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Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

Now I am a Leica guy.. (1 Viewer)

Jim - I'm in a similar situation, on the coast north of Boston in Mass. with lots of light pollution from the city. those black-backed bulls can be nasty beasts - I was on a winter outing at the beach last year with a group of 20 birders and we all watched a Black-backed gull slowly kill some cute little seabird out in the waves - I think it was a razorbill? Everyone was horrified! Most of us had never seen anything like that - it just seemed mean. You expect that from Bald eagles but gulls? I thought they just begged for potato chips :)

I do think everyone's physiology is different and suited best by different optics. I briefly had a 10x50 Ultravid HD and it was excellent for astronomy, very little CA on the moon, I think it's one of the better UVHDs for color correction.
 
Forgot completely! The EDG was another Nikon I wanted to own. Along with the SE. They were both the reigning champs when realeased and for well after. Then Nikon just seemed like they didn't want to compete at the Alpha level. What I mean is no response to the Els, the Pures, the Fls, Hts, & Sfs. To say nothing of the Ultravid HDs & Noctivids. Confusing because if they wanted to they certainly could compete. Even today many seasoned observers like yourself clearly prefer them over the other alpha models.

They're already producing these artisinal behemoths, reviewed by BF's own Holger Merlitz:


Or maybe I'm missing what's in front of my face. This might be Nikons shot across the bows. Anyway would really like to try a pair of EDGs.

Jim
 
Jim - I'm in a similar situation, on the coast north of Boston in Mass. with lots of light pollution from the city. those black-backed bulls can be nasty beasts - I was on a winter outing at the beach last year with a group of 20 birders and we all watched a Black-backed gull slowly kill some cute little seabird out in the waves - I think it was a razorbill? Everyone was horrified! Most of us had never seen anything like that - it just seemed mean. You expect that from Bald eagles but gulls? I thought they just begged for potato chips :)

I do think everyone's physiology is different and suited best by different optics. I briefly had a 10x50 Ultravid HD and it was excellent for astronomy, very little CA on the moon, I think it's one of the better UVHDs for color correction.
Thats an amazing piece of animal behavior to have observed as horrific as it must have been to watch.

Never seen anything remotely like it other than them dive bombing smaller gulls in the air for food. But, all gulls pretty much do that when they can, even for potato chips I've heard. Have also seen just one or two of them dominating whole flocks of Herring & Ring Bills on the ground. Proving that nature is red of tooth & claw. I forgot who said that and too lazy to look it up.

I couldn't not respond to that story Scott. Thats literally the Serengetti dramatically downsized and on water!

Jim
 
Forgot completely! The EDG was another Nikon I wanted to own. Along with the SE. They were both the reigning champs when realeased and for well after. Then Nikon just seemed like they didn't want to compete at the Alpha level. What I mean is no response to the Els, the Pures, the Fls, Hts, & Sfs. To say nothing of the Ultravid HDs & Noctivids. Confusing because if they wanted to they certainly could compete. Even today many seasoned observers like yourself clearly prefer them over the other alpha models.
For me the EDG doesn't need improvements to "compete" with the others, it's already better than all of them. Unless you seek wider field. I actually don't care for wider field beyond the 8 degrees in the 7x42 EDG, it's the perfect size. Leica seems to agree and has the same FOV in the UVHD's and Noctivids. Pushing the FOV even wider typically introduces weird distortion and trouble with blackouts for me at least.

Nikon USA stopped importing and selling the EDG and E2 porros some years ago, but you can buy them new from Japan, which is what I did. Air shipping cost to USA is only $50-60. The price is much lower than it was in the US, around $1400 these days. I have tried all the other most expensive binoculars except Noctivid, I would not swap them for EDG at any price - don't let the price fool you is my advice there. The only reason I have the Zeiss SF's is because I didn't know the EDG was still available, I never would have bought them if I had the 7x42 EDG first.

It is fun to try the different varieties though - it helped me realize what I like and don't like and to appreciate the binoculars I have even more. There's nothing like going out on a 4 or 5 hour birding tour to find out about your binoculars and how they work.
 
Thats an amazing piece of animal behavior to have observed as horrific as it must have been to watch.
It was- people were watching with scopes and binos and you could hear people yelling out stuff like "No!!" and some people were almost crying. It's just nature in action, some of the birds are mean, let's face it, bald eagles are mean, vicious birds. I guess some of the gulls are the same way. They'll steal your food, they'll steal your wallet right out of your hands - if you're small enough, they might even kill you!
 
It was- people were watching with scopes and binos and you could hear people yelling out stuff like "No!!" and some people were almost crying. It's just nature in action, some of the birds are mean, let's face it, bald eagles are mean, vicious birds. I guess some of the gulls are the same way. They'll steal your food, they'll steal your wallet right out of your hands - if you're small enough, they might even kill you!
Well said. That's truly nature in action. It's a spectacle much more cruel than anything the Roman's devised but always calibrated for survival. Be well Scott & thanks for the conversation!

Jim
 
those black-backed bulls can be nasty beasts - I was on a winter outing at the beach last year with a group of 20 birders and we all watched a Black-backed gull slowly kill some cute little seabird out in the waves - I think it was a razorbill? Everyone was horrified! Most of us had never seen anything like that - it just seemed mean. You expect that from Bald eagles but gulls?
Take a good look at the business end of any of the large gulls (particularly the great black-backed gull and the only slightly less intimidating yellow-legged gull) and you'll be in little doubt their talents go beyond opportunism and scavenging. They are formidable beasts exceeded only by the great skua - in this hemisphere anyway - in aggression and pugnacity. Like the skuas their only killing weaponry is their beak, so the kill isn't as clean as with raptors, which is unfortunate for their prey but not their fault. Here in London they don't need to be as actively predatory as elsewhere, but I've seen large gulls attempt to rob adult female peregrines on several occasions, although only once managing to make her drop her kill.

I've often thought a large immature (often the most liable to seemingly random acts of violence) gull would be a great Nazgul-mount. As would a cormorant.
 

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