Sightron "Blue Sky" II 8x32 (1 Viewer)

[bh46118]

Sounds good Frank. You are a true gentleman.

Bruce

I am sure John and I will be meeting up again some time soon.

 

[BrightIdea]

I think the Sightron has better contrast. I personally prefer the color balance in the Sightron. The Fury seems to me to be a little cooler and slightly ....I guess Id call it a bit more washed out ( for lack of a better term) than the Sightron. Also when needing a compact binocular the Sightron is a fair bit smaller.

Steve-
I didnt have the sightron when I owned the fury's, but I recall my initial impression (beyond the blackout/eyerelief issues for me) of the fury were that they were "clinical". I noticed no color skewing at all... compared to what I had on hand, there was a downright the yellow tint in the nikon fieldmasters, less bright and sharp in the 7x36 excursions, yosemites (softer edges), and a couple others I forgot. The fury's were the most real or neutral in color, and for lack of better term I deemed their sharpness and neutrailty as "clinical", whereas you call it washed out.

BC-
I am getting to where I too feel I have some bin's that are beyond my initial expectations from a year+ ago. Budgetarily I should return either the sightron or theron... i dont want to send either back! You DO have me jonesing for the rangerSRT++ (vipers) in 6x32 though, which I can justify if I sell either the sightron or theron. Why keep 2 essentially identical 8x32's? It'd be silly. Right? Right? Someone agree with me on this.

One unfortunate occurrence of using the theron and sightron more as of late is that I now notice some fuzzy edge on the the 8x28 excursions (which I use ALL the time) as well as the difference in color that other BF members mentioned, which I didnt notice before. However, overall for less than $50 I am still thrilled with the little Ex's, much in the same way I am still thrilled with my Yo's.

 

[black crow]

Someone agree with me on this

OK then I agree. I love those 6x Rangers and maybe you will too. For hard uphill hiking I like lower powers so I don't have to wait so long for my breathing to slow and prevent poor views from shaking. It really makes a big difference for me. I like them for brushy conditions and thick forest too. Honesty they really aren't too shabby on the long distances either due to their clarity and stability. I love holding them in my hands and at around 19 oz they are a prefect semi compact. They feel sturdier than the Sightrons.

 

[BrightIdea]

OK then I agree. I love those 6x Rangers and maybe you will too. For hard uphill hiking I like lower powers so I don't have to wait so long for my breathing to slow and prevent poor views from shaking. It really makes a big difference for me. I like them for brushy conditions and thick forest too. Honesty they really aren't too shabby on the long distances either due to their clarity and stability. I love holding them in my hands and at around 19 oz they are a prefect semi compact. They feel sturdier than the Sightrons.

Agree- I have 6x Yosemite's that are light and, well, 6x. Also my 7x36 similar low power huge FOV, though much heavier. Agree, I definitely like low power at times. I;ll grab an srt or viper 6x at some point.

 

[black crow]

I think the SRT is still about a $100 off at Eagle Optics. Not a bad time to score.

 

[bh46118]

To my eye the fury is very close to totaly neutral which would make the image somewhat less exciting to some people I suppose. The Minox Porro has a more vivid color rendition which ads a little more drama to the view, but to me isn't as true to life. Not really a bad thing though. Sorry to beat the Minox Porro comparisons to death, but that's the only other quality binocular I have on hand at the present time.

Bruce

Steve-
The fury's were the most real or neutral in color, and for lack of better term I deemed their sharpness and neutrailty as "clinical", whereas you call it washed out.

 

[Steve C]

Steve-
I didnt have the sightron when I owned the fury's, but I recall my initial impression (beyond the blackout/eyerelief issues for me) of the fury were that they were "clinical". I noticed no color skewing at all... compared to what I had on hand, there was a downright the yellow tint in the nikon fieldmasters, less bright and sharp in the 7x36 excursions, yosemites (softer edges), and a couple others I forgot. The fury's were the most real or neutral in color, and for lack of better term I deemed their sharpness and neutrailty as "clinical", whereas you call it washed out.

BC-
I am getting to where I too feel I have some bin's that are beyond my initial expectations from a year+ ago. Budgetarily I should return either the sightron or theron... i dont want to send either back! You DO have me jonesing for the rangerSRT++ (vipers) in 6x32 though, which I can justify if I sell either the sightron or theron. Why keep 2 essentially identical 8x32's? It'd be silly. Right? Right? Someone agree with me on this.

One unfortunate occurrence of using the theron and sightron more as of late is that I now notice some fuzzy edge on the the 8x28 excursions (which I use ALL the time) as well as the difference in color that other BF members mentioned, which I didnt notice before. However, overall for less than $50 I am still thrilled with the little Ex's, much in the same way I am still thrilled with my Yo's.

The Sightron I had had noticeably better contrast than the Fury I have had for several years now. The Fury is indeed more color neutral than the Sightron, or for that matter, more color neutral than most of the mid price glass, especially considering the prism coatings are likely either silver or aluminum. Non dielectric coatings do seem to typically warm up the color tint some. Colors are brighter and better represented with the Sightron. This isn't a slight on the Fury and is likely not even going to be noticed unless somebody is side by side comparing them looking for describable differences. It also is the sort of "difference" that will not necessarily be seen as the same by any number of different sets of eyes. Like the color of sunglasses we chose, color balance is largely a matter of personal preference.

I suppose I ought to agree with you too, as the Sightron is on my list too.

 

[eitanaltman]

It's funny how relative and/or individual this is.... I find the Fury's to be distinctly warm / yellowish in color balance. But I am comparing them to the ZR Vistas and ED3s which are both exceptionally color neutral (the ED3 may even be slightly "cool").

I also feel like I must have had a bad sample with the Theron Wapiti 8x42 I tried. As I mentioned before they had a real issue with center field sharpness whereas the Fury's are plenty sharp. Yet I hear that the Sightrons are a bit sharper.... And the Therons are virtually identical.... So by the transitive property of binoculars that makes the Therons sharper? Which was totally the opposite of my experience. Perhaps then the real key is that super zingy contrast that everyone talks about with the Sightrons?

 

[Steve C]

It's funny how relative and/or individual this is.... I find the Fury's to be distinctly warm / yellowish in color balance. But I am comparing them to the ZR Vistas and ED3s which are both exceptionally color neutral (the ED3 may even be slightly "cool").

I also feel like I must have had a bad sample with the Theron Wapiti 8x42 I tried. As I mentioned before they had a real issue with center field sharpness whereas the Fury's are plenty sharp. Yet I hear that the Sightrons are a bit sharper.... And the Therons are virtually identical.... So by the transitive property of binoculars that makes the Therons sharper? Which was totally the opposite of my experience. Perhaps then the real key is that super zingy contrast that everyone talks about with the Sightrons?

The boundary between color balance and contrast is not a sharp one. The former can be used to enhance the latter. So yes, it can be sometimes difficult to sort out in very similar optical quality binoculars in my experience.

 

[FrankD]

I think the Theron 8x32s are actually a bit sharper than the 8x42s. Not the same design...in my opinion. I have the 8x42s and would agree with your assessment Eitan. They have a nice flat field with quite a large sweet spot. Displaying extremely fine details though is not one of their strong points. It is interesting as you don't really notice this issue under casual inspection. At least I don't.

 

[looksharp65]

Is the color balance of the Sightron similar to that of the Ultravid's contrast-enhancing reddish?

 

[mulligatawny owl]

From my experience with the Sightrons, the EDII 7x36 and EDII 8x43, I did not find any one of them excelling over the other in terms of sharpness, brightness, resolving fine details etc. In those respects there were small differences but pretty much equal playing field. Which does say a lot about the Sightrons since they are $200 less. I did however find things I prefered about the Sightrons view over the others. I did prefer the the Sightrons better edges and also the color bias of the Sightrons.

Comparing the Sightrons to my SE's I find the view similiar in terms of flatness and good edges. Yet the Sightrons do not resolve fine detail like the SE's and I personally don't expect them to. I also have the top of the line Sightrons and they do not resolve fine detail like the SE's. Aside from some of FrankD's vintage porros, the only bin I have tried so far that has matched my SE's in this respect is my Nikon Premier 8x42's.

Funny though, with all these new posts about the Sightron, I'm begining to wonder myself if my Sightron is maybe a bad sample. Especially after reading the comparisons with the Fury's and remembering back to Frank's post on the Sightrons vs the Premier 8x32's. My experience of sharpness is not matching up with these recent post.

I'm off to do some more comparison test between the Sightrons and the Fury's and will post my findings later.

John

That's most enlightening, thank you very much.
In the UK the Sightrons are not much cheaper than the Chinese ED bunch anyway so I think I'll give them a miss and stick to my Opticron HRWP as my rainy day bins. I find the HRWP's significantly sharper than the ED bunch and the SE's are on another level again so I don't think I'd gain much from buying the Sightrons.

 

[Steve C]

Is the color balance of the Sightron similar to that of the Ultravid's contrast-enhancing reddish?

I'd say the effect is similar, yes. Not as intense or level of resolution of the Leica, but similar certainly,

 

[looksharp65]

Thanks Steve! :t:
If the Sightron were clockwise focusing I'd be seriously tempted to order one.
It is possible for me to use anti-clockwise focusers - I have the Excursion 8x28 - but I'll never really get used to it.

 

[bh46118]

If you consider the BD 10X44 BP the same as the HRWP, and the Kruger Caldera as part of the Chinese ED bunch, then I can assure you that you are correct. Can't say on the Sightron as I haven't seen them yet.

Bruce

I find the HRWP's significantly sharper than the ED bunch and the SE's are on another level again so I don't think I'd gain much from buying the Sightrons.

 

[BrightIdea]

I think the SRT is still about a $100 off at Eagle Optics. Not a bad time to score.

Had an 8x42 viper, loved it, I think I'll hold out for a viper6x32

 

[black crow]

I believe that is also on sale for $275

Are they really that much better for another $100?

 

[bh46118]

It seems to me that the recent debate over which ones the best between the Sightron ,Ranger, Fury, etc, shows more than anything else either unit to unit consistency issues, or different people seeing different things through the same binoculars. It has also shown that any one of these binoculars are a tremendous bargain.

Bruce

 

[black crow]

I completely agree with that. Any one of them would make me completely happy. The fact that I can afford to own all three is for me like winning the lottery.

 

[Steve C]

It seems to me that the recent debate over which ones the best between the Sightron ,Ranger, Fury, etc, shows more than anything else either unit to unit consistency issues, or different people seeing different things through the same binoculars. It has also shown that any one of these binoculars are a tremendous bargain.

Bruce

I agree with this. I am coming to the point where I am about ready to quit counting angels on the head of the optical pin and just go use some binoculars. It gets to the point that after a while of side by sides you can even tend to forget which one you were comparing and what you were comparing for in the first place.