Got my new 8x32 SE's today! (1 Viewer)

[mikefitz6]

Of course we are now getting 10" to 20" of snow between now and tomorrow at 6PM. Hard to compare my different bins sitting in the kitchen looking at knick knacks on the fireplace, but you go with what you got.

The best things so far for me is that I have no blackouts on the SE's and my small hands are a perfect fit for the Nikons. I guess not being able to palm a basketball has some advantages.

I went from a pair of Pentax 8x42 DCF SP's to adding 8x32 Golden Rings, 8x20 Leicas, and now Nikon 8x32 SE's in about 3 weeks. No I am not allowed to keep all of them. I am hoping to keep three of them though!

Initial impressions are increasing sharpness and contrast in the order listed above. Focus on all except the Leupolds are great. The Leupolds are a bit stiff, but I will send them in to get them fixed. Comfort to hold - Leicas followed by the Nikons. I don't have a lot of problems holding the little Leicas steady.

Even with room lights on the Leicas loose some ability to resolve targets because they are only 20mm, but that is not what I bought them for so no real problem. In the daytime they do great, but it will be Thursday before I will compare them outside to the Nikons.

The Leupolds are heavy, but not so bad it has been a problem. I hiked with them around my neck for about 2 1/2 miles and they felt fine.

By the way, I am impressed with Adorama. I ordered the Nikons so long ago I forgot about them although my wife does not believe that. Since I put in my order the price went up $50, but they still shipped them to me for $500.00.

About a day and a half before I can really start to test them. I have always been told that the bad weather will last 1 day for each inch a new telescope objective/mirror is. I guess the same is true for binoculars!

Mike

 

[HelenOster]

..... I am impressed with Adorama. I ordered the Nikons so long ago I forgot about them although my wife does not believe that. Since I put in my order the price went up $50, but they still shipped them to me for $500.00.

Delighted to hear it - and thanks for being an Adorama customer :t:

BTW if you ever need advice or after-sales support with an order from Adorama, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador
[email protected]

 

[John M Robinson]

I bought my SEs from Adorama a couple years ago, great service and great binoculars. I have both the 8x32 and 10x42 along with an 8x42 Ultravid. All three are great, but I notice that in general day to day use I pick up the little SEs 90% of the time.

John

 

[spyglass]

Just to add to the kudos, I've dealt with Norman at Adorama for about 6yrs and have nothing but good things to say. He (and the other sales staff I'm sure) knows his products and if he can't give you what he's sure is a correct answer, he finds out and calls back. Their prices are always among the best and packing & shipping are top drawer.

Now, to the SE.....Mike, you now have as good a view as you will find, even spending 4 times that amount. It may not be waterproof, or have all the latest buzz words attached (dielectric this, locutec that, nitrogen purged, locking diopter, yadayada) and may have rolldown eyecups....but when it comes purely to the view (and ergonomics too), there is nothing any better. I've been lucky to have tried most everything at one time or another (and I currently have 2 FL's, an 820, 2 other SE's, usta have an 8x30 SLC, and traded a fellow birder my SE for his 8x32BA for a day on a local outing...he was mightily impressed. (As an aside, I personally think the BA is maybe a little more pleasing than the current Ultravid version, save for just a little CA, which doesn't bother me much).

So revel in yr Nikon....I sure enjoy mine.

 

[henry link]

Mike,

Would you be willing to share the first few digits of the serial number? Just wondering if these recently supplied SE's are new production.

Henry

 

[NDhunter]

Mike:

Good to hear from someone here who gets snow also. We are just getting rid of our
snow here in ND, and the geese are in full flight through here right now, on the migration north to the Canadian summer feeding grounds.

I just went out my front door with my 8x32 SE's and had a look at, I don't know as it
is a guess 500-1000 feeding within a half mile.

Enjoy the SE's, make sure they are ones you keep. They are "SPECIAL".

Keep us posted on your evaluation.

Jerry

 

[spacepilot]

Henry, I received a pair of new 8x Nikon SE's from Adorama at the end of last year after having it on back order for 4 months. It had a 550 SN. I ended up returning it because I couldn't justify having two pairs of the same bins.

Ning

 

[brocknroller]

Henry, I received a pair of new 8x Nikon SE's from Adorama at the end of last year after having it on back order for 4 months. It had a 550 SN. I ended up returning it because I couldn't justify having two pairs of the same bins.

Ning

Those were the latest (last?) production run.

 

[bralk]

Those were the latest (last?) production run.

Brock - mine are the 505xxx type, which I have been enjoying for 5 years.
Would they be very different in quality/construction from the current version?

cheers

Tom

 

[Kevin Purcell]

Would they be very different in quality/construction from the current version

No, IMHO.

I have looked through 10x42 SE of the original 005xxx serial and have an 8x32 550xxx. They're built the same and have the same view.

 

[NDhunter]

No, IMHO.

I have looked through 10x42 SE of the original 005xxx serial and have an 8x32 550xxx. They're built the same and have the same view.

Kevin and Bralk:

I agee here, I have seen some midrange SE's and the very latest 8x32SE, and
while there are slight coatings changes, I don't know how anyone could really
claim any difference.
My advice here, is if you can lay your hands on a Nikon SE, "Go For It". :t:
You will not be disappointed.

Jerry

 

[brocknroller]

Brock - mine are the 505xxx type, which I have been enjoying for 5 years.
Would they be very different in quality/construction from the current version?

cheers

Tom

Tom,

Last year, I conducted a survey of 8x32 SE owners, and the serial # of the earliest one was the 500xxx, which was sold in 1997. My 501xxx was bought from B & H Photo in 1998.

Assuming Nikon followed the industry pattern of numbering bins in an ordinate manner for successive years, the latest consecutive production run was 505xxx in 2002, the year Nikon changed over to lead-free glass and upgraded the coatings.

My 505 shows more CA than my 501 did, but it has better color saturation and contrast. So it's a trade-off. In the winter, I liked the 501 better, because the subtle "shades of gray" it provided on the bleak landscape looked like a Ansel Adams painting, and CA appeared fairly far off axis.

The 505's colors have better "pop" for birding in spring, summer, and early fall. I compared them side by side, and sold the 501s, because I "could not justify having two of the same binoculars" as someone mentioned above.

If you bought your 505xxx five years ago, it was probably "old stock". It's not unusual for some bins to sit on the shelf for 3 years. In fact, according to one BF member who talked to several big camera dealers, the SE's weren't "moving" so they no longer stocked them.

Nikon then stopped making the SEs for a few years, and a flood of 550s appeared in either 2007 or 2008 at $499 at Adorama, Amazon, and other stores, and apparently everybody and his brother bought one, and those susceptible to the infamous SE "blackouts" sold theirs, and they flooded the used market.

Then the SEs went on back order at Adorama and went out of stock at other stores, and the price jumped up to $725 last year on Amazon, which was one of the few dealers that had them in stock.

Adorama and a few other stores started stocking them again this year, and the price went to $525 at Adorama.

Amazon dropped their price in the $600 range last year, and now it's up to $712.96.

According to Toyko Rick, Nikon is still making the SE (though I have yet to hear from anyone with a 551xxx), but they are only selling them in Asia. Could be they are more of the same production run (550xxx). Why they are only selling them in Asia is a mystery.

Similar case with the new, single bridge Nikon EDG, which is only available in Europe and Asia. That's probably less of a mystery, because Nikon started selling the original EDG only in the US, and there was a problem with the focuser cap coming loose, so there was a glut of defective EDGs when Nikon came out with a fix.

What Nikon's future plans are for the SE are unclear due to contradictory reports, with Nikon cited as the source of the information.

For more, see my new e-book, titled "The Story of SE" co-written with Stephen King.

 

[spacepilot]

For what it's worth, I compared two copies of 550 8x SEs (one in the 1xx, the other in 3xx range). There are definitely coating differences in the two pairs. From what I remember, one is more purple in reflections in the objectives, the other more green. Anyway, I couldn't tell the view of one from the other. I didn't compare them outdoors side by side (life is hardly long enough for birding, and I don't want to waste my outdoor time on shenanigans like comparing bins ).

Ning

 

[dbuss]

I have a pair of 8x Nikon SE's on order from OpticsPlanet. They are currently out of stock but expect them in in 3-4 weeks. They are also out of stock at Adorama. I hope they are as good as everyone claims. I hesitated in the past to buy them because of reported black out problems. I wear glasses so I am hoping that won't be a concern.

By the way, last week I was out with a team on a local bird count. It was raining steadily. The leader of the group was using the 8x SEs and made no effort to cover them up. Was he crazy or are they really water resistant?

 

[mikefitz6]

My bins are the 550 series. Brock, lots of interesting informations, thanks.

I did get a chance to try them out yesterday. I brought along the Leica 8x20's to compare. As usual take all of this with a grain of salt. I am just giving my impressions based on one sample of each and the way my eyes see things.

I really like them both. The Leicas and the Nikon both were very sharp. The advantage to the Nikon is no surprise. It is brighter. It was not a real advantage in bright light, but as the sun was going down I spotted a Mallard drake. His head was in the shadows. The Nikon showed more than a hint of green, the Leica showed no color, just a black head. That is just what I would have expected.

I am pretty sure these two bins will be with me a long time. I like the handling on both of these. They just 'feel right'. I plan to take out the Golden Rings and the Nikons tomorrow if the new snow storm does not hit us. I really like the Golden Rings, but I just don't need two sets of 8x32's and I still have the Pentax 8x42 for brighter waterproof bins.

My wife is still pretty sure the 8x whatevers with the ruby objectives in the blister pak at Walmart are just fine. I think she will like the little Leicas at my sons soccer games though. Real lightweight and discrete. That leaves me with the Nikons!

By the way, does the fact that you have a porro binocular make it less likely they will be stolen? After all, who wants an old fashion binocular. Just wondering.

Mike

 

[brocknroller]

...(life is hardly long enough for birding, and I don't want to waste my outdoor time on shenanigans like comparing bins ).

Ning

Ning,

Never a truer word was written! Can I quote you on that?

Wish I would have figured that out 10 years ago. My birding/general observing time will probably take another five years to catch up with all the time I've spent testing bins, with two, three, four, five, up to a dozen bins a time.

However, some people actually enjoy "Shenanigans". I'm fond of their Pizza Boats :

http://www.shenanigansbarandgrille.com/menu.php

Seriously, one binofan I know, who has bought and sold almost every bin known to human and Klingon, told me that he considers himself more of a tester than a user.

So whatever floats your boat, but I think my next 10 years will be spent more using bins rather than testing them. Selling off 2/3 of my bin collection over the past two years really helped with that!

Of course, if the Lost Creek Shoe Shop, with its wall-to-wall shelves of optics, weren't over 100 miles round trip, I might feel differently.

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=99221

 

[ronh]

Mike,
Keep 'em hid. Anybody on this forum would rip 'em off in a flash!
Ron

 

[henry link]

Thanks for the serial numbers everybody. I've followed the various threads that have attempted to assign a year of manufacture to these numbers. All of my Nikon binoculars have 6 digit serial numbers, but I'm not convinced that the third digit makes sense as the year of production since it leaves only 3 digits for the maximum production numbers within a year. The first 2 digits are also a mystery. My 8x30 EII's first digits are 50, same as my 8x32 SE and my 10x35 EII's are 30, same as my 7x50 Prostar.

 

[Kevin Purcell]

Henry, I suspect the Nikon "serials" are product specific not like say Zeiss that uses company unique sequence numbers. The same happens with other Nikon photographic products. In a big diverse company it's perhaps easier to manage.

Like you I'm not too sure about the third digit but in all the reporting of serials we seem to have a pattern of lots of 0 and 5 and few other digits in that third postiion. That makes them seem like "flags" rather then sequence numbers.

Maybe they just never made large batchs of these.

Or perhaps all the xx4xxx numbers are missing.

 

[John M Robinson]

My 8x32 SEs are a low 550xxx, less than 200. They have a greenish tint coating. My 10x42 SE is 050015 and is also greenish tint. Both bins are superbly sharp. The 8x32 has a slight amont of CA, very little really, the ten has more, but certainly less than my Ultravid BR. On all three bins I can null it out by centering the object in the view.

John