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Cabela's Euro HD New Models (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter cycleguy
- Start date
Close focus on the 8x32 is 1.7 meters.
Stet
Well-known member
So I had the Euro HD 10x32 for about 2 weeks and ended up returning them. This is a prime example of the try before you buy adage or at least make sure you have a good return policy. These optically excellent binoculars were not an ergonomic fit for me at all. The culprit being the small eye cup diameter. My first experience right out of the box was that of blackouts. I was able to remedy this by doing what another forum member suggested in unscrewing the eye cups. For me I had to unscrew them all the way out to the last thread, but the blackouts were gone. I had some concern about the durability of leaving them like that all the time but none the less it worked and I was out and about birding with them.
Meopta did a great job with these optically. Even with the smallish exit pupil of the 10x32's I found them easy to get good eye alignment and thus a very good view. The focuser was the normal Meopta stiff I've found in all new Meopta's I tried, but very precision made. Funny thing, I actually traded in my Cabela's Euro HD 10x42 for a used Meopta HD 10x42 because the Meopta sample had an easier turning focuser and I liked the armor better. Turns out, in use, the stiffer focus was actually easier to obtain sharp focus with and I find myself wishing I didn't make the trade. The one thing the 10x32's focuser had was what a forum member aptly called stickion. The focuser would kinda get stuck slightly when I would slow down for finer focus. This of course loosened up and went away with use. They are also very small and compact and felt nice in the hand.
Optically I found them every bit as sharp and nice as my Meopta 10x42 HD with that fantastic contrast. I should have done more of a side by side comparison but unfortunately I didn't, but the impression I got when using the 10x32's was that they had a more neutral color bias than the 10x42's, albeit very slight. I wish I would have looked more closely but the small eye cups kept coming up as a nuisance for me. More specifically, the small outside diameter of the eye cup. Instead of the eye cup resting on the bone surrounding the eye, these eye cups went deep into my eye socket and were resting on the soft tissue surrounding my eye. This initially felt like pressure on my eyes and in a short period of time became very uncomfortable. I tried the MOLCET technique but because of the size and the 10x mag. I found it too hard to stabilize and it was too shaky for me. So this eventually became a deal breaker for me and I returned them to Cabela's.
Meopta has made a fantastic binocular here which would have been a home run for me also if the outside diameter of the eye cups were just a little bigger. Again this also shows how personal the interface between binocular and user is and how important it is to try before you buy or have a good return policy and Cabela's has one of the best.
Meopta did a great job with these optically. Even with the smallish exit pupil of the 10x32's I found them easy to get good eye alignment and thus a very good view. The focuser was the normal Meopta stiff I've found in all new Meopta's I tried, but very precision made. Funny thing, I actually traded in my Cabela's Euro HD 10x42 for a used Meopta HD 10x42 because the Meopta sample had an easier turning focuser and I liked the armor better. Turns out, in use, the stiffer focus was actually easier to obtain sharp focus with and I find myself wishing I didn't make the trade. The one thing the 10x32's focuser had was what a forum member aptly called stickion. The focuser would kinda get stuck slightly when I would slow down for finer focus. This of course loosened up and went away with use. They are also very small and compact and felt nice in the hand.
Optically I found them every bit as sharp and nice as my Meopta 10x42 HD with that fantastic contrast. I should have done more of a side by side comparison but unfortunately I didn't, but the impression I got when using the 10x32's was that they had a more neutral color bias than the 10x42's, albeit very slight. I wish I would have looked more closely but the small eye cups kept coming up as a nuisance for me. More specifically, the small outside diameter of the eye cup. Instead of the eye cup resting on the bone surrounding the eye, these eye cups went deep into my eye socket and were resting on the soft tissue surrounding my eye. This initially felt like pressure on my eyes and in a short period of time became very uncomfortable. I tried the MOLCET technique but because of the size and the 10x mag. I found it too hard to stabilize and it was too shaky for me. So this eventually became a deal breaker for me and I returned them to Cabela's.
Meopta has made a fantastic binocular here which would have been a home run for me also if the outside diameter of the eye cups were just a little bigger. Again this also shows how personal the interface between binocular and user is and how important it is to try before you buy or have a good return policy and Cabela's has one of the best.
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Binoseeker
Mostly using spectacles (myopic) with binoculars.
So maybe there is a need for meopta and others to supply exchange eye cups with other dimensions, longer and/or wider or maybe some item to put on the original eye cup to achieve dimensional change?
Anders
Anders
looksharp65
Well-known member
My experience (with the Meopta 8x32) largely matches yours, but I'm only using them with spectacles that support against the small eyecups.
If I wish to use them when I wear contacts, I'm more inclined to hold them in front of the eyes with the eyecups collapsed. I prefer the PFOV experience above too short eyecups causing blackouts, but I need to have steady hands.
//L
If I wish to use them when I wear contacts, I'm more inclined to hold them in front of the eyes with the eyecups collapsed. I prefer the PFOV experience above too short eyecups causing blackouts, but I need to have steady hands.
//L
I agree the eyecups are too small, and the eye relief may be for some but that is easily modified as I said in my first post. I was so impressed with the glass, ergos, etc of the 8x32HD's that I modified the eyecups also and made them larger using rubber gaskets, and added some winged eyecups, and now I find them a perfect fit, and they are still optically fantastic.
Stet
Well-known member
Might be helpful to some others if you would be able to post some photos of the modifications you made. I'm curious myself to see what you came up with.
I'll apologize in advance for the crappy Iphone photos. As well as extending the eye relief a touch, as described in my first post, I made the eyecups bigger by simply putting a couple of wraps of some thin, foam tape I had laying around. I then put this big rubber gasket from a plumbing supply store over that. I also really like the winged eyecups that are shown. Hope this helps some.
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So, I finally got to look thru one today. It was the 10x32. Only looked thru it in the store, so take that for what it is worth.
Despite my inability to hold 10x steady; the optics didn't disappoint. In fact, I think the optics are the strong point of the binocular. It appeared sharp (potentially upper tier binocular sharp but need to see it in 8x to confirm, and outside), color appeared good (mostly neutral but need to get outside to determine if a hint of bias), sweet spot was large (say 80%, don't think I need to get outside) and distortion was minimal throughout the field of view (couldn't say how far off center for first hint of it, but it never really changed much going out to the edges, don't think being outside would change this either). The overall package is small and felt comfortable in my hand. The eyecups weren't a perfect fit to my face but I could figure out how to make them work best in only a short while. I think their small size sits deeper in my eye socket, like against my eyeball, instead of stopping on the socket area around the eye. Focuser was a bit on the stiff side for my taste (and not by a hair), and I had a hard time adjusting the diopter while trying to view thru the binocular. Making it worse was a center hinge that was a bit on the loose side for my taste and for my function. It seemed to hold well enough when viewing, but apply a little force to overcome the initial friction and then you would move the hinge too far when trying to adjust. The center hinge was also moving when I was applying force trying to adjust the diopter. I'm new to this configuration of diopter adjustment, no prior meopta ownership, so maybe with some practice it could be different.
My first impression was a great optic; the ergo quality of the moving parts not quite on par with the quality of the optics. Comfortable in my hands but not a perfect fit to my face.
Its a plenty good enough binocular to make my shortlist... so I will go back in a couple of days when the 8x is supposed to arrive to give it a look. So far, I'm leaning more toward purchasing this binocular than passing on it.
More to come....
CG
Despite my inability to hold 10x steady; the optics didn't disappoint. In fact, I think the optics are the strong point of the binocular. It appeared sharp (potentially upper tier binocular sharp but need to see it in 8x to confirm, and outside), color appeared good (mostly neutral but need to get outside to determine if a hint of bias), sweet spot was large (say 80%, don't think I need to get outside) and distortion was minimal throughout the field of view (couldn't say how far off center for first hint of it, but it never really changed much going out to the edges, don't think being outside would change this either). The overall package is small and felt comfortable in my hand. The eyecups weren't a perfect fit to my face but I could figure out how to make them work best in only a short while. I think their small size sits deeper in my eye socket, like against my eyeball, instead of stopping on the socket area around the eye. Focuser was a bit on the stiff side for my taste (and not by a hair), and I had a hard time adjusting the diopter while trying to view thru the binocular. Making it worse was a center hinge that was a bit on the loose side for my taste and for my function. It seemed to hold well enough when viewing, but apply a little force to overcome the initial friction and then you would move the hinge too far when trying to adjust. The center hinge was also moving when I was applying force trying to adjust the diopter. I'm new to this configuration of diopter adjustment, no prior meopta ownership, so maybe with some practice it could be different.
My first impression was a great optic; the ergo quality of the moving parts not quite on par with the quality of the optics. Comfortable in my hands but not a perfect fit to my face.
Its a plenty good enough binocular to make my shortlist... so I will go back in a couple of days when the 8x is supposed to arrive to give it a look. So far, I'm leaning more toward purchasing this binocular than passing on it.
More to come....
CG
So I went back to cabela's today to check out the 8x32 euro hd. Again, just in store viewing. My initial impression changed a little but that may be differences between viewing the 10x and the 8x.
Focuser was stll on the stiff side, center hinge was a hair better on this one but still had the same issue as noted above. The diopter set up doesn't work for me as I can't adjust it while viewing thru the binocular so I can zero in the sharpest diopter setting. I think the sweet spot was about 75% and distortion was a bit greater than what I recall in the 10x, but still fairly minimal. The image sharpness wasn't to the level of the top tier binoculars but appeared to be competitive with second tier bins.
I looked thru the Monarch 7 8x42, Vortex Razor 10x, and Swaro el 8x32.
The euro hd wasn't as sharp as the el (which is probably no surprise to anyone). My impression of the el is what an amazing bin, minus the feel of the focuser which just doesn't have it for a silky smooth feel. The Monarch 7 feels real good in the hand and to the face and is a really comfortable bin, maybe thtat is why it rates so high in the Cornell spreadsheet. The Vortex wasn't bad, but i've never really have taken to Vortex. The 8x32 euro hd felt good in my hands and is a small package that would carry or pack well and appears to be fairly decent optics.
I'd like to have one outside for a while... and SxS with my conquest... to see how it compares.
CG
Focuser was stll on the stiff side, center hinge was a hair better on this one but still had the same issue as noted above. The diopter set up doesn't work for me as I can't adjust it while viewing thru the binocular so I can zero in the sharpest diopter setting. I think the sweet spot was about 75% and distortion was a bit greater than what I recall in the 10x, but still fairly minimal. The image sharpness wasn't to the level of the top tier binoculars but appeared to be competitive with second tier bins.
I looked thru the Monarch 7 8x42, Vortex Razor 10x, and Swaro el 8x32.
The euro hd wasn't as sharp as the el (which is probably no surprise to anyone). My impression of the el is what an amazing bin, minus the feel of the focuser which just doesn't have it for a silky smooth feel. The Monarch 7 feels real good in the hand and to the face and is a really comfortable bin, maybe thtat is why it rates so high in the Cornell spreadsheet. The Vortex wasn't bad, but i've never really have taken to Vortex. The 8x32 euro hd felt good in my hands and is a small package that would carry or pack well and appears to be fairly decent optics.
I'd like to have one outside for a while... and SxS with my conquest... to see how it compares.
CG
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For general overall feel and ergos, I have to say, I love the Monarch 7's. Also, the Terra 8x42. The glass isn't up there with the best of the best but dang, both handle well.
Other than the 6.5x32 Furys, I've not been able to bond with any other Vortex I've tried. Have no idea why.
I wish we could get an SLC in an EL body without that field flattener that ruins the EL's for me.
I have yet to be able to try the Meoptas.
Other than the 6.5x32 Furys, I've not been able to bond with any other Vortex I've tried. Have no idea why.
I wish we could get an SLC in an EL body without that field flattener that ruins the EL's for me.
I have yet to be able to try the Meoptas.
looksharp65
Well-known member
