Swift 804 Audubon Binoculars - A Beginner's Experience (1 Viewer)

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Everyone knows about the dinky thin bridges. But I dont like the focus wheel either. The 804R also has a body that is easier to one hand hold, IMO. You can see the 804R has a higher angle cone to the objectives and this gives you something to wrap your fingers around and keep the bino from slipping back when the head is tilted up.

Maybe a little nitpicky, if they beefed the bridges up, Id probably like them a lot better(and if they tweaked the focus knob with finer ridges to be more traditional, Id probably buy one). I absolutely HATE those knobs on older Japanese models that are chromed and heavily knurled or both. I dont know who or why binoculars went from all black or understated chrome rings around the barrels to knurled "chrome" around the eyepieces and on the focus knob. For that matter, I dont like a lot of flash on the objective covers....like big Ribbons and big pictures of Eagles. I guess some of that is kind of vain(or something)....but there it is.

I guess Im kind of a classic WW2 style porro fan as well, with the classic pebbled "leatherette" finish, etc.

 

[orbitaljump]

One thing I dont like about the 804R is that it has those roll down rubber eyecups....both because they are a nuisance with the tight eye relief and they will degrade over time.

EDIT

And the objectives are a bit exposed. I guess they did this to cut weight. The first pair of 804Rs I had, Type 4a, had scratches on the front objectives, quite a few nics....though it didnt degrade performance too much I dont think.....I still loved the them. When I acquired them, they also had, had the eyecups rolled up for a very long time and when I unrolled them they were mishapen, flared outwards abit, but no too much I guess, and they would probably have self corrected over time somewhat, but I just rolled the back up and left them.