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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mfunnell" data-source="post: 3424685" data-attributes="member: 134332">I can understand why people might be looking forward to 32mm format SF models: flat-field eyepieces, open bridge design, perhaps a wider field of view, all in package more compact than the 42mm SFs. While I don't personally care for field flatteners and am not fussed about open bridge designs I can understand those who do like such things wanting bins with those characteristics.  But I'm not so sure about sentiments like:I guess improvements are always welcome, but I do wonder why the 32mm FLs would need replacing in the more traditional design segment. What's wrong with them that needs replacing? Despite their age, the existing 32mm FLs hold up pretty well when compared to the competition both in specs and in the view they present, despite the design having been set a good many years ago. Is it that the design is considered "old" and needs to be replaced simply to give the impression of "newness"? Is their "look" (mostly to do with the ribbed armour, but I guess the overall shape as well) considered too "old fashioned" compared to more recent designs? That is, is it a matter of fashion rather performance? (Of course, fashion may be important to those in the business of selling binoculars.)Without indulging CJ's carbon-fibre, HT+++ with 5 bullets, force-field prism optical fantasies (at least not too far), are there developments that would provide a practical, observable, non-marginal difference to a newer but still traditional-view 32mm-ish design, that Zeiss should be pursuing?I will note that one of the thoughts that had me buy my 8x32 FLs recently (perhaps before I'd quite got over their price) was the fear that they might be replaced by an 8x32 SF model that wouldn't suit me nearly so well as the FLs. (The comparison I made while deciding was with the Leica 8x32 UV HD+, because neither the SV nor the EDG equivalents appeal to me, for much the same reasons that the predicted 32mm SF doesn't appeal to me.)   ...Mike</blockquote>

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