Thoughts ? on Binocular Colors (1 Viewer)

[edwincjones]

Most binoculars are either black or a shade of green
(I guess to blend into background better)
I have an older Zeiss FL with an ugly greenish color.
I have been interested with the SW 32mm sand color,
now SW is coming out with a bright burnt orange in the 32mm NL
(it yells to me "buy me, get me, steal me")
and I did spend an extra $50 to get the red Monovid

What are your thoughts on binocular color,
or does it make any difference?

edj

 

[Sterngucker]

Depends on whether you buy binos to look through them or at them.

 

[PYRTLE]

I liked the green Zeiss FL with contrasting eyecups, nowt with those, particularly the Simon King edition. A Burnt Orange Zeiss SF 8 x 32......yes please.
Wonder what happened to all those red "loan" Leica Trinovids, in collections probably.

 

[dwever]

Tool or jewel? Tool!

 

[John A Roberts]

A couple of rarer Swarovski colours for consideration . . .

A) Red - Chinese New Year CL x25
It was offered in both 8x25 and 10x25 for the new year that started on February the 5th 2019
(one unit that I’ve seen has a serial number starting G8848, so its production dated from November 2018)
The images are from the Polish company Lanius at: https://www.facebook.com/pg/lanius.books/photos/

B) Lime Green - Byredo 8.5x42 EL FP
There were only 15 units. They date from 2019 and were made for a Swedish fashion label
The first image that better shows the bag is from Swarovski; and the second is from an eBay listing by kylemer_0


John

 

[edwincjones]

Tool or jewel? Tool!

View attachment 1380289

both-at least for most of us

edj

 

[Foss]

Black, green, sand, and camo cover the bases for me.

 

[willisoften]

Any dull background colour is fine I don't want to stand out in nature or a crowd.
In private conversation with the like minded or amongst friends or family who pretend to be interested, I don't mind displaying or discussing the latest / greatest, although I don't care for ostentation either or discussing value either. Prominent logos make cringe. (Swaro's Habicht)

Nor am I particularly keen for casual acquaintances to take note of valuable items, watches, cameras or binoculars.

 

[jgraider]

I've never tried to make a fashion statement when considering binocs.

 

[GeorgeL]

I’ve chosen hiking hat colors to match my bins.

 

[jan van daalen]

FWIW, the story goes that the chairwoman of the board at Swarovski's proposed the sand color as a gesture to the female users which proposal did not had any support from the other (male) members. Still she pushed it through and may I say with great succes. The sand colored EL32 was bought by the majority to those women who went on safari. Men bought green, women sand.
Sigh..... where are the times we could go on safari.

The Africa edition of the first edition CL30 was a beauty, as is the current Nomad edition (a bit overpriced though), but still very nice.

Jan

 

[edwincjones]

.............. Men bought green, women sand..........


Jan

who will buy burnt orange?

edj

 

[jan van daalen]

who will buy burnt orange?

edj

Time will tell.
Fact is, the housings of the binoculars become more and more (fashion) colorful. One very nice example is the GPO Passion ED line.

Jan

 

[CSG]

I'm a fan of Swaro's sand color. Never bought any of them but I sure like their looks.

 

[bockos]

кой ще купи изгорен портокал?

edj

обичам зеления сваровски. Или черен Zeiss.

 

[tenex]

...the chairwoman of the board at Swarovski's proposed the sand color as a gesture to the female users...

I don't get it... why would women particularly like sand? (I certainly didn't)

I think dark warm gray (1st SF was too light) would be much nicer than black on bins, and wonder why it isn't more often used.

обичам зеления сваровски. Или черен Zeiss = "I love green Swarovski. Or a black Zeiss."

 

[John A Roberts]

Besides black and green, another colour suited for field use is dark brown, which has been used to a small extent over the years

A couple of recent examples are:
• Meopta B1 Plus 8x32 in chocolate brown, which is among several colours that Meopta have recently offered, see posts #7 and 20 at: https://www.birdforum.net/threads/meostar-b1-1-plus.395012/

• Blaser Primus 8x30 in brown with black contrast, from: https://huntingbinoculars.net/blaser-primus-8x30-vs-swarovski-el-8x32/


And on old Porros, I find the combination of black metalwork and dark brown leatherette particularly attractive:
• Hensoldt Sportsglas 8x30, dating from the pre-WWII period, from Gregor Bernard’s always interesting site Classic Binoculars at: http://classicbinoculars.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/hensoldt-sportglas-8x30.html

• Swarovski Habicht 8x30 dating from the 1950's, that was covered from a batch of black vulcanite that’s gradually turned brown over the decades,
from a 2019 listing by dakota_at on eBay


John

 

[Yeti Man]

I for one would be very hard pressed to pick between the green and orange of the Swarovski's. I have always liked that green, but love the orange (and have a thing for orange accessories.

I also like the older red Leica Trinovids and there was a medium blue Zeiss binocular that I would chooose in a heartbeat if I were considering the model.

Maybe it's just me.

 

[Gijs van Ginkel]

tenex, post 16,
I use the sand colored and the green colored EL 32's regularly and I like them both. My wife likes the sand colored better and, it is well known from eye research, that women have a better color vision and a better "color feeling/vision/taste" .
During the second world war Swarovski produced a sand colored 6x30 porro (for German troops in the dessert probably). Looks alright too.
Investigation of different brands reveals that many have made different colored binoculars so nothing is new.
Gijs van Ginkel

 

[Troubador]

I've never tried to make a fashion statement when considering binocs.

Dead right JG. I am trying to stop laughing at the idea of me trying make a fashion statement with binos. You see I have this picture of what I look like after spending a couple of hours lying down in seaweed, examining inter-tidal marine life in rock pools and another couple of hours lying down photographing flowers on the edges of bogs and who knows how long stalking Otters on ground with patches of sheep and goose poo. After a typical day on the coast of a Scottish island, with intermittent rain thrown in, I am in no condition to make any kind of fashion statement. However, there are more harmful things in life that folks can do than buy binoculars on the basis of how good they look. Seems a pretty benign kind of inclination, but I think you would need to be birding in groups of other people since being fashionable is about being seen to be fashionable and when you hope to watch otters as we often do, the last thing you want is groups of folks.

Lee