Steiner Pregerine and Peregrine XP (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Purcell]

The Peregrine XP 8x44. The Peregrine 8x42 (I think, certainly 8x).

Though hunters swear blind that more weight makes things steadier there seems to be scant evidence for that. A human holding a bin is an active system not a damped spring with a mass on the top. Vukobratovich's paper on bins seem to back this up too. How you grip the bins seems to have a bigger impact.

Personally I don't like > 24oz bins around my neck. BUt I may be a wimp! I'd rather wear them on a harness (then I can use them all day without any problems).

The bin weight does count when you are holding them up especially above the horizontal. Then again the less wimpy may have less of a problem!

HOWEVER ...

All that said (back to the thread topic) don't choose between these based on weight: they are very different bins.

IMHO I though the Peregrine (non-XP) was mediocre ($1000 with fold down rubber eyecups and a not great view, WTF?). The XP is in a different class: a fraction better than a Zen Ray ED with it's more neutral color balance (but for $1200 more with a worse warranty).

These are two bins with names that differ by two letters but performance difference that is significant. THough I think there are better deals elsewhere.

I really should add my review notes to this thread ...

 

[Steve C]

What is the power on the Peregrine? I read twice of the review (quickly) and didn't find it. 8x based on the field of view?

Well how about that? Yes they were 8x. Sometimes a pretty obvious inclusion gets overlooked. Sorry about that.

As far as the weight is concerned that is a pretty personal deal. In some ways more weight helps stabilize the binocular. In other ways too much weight makes it difficult for some to pack. Personally I can go 30 oz just fine. Others can't.

 

[dustyview]

I think the weight issue has more to do with personal preference, and in full-sized binoculars a small difference may not matter much, but I can definitely hold my 27 oz. ZRS more steadily than my smaller compacts.

how do you guys think of the 30oz weight? I was told not to go over 24oz for binoculars. But it was proven not true with my EL purchase, which is further confirmed with ZEN ED. Maybe the open bridge helps a little? Will the extra 3 oz on Peregrine stablize the handling better?

 

[falcondude]

Well how about that? Yes they were 8x. Sometimes a pretty obvious inclusion gets overlooked. Sorry about that.

As far as the weight is concerned that is a pretty personal deal. In some ways more weight helps stabilize the binocular. In other ways too much weight makes it difficult for some to pack. Personally I can go 30 oz just fine. Others can't.

Thank you for clarifying this. I am ok with 27oz binoculars. I don't think it will be a major issue for me with extra couple of oz. But, who knows until I really get to spend a morning with it some day.

 

[FrankD]

The XP has a slightly more neutral color bias; the Zen is warmer. And that's about it.

But both are beat (just) by both Zeiss FL 8x32 and 7x42.

My feelings exactly. Sorry for not replying sooner John. You know how it is with summer break.

Aren't you due up for Canada soon?

I did not really say much about the comparison between the Zen ED and the Peregrine XP. My mistake. Kevin did do a nice job of summing up my feelings on the comparison though. The interesting part is that I do not really see the warm color in the Zen unless I compare it to the XP. When looking at red-orange objects I see better contrast and color in the Zen, my guess, subsequently because of it. In direct comparison, on these objects, the XP does not appear as sharp or contrasty. On everything else they are pretty much equal.

Something interesting I did note though is that I was seeing some reflections on the surface of the XP eyepiece which I was not with the Zen. Of course the XP does have those nice little flared eyecups which reduce this factor significantly.

 

[Kevin Purcell]

The interesting part is that I do not really see the warm color in the Zen unless I compare it to the XP. When looking at red-orange objects I see better contrast and color in the Zen, my guess, subsequently because of it.

The Zen bias mostly isn't noticible unless you compare it to a bin with a dielectric mirror. To me it seems quite well color balanced which is not bad for a silver mirrored bin. Then again before roofs got dielectric mirrors that's what they all looked like!

It isn't "Japanese" reddish bias: a slightly stronger color bias I associate with Nikon and Pentax. Not that these bins look like a sunset but they do favor reds (often in quite a pleasant way).

I get the feeling that most of the time your eye's "white balance" corrects for a lot of these small biases just as it does in different lighting conditions.

 

[FrankD]

Interesting comparison between the Zen and the Nikons. I almost look at it as a sense of varying degrees....Meopta...Zen...Nikon SE...etc... I do remember my original Venturer 8x42 definitely had a slight warm (yellow) bias but I only saw it in certain conditions...most notably snow.

So you think the prism coating is the primary culprit here?

 

[Kevin Purcell]

The prism mirror coating has the largest single effect.

And I'm assuming that they've got pretty flat (across the spectrum) AR coatings (which may or may not be a good assumption but I suspect it is).

The other place for biases to creep in (llike the Zen Ray Summit and perhaps the Meopata and of course the ex-Soviet military bins) is in absorption in some optical glass.

And I just noticed that Living Bird Summer 2008 reviewed the Steiner Peregrine XP

http://www.livingbird.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=793

 

[FrankD]

The other place for biases to creep in (llike the Zen Ray Summit and perhaps the Meopta and of course the ex-Soviet military bins) is in absorption in some optical glass.

Hmm, interesting. Can you clarify this further? I thought the current fully-multicoated bins reflected something like 99.8% of light per glass surface. That would mean that .1% that is being absorbed could be causing the color bias.

Also, I was a bit confused with this quote....

...coated with fluorite ...

...though I have to say that I agree about those rubber-winged eyecups. I know the thought process behind why Steiner continues to utilized them but still.....

 

[NoSpringChicken]

One of the biggest optical retailing chains in the UK, In Focus, recently reduced the price of the Steiner 'Discovery' XP (as I believe it is known here) by one third to £600, due to the public's reluctance to buy them, probably because they look different to other binoculars. Apparently, since the price cut they are selling much better. At £600 they are about half the price of the Leica Ultravid HD and Swarovski EL and seem like a bit of a bargain. Other places are still selling them for over £1000.

Ron

 

[falcondude]

One of the biggest optical retailing chains in the UK, In Focus, recently reduced the price of the Steiner 'Discovery' XP (as I believe it is known here) by one third to £600, due to the public's reluctance to buy them, probably because they look different to other binoculars. Apparently, since the price cut they are selling much better. At £600 they are about half the price of the Leica Ultravid HD and Swarovski EL and seem like a bit of a bargain. Other places are still selling them for over £1000.

Ron

we have seen Swaroski and Leica handing out rebate or slashing price from $200 to $350 in the last few months. That is a good start.

 

[CharleyBird]

I was told (so you may wish to take this with a pinch of salt) that the Infocus price is only while stock of a particular bargain batch lasts, then it'll be back up to nearly a grand again.
Infocus had only one 8 x 44 pair left a few weeks ago, and as we had our two pairs of 10 x 44 sent from two of their shops they must have very few, if any, of those by now.
Will be interesting to see if the price reverts.

 

[FrankD]

With the performance comparison between the high end Steiners and the other Alpha optical quality binoculars I would have a hard time believing that the store in question would not sell quite a few of them. It is too bad the sale is somewhat short lived. There are going to be quite a few consumers out there that get a heck of a deal though.

 

[NoSpringChicken]

I was told (so you may wish to take this with a pinch of salt) that the Infocus price is only while stock of a particular bargain batch lasts, then it'll be back up to nearly a grand again.
Infocus had only one 8 x 44 pair left a few weeks ago, and as we had our two pairs of 10 x 44 sent from two of their shops they must have very few, if any, of those by now.
Will be interesting to see if the price reverts.

It seems that the Infocus price was indeed a special bargain. Their price has now increased to £1099 for the 8x44 and £1149 for the 10x44. It will be interesting to see what happens to sales of them now.

Ron