John A Roberts
Well-known member

Alternatively, some less excited observations . . .
The Good
The 'Leather'
It’s clearly a synthetic material, and (lightly) smells like a lot of other synthetics. Any intoxication is presumedly in the mind of the holder.
The Bad
The FOV
It is narrow, but most importantly in terms of user comfort, eye movement is not at all restricted. Compare it to the 8x20 Ultravid:
• FOV 114 m/ 1000 m (113 m/ 1000 m)
• AFOV 45 deg (52 deg)
• EP 6 mm (2.5 mm)
The Habicht’s EP having 5.75x the area of the Ultravid makes all the difference: a narrow view but not really 'tunnel like'.
It's not at all restricting of eye movement - with the eyes locked ahead like 'looking down a straw' - as with the 8x20.
The Focuser
Due to the way that the mechanism is made airtight (by having each eyepiece slide back and forth through a synthetic seal),
the focuser does require notably more effort than with other binoculars - but neither augmented nor non-human strength is needed.
A push-pull motion using a finger from each hand largely deals with the problem.
Eyecup Diameter
There’s a number of ways to increase the eyecup diameter, either by adding material or replacing the eyecups.
But with the Habicht and other binoculars with small diameter eyepieces, I inevitably come back to using an index finger curved above each eyecup
to provide superior contact, comfort and stability.
Eye Relief
The real bad is of course the short eye relief. It’s only 12.5 mm from the eyecup rim. So too little for many eyeglass wearers.
(And the 10x40W’s is even less at only 11 mm; see these and a lot of other ER measurements by Canip at: The PINACOLLECTION – Binoculars Today )
The Ugly
There are some inherent limitations (especially the ER), but most can be easily minimised.
For more details on some easy fixes, see posts #6 and 7 at: Habicht 8x30W and Italian supercars (my take on the Habicht)
And for more on eyecups, see: Eye cups Swarovski Habicht 10x40 GA
None of the Habichts would be a first choice for birding, but neither are they a last resort.
So a specialised but interesting addition for some.
John
The Good
The 'Leather'
It’s clearly a synthetic material, and (lightly) smells like a lot of other synthetics. Any intoxication is presumedly in the mind of the holder.
The Bad
The FOV
It is narrow, but most importantly in terms of user comfort, eye movement is not at all restricted. Compare it to the 8x20 Ultravid:
• FOV 114 m/ 1000 m (113 m/ 1000 m)
• AFOV 45 deg (52 deg)
• EP 6 mm (2.5 mm)
The Habicht’s EP having 5.75x the area of the Ultravid makes all the difference: a narrow view but not really 'tunnel like'.
It's not at all restricting of eye movement - with the eyes locked ahead like 'looking down a straw' - as with the 8x20.
The Focuser
Due to the way that the mechanism is made airtight (by having each eyepiece slide back and forth through a synthetic seal),
the focuser does require notably more effort than with other binoculars - but neither augmented nor non-human strength is needed.
A push-pull motion using a finger from each hand largely deals with the problem.
Eyecup Diameter
There’s a number of ways to increase the eyecup diameter, either by adding material or replacing the eyecups.
But with the Habicht and other binoculars with small diameter eyepieces, I inevitably come back to using an index finger curved above each eyecup
to provide superior contact, comfort and stability.
Eye Relief
The real bad is of course the short eye relief. It’s only 12.5 mm from the eyecup rim. So too little for many eyeglass wearers.
(And the 10x40W’s is even less at only 11 mm; see these and a lot of other ER measurements by Canip at: The PINACOLLECTION – Binoculars Today )
The Ugly
There are some inherent limitations (especially the ER), but most can be easily minimised.
For more details on some easy fixes, see posts #6 and 7 at: Habicht 8x30W and Italian supercars (my take on the Habicht)
And for more on eyecups, see: Eye cups Swarovski Habicht 10x40 GA
None of the Habichts would be a first choice for birding, but neither are they a last resort.
So a specialised but interesting addition for some.
John