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="brocknroller" data-source="post: 1770688" data-attributes="member: 665">Okay, IOW, not you an me, and just about everybody else on these forums! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />I liked John Robinson's "informal comparison" (see his post in the "loose threads" section below), because he showed some alphas, Nikon SEs, and ZR 7x36 ED2 to a group of "garden variety" outdoor enthusiasts and a doctor, all of whom do not spend an inordinate amount of time comparing binoculars or perusing bin forums and fretting over such "picky" issues as off-axis color fringing, etc. The M.D. preferred the Zeiss, of course, just as he probably would a Mercedes over an Acura, but the others would have been just as happy with the ZR, and were even more excited about it after they found out the price was not $1,500, as John led them to believe, but less than a third of that price. Having accumulated abundant knowledge of binoculars, both first hand and second hand, or having a priori assumptions about which brands are the better than others can make one jaded. I missed the days when I experienced contentment looking through the simple EPs of a Swift 8x42 Ultralite (original version), before I knew that it only had a moderate FOV, was not as robust as roofs, couldn't be dunked to 5 meters for 10 minutes, didn't have field flatteners (not that it needed them), had old fashioned fold down rubber eyecups, had gray rather than black or green rubber armor like alpha bins, the color saturation wasn't as vivid as premium bins, it didn't have "exotic glass" objectives, and that its yellow dot didn't carry any "cachet in the field" like the "red dot" brand.I thought the Ultralite was the "bee's knees" and was very happy with it, after all, it was on BVD's reference list! The ZR 7x36 ED2 has helped me recapture that innocent time when a really good bin was truly "good enough". If Steve Ingraham were still running BVD (is anyone?), and was not associated with Zeiss, I'd bet the old "chucklehead" would have put the ED2 on the BVD reference list as the "Best Buy". The day I spend $3,000 on a pair of binoculars is the day I check myself into Bellevue, because then I will surely know that I have become abnormal ! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification