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Message: <blockquote data-quote="brocknroller" data-source="post: 3283024" data-attributes="member: 665">Thanks for posting that comparative review. Interesting read, with some surprising results, some not so surprising. I would have liked for you to have included a recent model 8x30 Habicht in the mix, although I realize you were limiting yourself to the 8x42 configuration. Perhaps when you compare the mid-sized models. The surprise was how highly you ranked the HT and the low percentage of sweet spot you gave the HT, SLC and Ultravid (50%). I haven't tried the 8x42 model, but the 10x42 SLC-HD was sharp to about 90% out. Arek from allbinos ranked the 10x42 SLC at 95% sharp. That makes the 8x42 model quite different -- 50% sharp would not be to my liking, too much field curvature for my aging eyes. Chosun asked on another thread why you saw RB in the 8x SF and not the 8.5x SV EL, which has the least pincushion of all the SV EL models. The reason might be to your greater sensitivity to the distortion pattern (mix of AMD/pincushion) in the SF. The SV EL has a mustache distortion pattern where the pincushion/AMD increases and decreases in a wave pattern across the field of view. The SF's pattern is different, though I forgot the exact details Holger described. Here's what Dale Forbes had to say about the distortion pattern: <a href="http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=3241381&postcount=19" target="_blank"> Swarovski EL 8.5x42 Swarovision impression</a><a href="http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=3241381&postcount=19" target="_blank">View Single Post</a>To answer your question about American hunters: Swarovski SLC.... I know the hunting market is most important, but is the average hunter really that conservative???Let's put it this way, aside from mooreorless, whose wife forgot to record the debates, there probably wasn't one rural hunter in the US who wasn't watching the Republican presidential debates on Wednesday. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />A more serious answer is that from reading Optics Talk and 24hrcampfire and talking to hunters in my area, aside from those hunters who post to or read these forums, who have many binoculars and are optics nuts like the rest of us, most hunters are rather conservative in the sense you mean and tend to hold on to their bins much longer than birders do. Steve (mooreorless) had his 7x30 SLC for 20 years before trading it in on a 2009 anniversary sale 8x30 SLCnew. Hunters drag their bins through the "mud, the blood and the beer," so they expect their bins to be very robust and put that quality high on their list of priorities when they shop for in a pair of hunting binoculars rather than how the bins look or if they have all the "bells and whistles" the other top bananas have, which I think is the reason why the SLC is so popular among hunters. Brock</blockquote>

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