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

[SivaL]

I want to take up birding as a hobby and was interested in knowing more about the various binoculars out there. I stumbled onto birdforum.net a few weeks back and have not looked back since. I have been following the various discussions about binoculars, and in a matter of a couple of weeks have read through hundreds and hundreds of posts and reviews on this site. I never knew I could immerse myself quite joyfully in inane discussions about birding optics. Very weird indeed. Many thanks to the experts on this forum from whom I have learnt a lot in such a short time.Terms that were totally alien to me like CA, FOV, Eye Relief, Exit Pupil and Twilight factor aren't so alien anymore.

I was looking to buying an 8x porro to kickstart my hobby and read reviews on Bushnell Legacy WP, Nikon Action Extreme and Celestron Nature. After reading this Sightron thread I noticed that there is a Sightron SII WP 8x42 porro with a high FOV 470@1000.

http://www.sightron.com/index.php?action=view_document&did=1201816362&cat_id=9&id=85

It has Multi coatings (not fully multi-coated). See, that’s another term I learnt from here. Amazon lists it for $85. I’d like to know if anyone has used it or would like to comment on the specs.

Name SIIWP842
Magnification 8x
Object Diameter 42
Eye Relief 17.1
Fov 470@1000yds
Weight 29
Finish Black Rubber
Exit Pupil 5.25
Minimum Focus 18
Coatings Multi
Relative Brightness 27.5
Twilight Factor 18.3
Prism Type Porro (Bak4)
Waterproof Yes


Thanks

 

[FrankD]

I ordered a set of these back in October with high hopes considering the advertised specs.

I returned them shortly afterwards. They were out of alignment right out of the box and there was another issue but I honestly cannot remember what it was at the moment. I think my pair is still up on Amazon's Warehouse for less than that $80 you listed.

On another note, I did see where opticsplanet is having a "blowout sale" on Sightron optics. The SII Blue Sky 8x32 is down to the low $181 that I originally paid for them back in September. The full size 8x42 model is even cheaper at $171. I am tempted. I really am but I gave up buying new binoculars for Lent.



...and is it just me or does the SIII RM model look strikingly familiar? It seems to remind me of some other models that I was recently looking at here on the forum but I can't place which.

 

[Steve C]

I've seen these a couple of times, just in sporting goods stores, so I can't give much in the way of information. They are kind of interesting as they are two things I have not seen in another porro binocular. One is they have a wide fov (which is not so unusual) and second they are intrernally focused like the discontinued Minox and Leupold internal focus models. They are the only wide angle internally focused porro binocular I know about (which may not mean much as I have not looked very hard).

The images seemed pretty good. But (and there's always a "but") they look sort of like Sightron farmed out the body work to Toys-R-US.

 

[BinoBoy]

I bought a Sightron 10x50 SII porro because of it's alleged wide FOV. It turned out that the published spec everywhere on the internet was wrong. They made the mistake of taking FOV as meters at 1000 meters and just converting the meters to feet. This ignores the fact that 1000 meters is further away than 1000 yards. The FOV was good, but not nearly as wide as the spec said. I think the same would be true of the 8x42.

My 10x50 had diopter issues and I wasn't that impressed with it's optics or build quality, so I returned it. I'd look elsewhere.

 

[RJM]

The faux 1yd=1m conversion seems to be standard industry practice.

 

[brocknroller]

I want to take up birding as a hobby and was interested in knowing more about the various binoculars out there. I stumbled onto birdforum.net a few weeks back and have not looked back since. I have been following the various discussions about binoculars, and in a matter of a couple of weeks have read through hundreds and hundreds of posts and reviews on this site. I never knew I could immerse myself quite joyfully in inane discussions about birding optics. Very weird indeed. Many thanks to the experts on this forum from whom I have learnt a lot in such a short time.Terms that were totally alien to me like CA, FOV, Eye Relief, Exit Pupil and Twilight factor aren't so alien anymore.

I was looking to buying an 8x porro to kickstart my hobby and read reviews on Bushnell Legacy WP, Nikon Action Extreme and Celestron Nature. After reading this Sightron thread I noticed that there is a Sightron SII WP 8x42 porro with a high FOV 470@1000.

http://www.sightron.com/index.php?action=view_document&did=1201816362&cat_id=9&id=85

It has Multi coatings (not fully multi-coated). See, that’s another term I learnt from here. Amazon lists it for $85. I’d like to know if anyone has used it or would like to comment on the specs.

Name SIIWP842
Magnification 8x
Object Diameter 42
Eye Relief 17.1
Fov 470@1000yds
Weight 29
Finish Black Rubber
Exit Pupil 5.25
Minimum Focus 18
Coatings Multi
Relative Brightness 27.5
Twilight Factor 18.3
Prism Type Porro (Bak4)
Waterproof Yes


Thanks

Welcome Subzero,

I hope you didn't bring the cold weather we're supposed to get this weekend (38* F high on Saturday).

Tomorrow, it's supposed to be nearly 60* F here but with rain and wind. I heard a blackbird in the backyard yesterday - in FEB!

I have a photo of the backyard last year at this time, and it was completely snow covered with piles of snow where the driveway was plowed.

Frank should be able to help you with the Sightron info. I think he's chairman of the board of directors of Sightron.

Here's another term for you to ponder: Spherical aberration of the exit pupil.

Let us know when you figure out what it is. HINT: See threads on the Nikon SE.

Mr. Freeze (Brock)

 

[Chosun Juan]

I bought a Sightron 10x50 SII porro because of it's alleged wide FOV. It turned out that the published spec everywhere on the internet was wrong. They made the mistake of taking FOV as meters at 1000 meters and just converting the meters to feet. This ignores the fact that 1000 meters is further away than 1000 yards. The FOV was good, but not nearly as wide as the spec said. I think the same would be true of the 8x42.

My 10x50 had diopter issues and I wasn't that impressed with it's optics or build quality, so I returned it. I'd look elsewhere.

BinoBoy,

(If I read your post correctly I'd guess they over estimated the FOV of the 10x50 SII porros in feet by about 9.5%)

The conversions actually work out pretty neatly. :cat:

There's no need to worry about small angle approximations, atomic clocks, palladium-unobtanium alloys, kryptonite in vacuums or other such nonsense! ||

The main thing is not to mix apples and oranges ..... (a bit like the Ghostbusters never crossing the streams) 8-P

The FOV expressed in, (feet) @ 1000 yards = 3x (metres) @ 1000 metres

***So you simply divide the number of feet at 1000 yards by 3 to give the number of metres at 1000 metres to represent exactly the same FOV.

As long as people don't start mixing specs or doing direct conversions everything is hunky dory.

i.e. FOV of 450ft @ 1000yds = (150m) @ 1000m

That's not to say that 450ft = 150m, 'cause it don't. (actually 450ft = 137.2m)
It's all about similar triangles and just a quirk of the conversion factors (1000 yards = 914.4 metres, and 3.28 feet = 1 metre) that you use a multiple of 3.

To prove it, linear FOV divided by distance > ~ TFOV in degrees
450ft (actually is 450/3.28 = 137.2m) divided by 1000yds (=914.4m) is a ratio of 0.15. and Arctan 0.15 = 8.53 degrees.
150m divided by 1000m is a ratio of 0.15. and Arctan 0.15 = 8.53 degrees.
QED

Some people manage to obfusicate us poor consumers and binoholics even further by mixing 'old' AFOV specs with 'new' ISO 14132-1:2002 AFOV measurements.


It sure would be swell when the good 'ol folks of the US decide to go SI, although its only been goin' since about 1960, and since y'all are still makin' OHV V8's I ain't gonna hold ma breath!
(prolly has somethin' to do with anti-french sentiment after Irak, and the whole "freedom" fries thing) .....

Bottom line: Just Divide by 3 :t:



Chosun :gh:


BTW - I used to have a real top bloke for a maths teacher from over your way, and a few of us would often have a round of golf together. He'd be there carefully calculating the number of yards to the flag (we were having enough trouble converting inches to cm's, and feet to m at that time!), whereupon it used to be our favourite past time to ask him how many cubits and furlongs that was. I lost track of the number of times we would fall about the course just rolling with laughter :bounce:
Being a good bloke, he just used to laugh and say you guys .... you guys - and then trot out his favourite comeback ......
you guys always put the emFASIS on the wrong syLOBLE! :-O

Some useful stuff:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyepiece
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_of_view
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small-angle_approximation

 

[FrankD]

The main thing is not to mix apples and oranges ..... (a bit like the Ghostbusters never crossing the streams)

Yes, but they did cross the streams!

 

[Nixterdemus]

"(prolly has somethin' to do with anti-french sentiment after Irak, and the whole "freedom" fries thing) .....

Oui mon ami le sabre coupe profonde.

Didn't schoolmasters teach that Yankee ingenuity combined w/Society of Automotive Engineers Standards forced the Kaiser into submission in the great war then saved the free world from land acquisition chaos in the 40's, the red menace of the fifties & liberal subversion of the sixties?

The Yanks are winners & winners do not submit easily to change. I remember in the early 70's how America was going metric. That combined w/Japan building more affordable automobiles w/smaller more power to the, you guessed it mate, Cubic Inch enabling higher efficiency through radical notions of camshafts over valves/quicker/higher revving mills coupled to smaller lighter autos went over as a lead balloon.

I'm quite surprised that binocular objectives aren't converted to the American way & insistent on 51MM, so we could order a 7/10 by 2.

As is we're stuck w/seven by 1 3/8", 8 by 1 37/64" or 10x 1 31/32".

A nine by two and thirty-one sixty-fourths does sound menacing.

 

[Stet]

The full size 8x42 model is even cheaper at $171. I am tempted.

Just ordered a pair of these from Wholesalehunter for $173. Optics planet says they will ship in 3 to 5 weeks, which to me means they don't have them in stock. Figured since Amazon didn't replace my defectivce 8x32 and gave me a refund instead, I'd give the 8x42's a try, especially since they are $100 off the regular price. Will post more when I receive them.

John

 

[FrankD]

John,

Let us know how they are. I wouldn't mind seeing them myself so maybe we should plan another hawk mountain trip next weekend.

On a somewhat related note I just picked up a new model and configuration that I am very impressed with. Not a classic/vintage porro but it is a porro I have never owned before. Very impressed.

 

[Stet]

John,

Let us know how they are. I wouldn't mind seeing them myself so maybe we should plan another hawk mountain trip next weekend.

On a somewhat related note I just picked up a new model and configuration that I am very impressed with. Not a classic/vintage porro but it is a porro I have never owned before. Very impressed.

Sounds good to me. Will let you know for sure on Wednesday or Thursday. I'm starting to like the porros more than the roofs lately.

John

 

[[email protected]]

I ordered a set of these back in October with high hopes considering the advertised specs.

I returned them shortly afterwards. They were out of alignment right out of the box and there was another issue but I honestly cannot remember what it was at the moment. I think my pair is still up on Amazon's Warehouse for less than that $80 you listed.

On another note, I did see where opticsplanet is having a "blowout sale" on Sightron optics. The SII Blue Sky 8x32 is down to the low $181 that I originally paid for them back in September. The full size 8x42 model is even cheaper at $171. I am tempted. I really am but I gave up buying new binoculars for Lent.



...and is it just me or does the SIII RM model look strikingly familiar? It seems to remind me of some other models that I was recently looking at here on the forum but I can't place which.

It sounds like the Sightron's have QA Problems and they are not consistently good through the whole line. Is the SII Blue Sky 8x32 the only diamond among the bunch or is any other Sightron worth a look?

 

[SivaL]

Thanks brocknroller for the warm welcome. Texas temperatures are wildly fluctuating now, but birds are all over the place. I wake up to a melee every morning.

Thanks Frank for the advice about Sightron QC issues. I am asking around to find if any store has the Swift Audubon 820ED or Nikon SE 8x32 in stock to try out. I knew it was a tall order. Even the Land Sea and Sky the authorized Swift dealer in Houston is out of stock. I emailed Swift and got a response about a shipment of 820ED's reaching dealers in a couple of weeks. From all that I have read here these two should be excellent birding bins comparable to roof bins costing more than $1K.

 

[FrankD]

There is another very high performing porro that you might consider as well. Less expensive than either of the two above. More later.

 

[brocknroller]

Sounds good to me. Will let you know for sure on Wednesday or Thursday. I'm starting to like the porros more than the roofs lately.

John

Another convert! That's good to hear. Now you can join the Ignazio Porro Society of America. We dropped the language requirement (fluency in Italian) and now have all of Porro's works translated into English.

Brock, president, IPSA

 

[brocknroller]

Thanks brocknroller for the warm welcome. Texas temperatures are wildly fluctuating now, but birds are all over the place. I wake up to a melee every morning.

Thanks Frank for the advice about Sightron QC issues. I am asking around to find if any store has the Swift Audubon 820ED or Nikon SE 8x32 in stock to try out. I knew it was a tall order. Even the Land Sea and Sky the authorized Swift dealer in Houston is out of stock. I emailed Swift and got a response about a shipment of 820ED's reaching dealers in a couple of weeks. From all that I have read here these two should be excellent birding bins comparable to roof bins costing more than $1K.

Subzero,

Have you read Steve Ingraham's review of the 820 Audubon?

Poor Man's EL?

I had an 820 Audubon for about 60 seconds. Didn't like it. The eyecups were too wide for my deep set eyes, and they were hard. The second version had rings for eyecups, which probably weren't any more comfortable. The paint from the framed started peeling after two days of light use. The focuser bridge flexed. There was more prism cutoff on one side than the other. The color was butt ugly (non-ED version). The shape was bulky even for my large hands.

Of what I could see with the IPD spread wider than my normal, the optics were pretty good.

Swift changed the body style last year, and now uses the old B&L Discoverer body, which looks more comfortable to hold, although someone who bought one said the eyecups were still very large (I added a couple photos of the new body style).

So if you order one, make sure to get the new body style.

As far as the 8x32 SE... It also has wide eyecups that do not fit my face well, particularly at close range where I have to push in the IPD to make a perfect circle to avoid image blackouts. Some people experience "image blackout" with the SE.

Takes a bit of finesse to overcome it with MOLCET (mooreorless/caesar/eyebrow technique) and keeping your eyes centered properly. Some people have no problems with it, but many do. So make sure you buy them from a store with a good return policy in case they don't work for you.

Or you can go for Frank's Mystery Bins behind Door Number 3. (be careful, it might be 24 cases of canned squid

Brock

 

[brocknroller]

Frank's Mystery Porro?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73029961@N07/6847458001/in/photostream

 

[Stet]

Another convert! That's good to hear. Now you can join the Ignazio Porro Society of America. We dropped the language requirement (fluency in Italian) and now have all of Porro's works translated into English.

Brock, president, IPSA

Now if I could only get my hands on the elusive eII. Should have jumped on that one from down under a few months ago. The one that got away. Funny that it is a vintage Swift Sport King that has been romancing my eyes lately. My favorite for hawks. Lookin to give an audubon a try. Was bidding on an 804r last night but wasn't able to be online for the end of the auction so it went to someone else. Maybe an 820 would be better though. Had a brief look through one last weekend.
Thought it was pretty good. Wish I would have paid more attention to the details though.
John

 

[FrankD]

Frank's Mystery Porro?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73029961@N07/6847458001/in/photostream

Good guess Brock. Correct model, wrong configuration! Though the 8x42 is a very good binocular as well.