Well Done Hawke-- 8X42 Frontier ED X (1 Viewer)

[VonMaunder]

I was looking to replace a pair of Minox 8X25 that are always in my bag. Liked their form and build but the optical quality was subpar, coatings are not great, lots of flare, CA. Last time I went to replace these I ended with with a pair of Zeiss 10X40B T*P for a real bargain, beautiful glass, great form, hard to beat within my budget but a bit bigger than the bag allows.

This Spring as the migrants are returning the old frustration with the Minox returned. This time I was going to get something small enough to keep in my Hill People Gear kit bag. Again, began stalking the Zeiss 8X30 B/GA TP on that site, the bino I was originally seeking last Spring when the 10X40s showed up. After many hours of review reading (and a longing for the old days when things just had a "price" without a "point" appended!) from the fine folks here and elsewhere, Hawke ED X seemed a good choice. Found a pair, new for $290, they showed up today and I sure am impressed, can't imagine what a pair of NL Pure have over these to be worth another 3G but I don't want to know! The Hawke are bright, sharp, no CA that I can see, nice form if a little chunky, solid build too. Optically, they are more neutral in color over the warmer Zeiss but very comparable image quality IMO.

Right out of the box I had them trained on a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker boring a drip hole on the top of ~1.5" White Birch branch backlit by sun. His M.O. after tapping the hole on top was to go directly beneath and give a few raps, roll around to the top and take a drink, this went on for over 15 minutes til the upper bore hole started dripping down and off the branch. He would occasionally go below to grab the drops that had formed. All in, he was at it for over an hour, moving between 2 bore wells.

Bottom line-- Kudos to Hawke, well done with a great warranty, reported decent service, I almost don't care that they are made in China.

 

[eeszarek]

Where did you order them?

 

[Patudo]

I'm not familiar with the Hawke range, but pretty sure I tried the 10x42 version of this at Birdfair last year. While probably my least favourite (largely due to the eye relief, which I found very tight) of the assorted sub-alpha class binoculars from Maven, Opticron, Kowa, Vortex etc I tried, it is also the most affordable, and you get a lot for your $/£. In comparison with the 10x40 P model Dialyt all these binoculars are brighter, have more natural colour rendition and apparent sharpness is comparable if not slightly superior. I think the image of the Dialyt is somewhat easier on the eye than the Hawke, field flattener notwithstanding, but practice and familiarity would mitigate this.

A friend of mine has a Hawke 10x42 of this model (I think) and when we were watching his local peregrines from a rooftop was fully able to track the birds at great height as well as I could with my Nikon 10x42 SE. They are a capable binocular, more than able to provide some great viewing experiences. It is very impressive what lower priced binoculars can offer these days.