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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DavidBowman" data-source="post: 3495081" data-attributes="member: 82487">Just a quick few comments, having used the 8 x 42 Noctivids, almost daily in the field for 8 hours at a time, since the day of release in the UK.  Firstly, handling.  I've been used to using Ultravids for years and found the transition to the NVs tricky at first.  This is due to the already noted higher placement of the focus wheel, just above the strap lugs.  I soon learned that if you just hold them slightly differently (left hand slightly lower down the barrel, right hand higher and fingers slightly splayed) then they handle really well and it becomes a non-issue.  Field of view is excellent, though not as wide as the SFs.  Though you do have to wind them in for close focus (2 turns from infinity to 2 metres), for general birding the focussing is superb - a quarter turn covers from a few yards to infinity, with exceptional apparent DOF leading to minimal re-focussing.  In terms of weight, they are beautifully balanced and so I don't experience this as an issue, though some might.  For the viewing experience they offer, though, I'd put up with a lot!  Its hard to describe if you haven't tried them, but they deliver a more real and immersive image than anything I've tried before. There is a combination of sharpness, brightness, colour accuracy and saturation, depth of field and three-dimensionality which is simply awesome.  They clearly won't suit everyone, particularly if people are looking for the widest field of view or the flattest image possible but if its the most beautiful, almost tangible image of birds you're after, then, for the moment at least, I think the NVs are unbeatable.  I've also been able to test them in the field against SFs, UVs and the most recent SVs, though not HTs, with several groups of birders repeatedly swapping bins round between us.  Doing this is an interesting process because, in almost every case, users of other premium bins have uttered an almost involuntary "wow!", or something similar, when first looking through the NVs.  The shared consensus has been that the NVs deliver a noticeably superior image, setting aside individual preferences in terms of weight, handling, FOV etc.  Looking at birds silhouetted against the light, all felt that the NVs simply seemed brighter, pulled in more colour and had less veiling-glare.  The proof of the pudding is that several have already ordered NVs and others are giving it some serious thought!Cheers    David</blockquote>

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