Swarovski SLC 10x56? (1 Viewer)

[BoldenEagle]

Hi,

I have had slc 10x56 bins about six years now. Previously I have owned just one another "alpha" binocular: Nikon edg 10x42.

In my opinion, compared to edg 10x42, slc 10x56 wins in every optical aspect, except CA control. Nikon edg has better focusing wheel, in fact the best I have ever used and it has much better near focus distance.

I have briefly compared my slc with el 10x50 and optically el is little better in terms of sharpness and contrast. At least in daylight they seem to be equally bright. Slc 10x56 is extremely sharp but I think el 10x50 amazingly is even sharper! I personally can't see any advantage of the flat field of el, because slc has quite low distortion and has very wide sharp area also.

I have been thinking of swapping my slc to el 10x50. The main things why I already haven't are:
a) The view with slc is "cleaner", it has no shadows or brighter areas (except very near edges there is thin bright ring) which the el 10x50 has more and which I found personally just too disturbing. These will show especially against the sky.
b) slc has more eye relief (I'm eyeglass user) and el 10x50 has just too little for me. In fact, I have to lift slc eyecups just about one mm to avoid "kidney beaning" but I still can have the full fov.
c) el should have wider fov but I can't really see there's marked difference.
d) at dusk slc 10x56 has advantage because bigger aperture (and it should have slightly better light transmission also)

These are my experiences with slc 10x56 and are based just on one sample, I haven't done any objective testing how good sample my binoculars really are.

Regards,

Juhani

PS. Slc 10x56 shares one embarassing feature with Nikon edg: after couple of years of use, both had loose rubber armour (and edg had several other severe mechanical problems also...). Swarovski fixed the armour free but now the armouring is detaching from the body again. It doesn't fell off or hang like in edg but the glue between body and armour has given away. Besides that, I have anything bad to say about slc quality.

 

[tenex]

I have been thinking of swapping my slc to el 10x50...

Hi Juhani, you've told us why you chose the SLC over the EL (as I also did), but given no idea why you would now consider reversing that! What advantage would the EL now have for you, at its greater cost? Eye relief alone sounds like a problem for you. Of course they're both excellent. Most people seem to prefer the EL, perhaps on weight alone, but you don't have to.

 

[BoldenEagle]

Hi Juhani, you've told us why you chose the SLC over the EL (as I also did), but given no idea why you would now consider reversing that! What advantage would the EL now have for you, at its greater cost? Eye relief alone sounds like a problem for you. Of course they're both excellent. Most people seem to prefer the EL, perhaps on weight alone, but you don't have to.

Hi,

main reasons are: el is sharper and lighter. Besides it's lagging behind in brightness just slightly.

But certainly with drawbacks mentioned, these are not enough to justify swapping. I wonder if there is alternative eyecups for el because they are about 2 mm too high at lowest position and "steal" away valuable eye relief from eyeglass users. I probably would be also too annoyed by the light areas in the image circle of el's, when panning the sky they really bother me.

El is truly a great bin but for me slc 10x56 still is the better option.

Juhani

 

[hyberboreus]

Hi,

I have had slc 10x56 bins about six years now. Previously I have owned just one another "alpha" binocular: Nikon edg 10x42.

In my opinion, compared to edg 10x42, slc 10x56 wins in every optical aspect, except CA control. Nikon edg has better focusing wheel, in fact the best I have ever used and it has much better near focus distance.

I have briefly compared my slc with el 10x50 and optically el is little better in terms of sharpness and contrast. At least in daylight they seem to be equally bright. Slc 10x56 is extremely sharp but I think el 10x50 amazingly is even sharper! I personally can't see any advantage of the flat field of el, because slc has quite low distortion and has very wide sharp area also.

I have been thinking of swapping my slc to el 10x50. The main things why I already haven't are:
a) The view with slc is "cleaner", it has no shadows or brighter areas (except very near edges there is thin bright ring) which the el 10x50 has more and which I found personally just too disturbing. These will show especially against the sky.
b) slc has more eye relief (I'm eyeglass user) and el 10x50 has just too little for me. In fact, I have to lift slc eyecups just about one mm to avoid "kidney beaning" but I still can have the full fov.
c) el should have wider fov but I can't really see there's marked difference.
d) at dusk slc 10x56 has advantage because bigger aperture (and it should have slightly better light transmission also)

These are my experiences with slc 10x56 and are based just on one sample, I haven't done any objective testing how good sample my binoculars really are.

Regards,

Juhani

PS. Slc 10x56 shares one embarassing feature with Nikon edg: after couple of years of use, both had loose rubber armour (and edg had several other severe mechanical problems also...). Swarovski fixed the armour free but now the armouring is detaching from the body again. It doesn't fell off or hang like in edg but the glue between body and armour has given away. Besides that, I have anything bad to say about slc quality.

I had EL 10x50 for six years and I just switched back to SLC series, I bought SLC 10x42 (I previously had SLC 7x42, bought them over twenty years ago). The reason I switched back to SLC series from EL 10x50 are the same as Juhani mentioned, especially these:

a) The view with slc is "cleaner", it has no shadows or brighter areas (except very near edges there is thin bright ring) which the el 10x50 has more and which I found personally just too disturbing. These will show especially against the sky.
b) slc has more eye relief (I'm eyeglass user) and el 10x50 has just too little for me. In fact, I have to lift slc eyecups just about one mm to avoid "kidney beaning" but I still can have the full fov.

I finally realised that the shadows in EL are really disturbing (seen when you try to spot raptors from the bright sky). Also as an eyeglass user I found that I'm not able to see the whole FOV (that was actually an issue from the beginning but I tried to cope with that issue). In addition EL 10x50 is actually also quite heavy bino, so in the end I made a right decision to switch back to SLC series. Now I can also attach my Finnstick securely to the threaded insert in the SLC and watching bird migration for hours (e.g. in this spring 10-12 hours per day) is a breeze...

 

[Conndomat]

Hello,

Thanks again for all the comments!

> Patudo <
Yes I think the 8x56 is an incredibly good glass, unfortunately it is not practical for many to use such a large "Brick" for bird watching.
Thank you for your offer, but it's probably best to test the binocular yourself for a few days.
At the moment I am not one step further, the work currently leaves me little time to think about a decision!

I know the Swarovski EL 10x50, with eyeglasses I can see the entire FOV, optically it is first class binoculars.

I will let the SLC 10x56 come in time and test it extensively and in peace, some binoculars win at second glance and if you spend the necessary time with them.
I will then report my results here ...

Andreas

 

[tenex]

If anyone is interested, I just noticed a like-new 8x56 SLC in the classifieds, listed in March (USA) and possibly still available: https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=387119