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Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

Vanguard Endeavour ED II 8x42 Report (1 Viewer)

If anyone in the UK is keen to have a look I'm told they have started to ship the ED IIs out to the stores and the following should have stock by the end of the month:

Clifton Cameras, CleySpy, Sherwoods Photographic, Focus Optics, Nature Quest, Birders Store, Carmarthen Cameras, Mifsud Cameras, SRS Microsystems, Binocular Warehouse, Wex Photographic.

David
 
I know others like to include digibinned shots in their reports. I've never had much success with regular cameras but I thought I'd give it a another go with what I've got. I'm not particularly happy with the results but as it took me all morning I thought I'd share them.

I gave up any notion of trying to get a shot of a bird. Just too difficult to get everything aligned so you will have to make do with a test chart at 30m. The two shots attached are untouched .tiffs so don't read anything into the colour etc..

The first shot is with my Olympus Pen with the kit lens at 28mm equivalent. It's been resized for the file limit for uploading. Even at the full 84mm mm equivalent zoom the the image was pretty mushy and really gave no justice to the sharpness of the binocular.

The second shot is with a little monochrome machine vision camera and macro lens I have 'lying around'. It at least did a bit better than 0,1 which is the best I can do by eye with the binocular on a tripod. (Of course the eye and the camera use different effective appertures.) Boosted I could get down to 0,6 on this occasion. I guess I'd need a longer and probably higher quality lens to really benefit from the potential of this binocular.... or a scope of course.

David

P.S. The lines on the 0,1 pattern are 0.5mm wide.
 

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typo said:
A big claim for the ED II is the use of Hoya Vd>94 glass and Vanguard confirmed it is FDC 100 that's used.
Click to expand...

David, did you notice the specs on the back of the box? It confirms the HOYA glass. Strange they didn't put this on their primary marketing literature to dealers, etc.
 
On their web site they refer to "outstanding Japanese ED glass", "Premium Japanese Extra-low Dispersion (ED) glass" and "Japanese Extra-low Dispersion (ED) glass (νd >94)" and I'd certainly picked up the Hoya link some time ago, pre-launch. It's not so much the Hoya as the vd>94 that's the important bit. Hoya do other EDs which are comparable to those typically used elsewhere, but Henry thinks it could be the first binocular to use an ED glass of this grade.

The problem for the marketing guys is how many know that Hoya is a top class glass maker and even here, how many know what vd>94 means?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbe_number

If you look at the Abbe diagram on the right, the boxes marked FK and PK in the bottom left hand corner is where the ED glasses sit. Note that 94 is off scale left.... and that's a good thing.

David
 
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I guess using 'Hoya', a word that people can articulate, is easier than marketing using 'vd>94'.

There is a huge gulf between the correct terminology (jargon) and how average users can articulate and attemp to explain their point of view. As you've said David - no one understands the technical stuff.

Best wishes,
 
What I don't understand is, that sales/marketing of Vanquard Europe told me that they "closed shop" in China and built a complete new factory in Birma, using Hoya glass.
The new ED II 42 came in today and are marked "Made in China".
They are present at the PhotoKina in Köln. I'll ask them.
 
Jan,

I'd heard from a couple of sources that they had gone to the Philippines not Burma but either way the UK manager told me he checked with the owner and production is definitely in China. The bino I have says "Made in China". I'd be interested if you hear something different.

David
 
Holy carp!
They've ranked way up there at over 85%, even pipping the Nikon SE, Swaro EL, and Leica Ultravid HD, but that transmission graph is woeful!
It seems a bit at odds with the 90-91% figure given that you mentioned initially David - thoughts?
:cat:



Chosun :gh:
 
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Just to be clear, the transmission % (and graph) do not equate to overall brightness, correct? That graph is measuring individual color wavelengths...?
 
Chosun Juan said:
Holy carp!
They've ranked way up there at over 85%, even pipping the Nikon SE, Swaro EL, and Leica Ultravid HD, but that transmission graph is woeful!
It seems a bit at odds with the 90-91% figure given that you mentioned initially David - thoughts?
:cat:



Chosun :gh:
Click to expand...

Come on; you guys are just not comfortable with how the game is played. Frankly, I hope you never are!

One national sales manager for a very prestigious bino company took me to lunch ostensibly to inquire about my prospective orders for the coming year. It was then intimated that authoring an article saying the company's AR coatings were considerably superior to those of the competition, could be quite beneficial to me.

As gently as possible, I declined the offer; what he was proposing was not true. Figures don't lie, but liars figure.

The meal was good, though. ;)

Bill
 
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Looks like an EDG or SV view with a much darker more yellow image. What would it take to correct those two things, and how much would it add to the price of the binocular ? Imagine how many of these would be sold if the full SV view was there at this price point.:eek!: That, and I would need to figure out how to kick my self in the ass for buying an SV:-O

Bill

Are we nearing a time when a $500 binocular can be competitively manufactured that is optically as good as the best the Alpha companies can produce at five times that much ? If that happens, then what lies ahead for the big three.
 
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bh46118 said:
Looks like an EDG or SV view with a much darker more yellow image. What would it take to correct those two things, and how much would it add to the price of the binocular ? Imagine how many of these would be sold if the full SV view was there at this price point.:eek!: That, and I would need to figure out how to kick my self in the ass for buying an SV:-O

Bill

Are we nearing a time when a $500 binocular can be competitively manufactured that is optically as good as the best the Alpha companies can produce at five times that much ? If that happens, then what lies ahead for the big three.
Click to expand...

They know their days are numbered. That's why they are turning to the Asian market to provide them with an ever-increasing product line. AND, why prices keep going up on those that remain. Aunt Myrtle is not going to be seen at an Audubon meeting with a $300 xxxxxxx around her neck, when for only $1,500 more she could own a new Zeiscaski!

Now, all she needs is to know how to focus it. :eek!:

Bill
 
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