Fortunately the overnight rain had stopped by the time I got to the show but there was still a lot of cloud about early on though we did get some broken sunshine later. My old eyes need the wick turned up on the illumination these days to really pick out the details, but by lunch time much of the early haze had burnt off and there was some fine viewing.
Firstly I'll try to answer some of the questions from BruceH's thread.
I did manage to persuade the Nikon rep to release a M7 10x30 from it's glass case and take it out in the sunshine (along with a Prostaff 7 8x30). The internals were all painted black, all be it a black with a bit of a sheen to it, although the sun was at a high angle I did manage to get some misbehaviour on glare. I later checked out the Lynx as well and it was similar, perhaps marginally better. De Putter Junior told me they had raised the issue with the manufacturer and there is no quick fix. Under the conditions yesterday I found both very acceptable but know they wouldn't be problem free with the sun low in the sky. Show stopper or minor irritation would be down to the individual.
I did try to get answers to Bruce's questions, but the rep first denied there was a problem, then said it was a trivial percentage, then said they were all being fixed under warranty, and then ended up asking me what the state of play was! Sorry, I learned nothing of value.
The Prostaff 7 8x30 is not nearly as good as the M7 but I suspect it will do very well. It is physically bigger, but still much smaller than the most 8x32s. Though it did slightly better than the M7 on the glare test it's clearly behind on FOV and contrast. It got pretty close on sharpness though. It's list price is £100 less than the M7 but it's bound to get discounted and I think it offers a lot of appeal as jacket pocket or car bino. The Fieldscope question was too late for me.
I'm not a scope person and wasn't entirely at home trying to check out the Opticron MM3 60mm for Frank. Chris Galvin was valiantly working to sort out bodies and eyepieces for me to do direct comparisons and Garin was immediately walking off with them. We got there in the end. The M3 50mm has been quite a success. I compared it to the Nikon ED50 a while back and as far as I could judge it was a pretty even battle with the Nikon having the advantage on size and the Opticron the wider angle and better ER. The 60mm is about 60g, just over 2oz, heavier but somewhat longer. Doesn't quite have the 'travel scope' look but it's probably just as easy to transport. I was getting the cleaner, chrisper view with the SLD. It involved a bit of guesswork on the magnification but the maximum was 36x on 50mm and 45x on the 60mm. A 25% increase in magnification power and a 20% increase in objective diameter. In practice I found the view getting soft before I reached those limits as you would expect, but by matching the eyepiece settings I found I was getting the full 25% advantage in magnification which suggests the 60mm was even sharper than the 50. I think many are going to find the 44% increase in brightness and potentially 25% improvement in usable power pretty persuasive.
I did ask the Kowa guy about an 883 replacement/update. He said he was completely unaware of any plans. There are some new photo accessories. Two that slip over the eyepiece and an i-pone adaptor. He said he would personally like to see an extender like the Leica but he didn't know if it was likely. Curiously there was a big Japanese contingent on the stand.... just observing.
A few comments on new models. Several were pre-production samples. I have learned from past experience that they are not always representative of what you can buy, but some were really showing some promise.
The new Meopta Meopro was very interesting. It now has ED glass and I suspect dielectric coatings and appeared a match on sharpness if not quite contrast to Meostar. It feels better made than the old model as well, but not quite the Meostars level of engineering. No 6.5x unfortunately. The show samples had been assembled in the USA but they didn't know where the main production run would be. The UK pricing seems quite high ranging from £439 for the 8x32 to £509 for the 10x42. Apparently it's been decided that the Meostar 12x50HD and 15x56HD will be sold in the UK from early next year but nothing sheduled for a 8x32HD unfortunately.
The new Minox BL HD I rather liked. It has a appealing simplicity to the design and the mechanicals felt nice and slick. The focus wheel patterning looks better in the flesh than the photos. The FOV was good, CA well behaved, and sharpness about right for the price which looks like it will be just below the Meopro offering. I think they may have dropped the MIG claim on this model, and it feels like a modern Kamakura offering... which I think is a positive.
Hawke have finally drawn a line under the the Panorama problems and dropped it. They did have the new Frontier ED 8x32 on show. Nice little binocular, but the demo sample's view was not a match for the x43s. List price is £230 and I just felt it should be a little cheaper or preferably a little sharper. I might get a chance to take a closer look sometime soon.
Kowa have extended the BD XD range but for me the CA remains a big issue. I could not extract any info on a possible replacement for the Genesis.
The Vanguard Endeavour ED has been a bit of a recent hit on the forum, particularly with the heavy discounting. The MkII was announced a while back featuring Hoya glass. We heard that they were also moving to the Philippines for production but the guys on the stand knew nothing about that. They had pre-production 8x32, 8 and 10x42s on the stand. They made some big claim that some US prof turbocharged the optical design as well. Whoever had a hand in this did an absolutely first rate job on the optics. I'm not known for lavish praise, but I really thought these were exceptional for the price. The sharpness and contrast were as good as the best I'd seen all day, including the alphas. I'm told they are not going to be the high discount offerings of the past. The 8x32 will be around £275 and the x42s around £400. Cosmetically and mechanically little has changed with the new model, and physically they don't have the appeal of others on the market, but who cares if the view is that good. Now I have to issue the necessary warning. These were pre-production samples and could well have been cherry picked. We will have to see how the retail samples compare. I'll see if I can get one to try.
For those who like a 7x The Kite Ibis ED7x42 is definitely worth a look.
I've posted comments on the Zeiss SF and Nikon Aculon elsewhere
David
PS. I did ask about the Canon SX60 but if they knew they certainly weren't saying. More than their job's worth it seems.
Firstly I'll try to answer some of the questions from BruceH's thread.
I did manage to persuade the Nikon rep to release a M7 10x30 from it's glass case and take it out in the sunshine (along with a Prostaff 7 8x30). The internals were all painted black, all be it a black with a bit of a sheen to it, although the sun was at a high angle I did manage to get some misbehaviour on glare. I later checked out the Lynx as well and it was similar, perhaps marginally better. De Putter Junior told me they had raised the issue with the manufacturer and there is no quick fix. Under the conditions yesterday I found both very acceptable but know they wouldn't be problem free with the sun low in the sky. Show stopper or minor irritation would be down to the individual.
I did try to get answers to Bruce's questions, but the rep first denied there was a problem, then said it was a trivial percentage, then said they were all being fixed under warranty, and then ended up asking me what the state of play was! Sorry, I learned nothing of value.
The Prostaff 7 8x30 is not nearly as good as the M7 but I suspect it will do very well. It is physically bigger, but still much smaller than the most 8x32s. Though it did slightly better than the M7 on the glare test it's clearly behind on FOV and contrast. It got pretty close on sharpness though. It's list price is £100 less than the M7 but it's bound to get discounted and I think it offers a lot of appeal as jacket pocket or car bino. The Fieldscope question was too late for me.
I'm not a scope person and wasn't entirely at home trying to check out the Opticron MM3 60mm for Frank. Chris Galvin was valiantly working to sort out bodies and eyepieces for me to do direct comparisons and Garin was immediately walking off with them. We got there in the end. The M3 50mm has been quite a success. I compared it to the Nikon ED50 a while back and as far as I could judge it was a pretty even battle with the Nikon having the advantage on size and the Opticron the wider angle and better ER. The 60mm is about 60g, just over 2oz, heavier but somewhat longer. Doesn't quite have the 'travel scope' look but it's probably just as easy to transport. I was getting the cleaner, chrisper view with the SLD. It involved a bit of guesswork on the magnification but the maximum was 36x on 50mm and 45x on the 60mm. A 25% increase in magnification power and a 20% increase in objective diameter. In practice I found the view getting soft before I reached those limits as you would expect, but by matching the eyepiece settings I found I was getting the full 25% advantage in magnification which suggests the 60mm was even sharper than the 50. I think many are going to find the 44% increase in brightness and potentially 25% improvement in usable power pretty persuasive.
I did ask the Kowa guy about an 883 replacement/update. He said he was completely unaware of any plans. There are some new photo accessories. Two that slip over the eyepiece and an i-pone adaptor. He said he would personally like to see an extender like the Leica but he didn't know if it was likely. Curiously there was a big Japanese contingent on the stand.... just observing.
A few comments on new models. Several were pre-production samples. I have learned from past experience that they are not always representative of what you can buy, but some were really showing some promise.
The new Meopta Meopro was very interesting. It now has ED glass and I suspect dielectric coatings and appeared a match on sharpness if not quite contrast to Meostar. It feels better made than the old model as well, but not quite the Meostars level of engineering. No 6.5x unfortunately. The show samples had been assembled in the USA but they didn't know where the main production run would be. The UK pricing seems quite high ranging from £439 for the 8x32 to £509 for the 10x42. Apparently it's been decided that the Meostar 12x50HD and 15x56HD will be sold in the UK from early next year but nothing sheduled for a 8x32HD unfortunately.
The new Minox BL HD I rather liked. It has a appealing simplicity to the design and the mechanicals felt nice and slick. The focus wheel patterning looks better in the flesh than the photos. The FOV was good, CA well behaved, and sharpness about right for the price which looks like it will be just below the Meopro offering. I think they may have dropped the MIG claim on this model, and it feels like a modern Kamakura offering... which I think is a positive.
Hawke have finally drawn a line under the the Panorama problems and dropped it. They did have the new Frontier ED 8x32 on show. Nice little binocular, but the demo sample's view was not a match for the x43s. List price is £230 and I just felt it should be a little cheaper or preferably a little sharper. I might get a chance to take a closer look sometime soon.
Kowa have extended the BD XD range but for me the CA remains a big issue. I could not extract any info on a possible replacement for the Genesis.
The Vanguard Endeavour ED has been a bit of a recent hit on the forum, particularly with the heavy discounting. The MkII was announced a while back featuring Hoya glass. We heard that they were also moving to the Philippines for production but the guys on the stand knew nothing about that. They had pre-production 8x32, 8 and 10x42s on the stand. They made some big claim that some US prof turbocharged the optical design as well. Whoever had a hand in this did an absolutely first rate job on the optics. I'm not known for lavish praise, but I really thought these were exceptional for the price. The sharpness and contrast were as good as the best I'd seen all day, including the alphas. I'm told they are not going to be the high discount offerings of the past. The 8x32 will be around £275 and the x42s around £400. Cosmetically and mechanically little has changed with the new model, and physically they don't have the appeal of others on the market, but who cares if the view is that good. Now I have to issue the necessary warning. These were pre-production samples and could well have been cherry picked. We will have to see how the retail samples compare. I'll see if I can get one to try.
For those who like a 7x The Kite Ibis ED7x42 is definitely worth a look.
I've posted comments on the Zeiss SF and Nikon Aculon elsewhere
David
PS. I did ask about the Canon SX60 but if they knew they certainly weren't saying. More than their job's worth it seems.
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