eitanaltman
Well-known member
To be clear, I would not consider my issues with the 8x25 at the point to render them "unusable". I really, really like these binoculars, and I don't dislike using them in the field. If my budget was at the level where I could keep these around even if I didn't use them that often, I totally would keep them. Whereas the ergonomics of the Swaro 8x30 CL were problematic at that level for me, you couldn't pay me to keep them, I did not like using them at all (despite phenomenal optics!).
Yesterday morning I went for a long birding walk, covering 3 miles in close to 3 hours around a local set of small lakes. I carried both my wife's Leica 8x32 UVHD and the Zeiss 8x25, keeping one in the case and the other out so, swapping every 20-30 minutes or so. I would do some brief A/B comparisons for things like color balance, long distance resolution, etc. but I really feel like you can't really know how you feel about a binocular without using it in the field for extended periods. I wasn't super scientific, just focusing on how they felt to use and look at stuff in the field.
My (hopefully concise) thoughts:
- Optically I would rate them as essentially dead even, the differences are more about aesthetics/preference. These two binocular play on the same level, i.e. the Zeiss optics are alpha level in terms of clarity / resolution.
- The Leica as expected has a slightly warmer color balance, with deeper saturation of reds and a bit more contrast. The FOV is slightly wider and feels a bit wider due to having more pincushion.
- The Zeiss is a touch brighter and more neutral, tending a bit to a cooler blue/green but closer to pure neutral whites than the Leica (note that the Leicas are not "plus", just regular HD... the HD Plus would likely be more even in this respect). The Zeiss has more correction of rectilinear distortion, with mild pincushion that straightens out slightly towards the edge (so very slight AMD compression).
- Both binoculars have lovely views with a huge sweet spot and outstanding sharpness, minimal color fringing, excellent clarity. Relative to the Zeiss, the slight warm tone of the Leica helps the apparent contrast but makes them just a touch duller, so the Zeiss feels more "transparent". Again, I assume the HD Plus version of the Leica would do better in this respect.
- The Leica is a touch better at pulling in details in lower light, for example trying to make out a barely visible Green Heron tucked away in the reeds in deep shadow. I attribute this to the larger aperture and slightly better contrast of the Leica. (Note that I briefly compared them at night for true low light performance and as expected the Leica's aperture advantage is even more obvious)
Ergonomically, I actually find the Leicas to be a bit fussy for eye placement for an 8x32, but they were still much easier to use for heavy birding than the Zeiss. The shorter eye relief works to the Leica's advantage here since I do not wear glasses, and the Leica eyecups are much larger and softer edged. I again experienced some weird eye fatigue with the Zeiss first thing in the morning while my eyes were still bleary (I find them much easier to use in the afternoon for whatever reason). Obviously the Leica has more mass to grab onto and steady the view, and I love being able to use two fingers to focus on those huge double-length Leica focus knobs (although the Zeiss focus is much smoother).
This all confirmed my impressions and helped solidify my decision to not keep the Zeiss, although every time I use them I go "dang, maybe I should keep these?". They are so good. The ergonomic fussiness isn't that obvious when just casually looking at backyard birds or stationary objects, but with extended birding in the field with the bins going up and down, up and down, over and over, switching from close to far subjects, snapping them up when I catch a raptor zooming away out of the corner of my eye, the superior ergonomics and eye comfort of the Leica made them considerably more pleasurable.
These binoculars are essentially the same length, and not that different in overall dimensions when the Zeiss is opened for use, so the real benefit is the much lighter weight and the fact that they fold up to pocket-sized.... but this is only a benefit if you need a pocket-sized binocular. For "normal" birding use that's not a factor (for me at least) and so again I'd much rather carry a good 32mm for the majority of my uses. And the 8x32 will also be more usable in low light when the 8x25 gets really touchy.
A couple of comparison photos showing the size difference between the Zeiss 8x25, Leica 8x32, and the Vortex Diamondback 8x32... as you can see, very comparable in overall size other than the slimmer barrels of the Zeiss:
