Which (if any) Porro would you consider an "Alpha" ? (3 Viewers)

[Maljunulo]

Irrespective of whether it is considered an Alpha or not, my 8X30W Habicht has completely captivated me, and my 8X32 SF sits quietly on a shelf in the closet.

 

[recon493]

The Fujinon FMT-SX 7x50's I owned provided the best 7x view when I compared it to a brand new Habicht 7x42. Its was 136m/1000m I seem to recall; but, it also used field flatteners which provided much better edge performance. However, they were absolutely unusable as a daily driver. Not only is the weight excessive but the individual focus eyepieces were a pain to use on anything other than infinity focus.

A perfect binocular to me would be a 7x42 with tad larger prism's (benefit to the fujis). With that smaller objective size it will help reduce the weight. Then it must have a central focus. If the Fujis FMT's had a central focus (despite their size) I would have kept them.

I dearly love my Habicht and the high transmission they provide. I just wish they had also offered a "W" model. The brightness loss would not have been that much.

Porro views are indeed special to me.

 

[seawatcher]

Opticron HRWP 8x42 was a dream porro model. Sharp, bright image and waterproof. One I really regret selling.

 

[Thotmosis]

The 7x42 Habicht is a very well made binocular of limited capabilities as it is lacking a generous field of view.

I agree but the cosy field of view of the Habicht 7x42 can have specific advantages not known to the general public. In a way its classified information so i can not elaborate too much about it 😜.

 

[Thotmosis]

I can't tell you which measurement method allbinos.com uses for binoculars, but especially in the area of transmission measurements I would classify allbinos.com as rather unreliable. The Fujinon is not the only binocular that raises questions in this discipline.

Andreas

The albino guys do some good work but many times they dont get their data right and then we have to go to the well known scientific Dutch professor Gijs van Ginkel for objective data.

 

[Thotmosis]

Obviously, such designs could be incorporated in a Porro binocular but that has not happened. There are even some folks who think the roof prism Alpha 15x binoculars exceed the Zeiss 15x60, but I have no experience of those roof prism binoculars.

Did some comparisons for two days between my Zeiss 15x60 BGAT and a new Austrian (thanks Pat) made 14x56 and while later was much brighter and has a wider FOV and noticeable lighter…IMHO for me it didnt work unfortunately because of the ergonomics and i experienced some rolling ball which I didn’t like. Also the focus action is somewhat too slow to my liking and the eyecups too hard, but other than that a very nice binocular from Swarovski. So i stick to my heavy trusty 15x60 BGAT and by coincidence i bought a 15x60 West Germany as back up or give away today. Hopefully it will be ok.

What is an Alpha for one is disappointment for another, specs on sheets is just half of the story.

 

[PatR]

Did some comparisons for two days between my Zeiss 15x60 BGAT and a new Australian made 14x56 and while later was much brighter and has a wider FOV and noticeable lighter…IMHO for me it didnt work unfortunately because of the ergonomics and i experienced some rolling ball which I didn’t like. Also the focus action is somewhat too slow to my liking and the eyecups too hard, but other than that a very nice binocular from Swarovski. So i stick to my heavy trusty 15x60 BGAT and by coincidence i bought a 15x60 West Germany as back up or give away today. Hopefully it will be ok.

What is an Alpha for one is disappointment for another, specs on sheets is just half of the story.

…….and a new Australian made 14x56.

Perhaps it was upside down?🙃

 

[Thotmosis]

…….and a new Australian made 14x56.

Perhaps it was upside down?🙃

Hehehe, thanks i will edit my post Pat, i guess it’s time to go to sleep for me.

 

[Pinewood]

…….and a new Australian made 14x56.

Perhaps it was upside down?🙃

Spellcheck can undo anyone of us. The one attached to Microsoft Word gave me a headache.
Arthur

 

[dorubird]

I agree but the cosy field of view of the Habicht 7x42 can have specific advantages not known to the general public. In a way its classified information so i can not elaborate too much about it 😜.

let me declassify this information

As I use this Habicht 7x42, I definitely realize the following aspect even better: I like its aparent visual field of view exactly as it is, small and narrow! It is a purely aesthetic pleasure! It's the binoculars with the biggest personality I've met by far! It is a binocular that requires a lot of understanding to begin with, and it is very easy to abandon it because of the weak specifications. But after you use it without prejudgment related to AFOV, it turns into magic with time.
This narrow AFOV, which everyone spits out (including me), is illuminated by an extraordinarily clear image that floats in a totally black space, creating a unique and powerful aesthetic impression.
This aesthetic impression paradoxically, if the AFOV had been increased, would disappear!
This paradoxically experience clearly confirmed to me, once again, that a pair of binoculars cannot be characterized only by some numbers (even carefully and objective placed in tables), but also through strongly subjective impressions, but honest! The complexity of reality, even of a simple pair of binoculars, cannot be reduced only to numbers, it also has other values that escape the measuring devices, but not to our perception!

 

[Canip]

and my 8X32 SF sits quietly on a shelf in the closet.

How did you get it to be quiet? Mine makes all sorts of noises whenever it wants to get out

 

[Maljunulo]

How did you get it to be quiet? Mine makes all sorts of noises whenever it wants to get out

Make sure the objective cover is seated tightly and correctly.

That stifles it.

 

[Patudo]

Opticron HRWP 8x42 was a dream porro model. Sharp, bright image and waterproof. One I really regret selling.

Maybe my expectations were overly high when I tried it, but I personally was less than impressed - VERY narrow field of view and not quite as sharp or offering the image quality I had expected. A shame because it does tick some worthwhile boxes - waterproofing, eye relief.

 

[Patudo]

The thing about porros is that although they are universally acknowledged as punching out of their price class in terms of image quality, pretty much since the advent of roofs, very few have ever been made to "alpha" levels of absolute performance, finish (including weatherproofing) and handling. Nikon's SE was probably the closest, but (quite probably deliberately) handicapped by narrow FOV, not being fully waterproof and rubber eyecups that were a poor match for its long eye relief. The Nobilem range were probably also comparable optically to the alphas of their day, but large clunky porros are not, alas, the best birding tool. I suppose Canon's 10x42 IS-L is the nearest thing to a porro alpha in terms of performance (but not handling). Optical performance is sub-alpha (a category that itself implies a very high standard of performance these days), but the image stabilization gives it quite unique qualities.

 

[Hermann]

The thing about porros is that although they are universally acknowledged as punching out of their price class in terms of image quality, pretty much since the advent of roofs, very few have ever been made to "alpha" levels of absolute performance, finish (including weatherproofing) and handling. Nikon's SE was probably the closest, but (quite probably deliberately) handicapped by narrow FOV, not being fully waterproof and rubber eyecups that were a poor match for its long eye relief. The Nobilem range were probably also comparable optically to the alphas of their day, but large clunky porros are not, alas, the best birding tool.

You forgot the Zeiss 15x60 BGAT*.

Hermann

 

[elkcub]

Curiously, the first Porro binocular specifically designed for birding appears to be largely left out — the Model 804 Swift 8.5x44 Audubon. I'd certainly put it in the so-called Alpha class, particularly the 804ED with air-spaced objectives.* That one went beyond any other for subtle color rendition and was a visual joy in it's own Super-Alpha class.

*Not to be confused with the last black-body version.

 

[Maljunulo]

Which of the very large number of definitions of the word "alpha" are we using in this thread?

 

[elkcub]

Which of the very large number of definitions of the word "alpha" are we using in this thread?

All of them.