I take the liberty to open a new thread here, as I plan to subject the NL to a detailed test and comparison with the EL SV, the SF and possibly other premium glasses soon after its launch on the market and hope that other forum members will share their impressions as well.
Initially, however, this is only a micro review, because I could only look at the NL 8x42 at the Swarovski representative for about fifteen minutes and compare it with my EL SV.
GENERAL
One can certainly argue about the design, also about the return to the "normal" central hinge (I personally never saw any particular advantage in the open hinge concept). The glass appears even more valuable than the EL SV, the finish of the inspected specimen was impressive; haptics and grip appear perfect, the balance and ergonomics excellent, the NL therefore seems lighter than the EL SV at first (which is not the case).
The NL appears compact, almost delicate, fits well into my hand with its unusual “dent” in the tubes, the EL SV in contrast appears almost like a “block” next to it.
MECHANICS
Everything is flawless, the hinge adjustment is pleasantly medium-stiff, the eyecups correspond in shape, size and function to those of the EL SV, but have 6 positions (with 4 intermediate clickstops). The diopter adjustment is now activated neither by pulling out the focusing wheel, nor by pushing it in as on the new CL, nor on the right tube, but by means of a separate slide underneath the focusing button. You can find that great or not so great, but it works well and precisely. No locking mechanism, but an unintentional adjustment seems unlikely due to the chosen placement of the slide.
The pleasant surprise for me was the focus mechnaism – no more different adjustment force between left and right rotation as with my EL SV, and no jerk or noise, but a rather smooth and very precise action on the large, new focusing wheel which has been placed forward between the tubes..
I have not tried the newly available forehead support; it can be easily and quickly mounted and removed, but I have my own method of stabilizing.
OPTICS
I'd better not say anything about the close focus limit here when I look at the discussions that are already going on in various forums.
According to Swarovski, the eye relief is only 18mm instead of 20mm in the EL SV, but I was able to see the edge of the field of view easily and effortlessly wearing my usual varifocal glasses (which I usually take off when observing), and I was able to see the entire field of view with them.
The image characteristics of the NL made a good impression to me in the short time available, very similar to the EL SV - bright, clear, sharp and high-contrast, relatively "cool" image, hardly any CA, little distortion for my eyes and still practically no noteworthy globe effect (Holger Merlitz did predict this correctly). The edge sharpness is good, it seemed to me to be quite comparable to the EL SV despite the larger FOV, but this will have to be verified further. I could not test for stray light.
The field of view (9.1 degrees = 159m) is noticeably larger than that of the EL SV (7.6 degrees = 133m), but somehow I had imagined it would appear even larger than when I looked through it, but the observation conditions in the city were anything but ideal. The comparison between the 159m of the NL and the 148m of the SF will certainly be interesting. The larger width gives the impression of a slightly higher magnification, so I almost thought that the 8x NL and my 8.5x EL SV had the same magnification.
CONCLUSION AFTER 15 MINUTES
Great glass! At first glance, the NL impressed me very positively; the improvements and enhancement over the EL SV are unmistakable, and Swarovski has shown that they will not simply leave the field to the competition. But only with more detailed tests and comparisons will I allow myself an assessment whether Swarovski is currently ahead of the pack with the NL in the premium glass sector; it seems possible. But the almost 900 Francs mark-up (Swiss prices) over the EL SV is no small matter.
To be cont'd.
Canip
