Emma, WOW! just saw this and thought we'd better try and get this thing solved before 2012 is done and dusted !! 3
I think it is pointless going with other fine, but brick-like 8x32 bins such as the Nikon EDGII, HGL, or Leupold Gold Ring HD - they all weigh as much as full sized 42mm bins, and so since you are already negatively compromising on just a 4mm exit pupil as well, I would just rule them out. period.
As I see it your options are this:
1. Stick with the Swaro 8x32 SV. To do this (as many others have said) you will need to use the bin constantly (many, many times daily. You may have to push through any "difference" in view). Do not use any other bin. Do not go doing evaluations of optic parameters. Just look at viewing subjects and concentrate on them in the centre of the FOV! For now, avoid behaviours that help induce the "rolling ball phenomena" such as (looking, or worse still, darting your eyes to the edges of the field, panning at whatever distance causes you trouble AND at the speed that causes you trouble - this little acknowledged or discussed point is tied up with nauseous natural frequencies and motion sickness / spatial disorientation). DO NONE OF THESE!
If you follow this for anything from a few days to a few weeks, you should have your answer on whether you can neurally adjust and live with them.
Did you follow my original advice and check your susceptibility to low distortion bins by doing the experiments at Dr. Holger Merlitz's website?
If so good :t: - if not, naughty girl! |!|
It will help put your mind at rest one way or the other to have a quantifiable idea of your human visual distortion levels.
"
Dr. Holger Meriltz has a helmholtz checkerboard test to determine your distortion levels ....."
http://www.holgermerlitz.de/globe/test_distortion.html
2. If this fails, you can return /sell the SV's, and then pick up one of those 250 beautiful
Simon King Limited Edition Zeiss 8x32 FL's with the lovely leather handbag-like acccessories, of which there may still be 400-odd left!
Note - after torturing yourself with your very own SV-"Chicken" experiment, you may also need a period of time and adjustment with the FL's so that all seems right with the world again. :smoke:
3. You could plump for a Nikon 8x32 SE porro + a little Gore-Tex rainjacket for it, and plenty of silica gel just to be sure. You'll save a bundle, and it will do you for many years while you (like the rest of us!) wait for "them" to make that ultimate bin ..... :brains: if you don't trust your circumstances to have the money for that one day, then set up a little "Ultimate Dream Bin Trust Fund"
4. Try the (
Made
In
Germany)
MIG Minox 8x43 APO. It's light, bright, compact, with a nice focusing system, and because of the extra objective area will blow the 32mm's out of the water for the type of jungle /forest viewing you will be doing, considering your young age (hence wide eyed pupils!). I would think it would show up in the top 1/2 dozen or so bins when Allbino's finally test the APO version.
Now I'm going to throw something else in there for you to consider ......
I recently bought /tried /returned a Swift Audubon 8.5x44 ED porro. It weighed ~825grams, and yet I'll be st*ffed if it felt a gram over 600! much lighter than my other full size bins. It was like maybe it was filled with helium!
The point here is to try full size bins physically, that on paper you might rule out. Recalling that you will use a binocular harness, I'm going to suggest 2 more bins ......
i)
Zeiss 8x42 HT, bright as the sun, nice ergo's, and a step up in sweet spot size, field flatness (but will be RB free for you), and colour saturation ....... from early reports a bit of a WOW! Perhaps something of a new benchmark - you can read more on the various HT threads.
ii)
Swift Audubon 8.5x44 ED porro. A magic spec bin for the type of birding you will do with its porro clarity, extra wide field and great depth of field. You can read my full report starting here:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=2569242#post2569242
The caveat is that in the end I had to return them for a full refund due to some quality issues (internal cleanliness - specks), and was not prepared to play the half-way-round-the-world replacement lottery repeatedly in the hope of a good one. Sadly I miss it already =(
I would thoroughly recommend anyone in the USA with access to a store with a stock of them, to go and hands-on inspect all of them and see if you can find one to your satisfaction (ie. sans internal specks, and shoddy brightwork internal bracketry, and with a close focus distance as advertised)
So there you are Emma - a solution in there somewhere! Good Luck!
Chosun :gh:
P.S. people are giving me really strange looks, and wondering what on earth this BirdForum thing is??!! Time to go and rejoin the party ......
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY !!!!!!!! B
:bounce: :hippy:
