer, darker/ more contrast and had quite a bit more color saturation. So, M7's had more reflections but a better over all view, with the Mojave's having less reflections but less contrast and a light veil.  The ZR's were near useless in this torture test.   Also my over all impression is that compared to the M7's the Mojave's have more contrast when viewing in the shade and without any bright light facing the objectives, but the closer I moved towards the sun a slow veil began to wash out the contrast. The M7's didn't have quite the same contrast in the shade and are a touch brighter over all and as you move towards the sun they maintained there contrast while the Mojave's began to loose it in a developing veil.......that said, these are initial impressions. I need a few days to sort it all out and see I'm my observations are consistent. Of the three the ZR's are the most relaxed to look threw hands down. Very easy on my eyes. Next is the Nikons but only by a little over the Mojave's. The Mojave's stress my eyes a bit. Kind of that feeling that the diopter is just a touch out of adjustment. I keep adjusting it to no avail. Or almost like the view is pinched (for lack of a better term) or I'm a tiny bit cross eyed when looking threw them. I'm talking very subtle here. I have no issue with the Nikons in this department. Both the M7's and Mojave's present a very 2-D image compared to the ZR's and the ZR's present bushes and plants with nice depth making the view more natural and relaxed. I went out late and put them threw the 'what can I see in the dark' routine. When trying to pull in those last few photons the Mojave's just squeaked out a win here. Oddly they seem a bit darker in brighter light. I suspect it's the better contrast that does it.  I'm not entirely convinced that the pair of Mojave's i have are at the top of there game. Even though I can't find anything obviously wrong, something doesn't seem right, at least from other reviews I have read. I will take them into REI and compare them to the other pair if there still there in a day or so. At this point I don't think I will keep the Mojave's. Mostly it's the focusing, for me it's just too slow and vague. Even though there is more glare/ flare/ reflections around the edge in the M7's there was little to no veil compared to the Mojave's... These two things alone are enough to make the Nikons the choice for me. Unless something changes in the next few days !?!.... That's what I'm going with. Bill</blockquote>

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