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="asp09" data-source="post: 3807165" data-attributes="member: 145991">Hi all, just a quick update.  I made it to the optics store this weekend to try out the two models in question again and hopefully make my choice.  It took me 5 hours (a big thumbs up for the sales person, who was fantastic!), but I got there in end!  And my choice between the SV8.5 and SF was….neither!  To my surprise, I came home with an SV 8x32!  Now this did not come completely out of the blue, as when I first compared the two SV's and the SF some time ago, the 8x32 was the one that really stood out for me.  In the following months, however, I perhaps began to over-think and over-research things, and convinced myself I'd be better off with an 8x42 (primarily for better low light ability). But when I compared all three models for a third time on Saturday (along with an SLC 8x42), I once again found that the smaller bins just put more of a smile on my face.  They seem to fit my hands better and give me a more stable view than any other model I've tried.  And despite it being a dull, overcast winter's day, I was surprised to find that I just could not detect a brightness difference in relation to the larger models (although I did when I tried them at dusk a few weeks ago).  Last but not least, due to a January deal,  they cost £500 less than the SF.I would have struggled to choose between the SV8.5 and SF.  I prefer the Swaro colours, but the limited time I’ve had with my SV8x32 has shown me just how much I value a wide FOV, and for this reason the SF would probably have been the better choice for me.  I got quite caught up on the difference in colour balance when comparing the two models, but I’m not sure I would really be too bothered by these slight colour shifts if I were using one without comparing it to the other.  Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and suggestions in this thread, all of which were very helpful to me, even if ultimately I ended up going in a different direction.</blockquote>

Verification