You’re welcome, for what it’s worth, they’re both excellent. However, I sold my Travellers for the Veranos, it was the quality of the finish and view that swayed me.
So, this swayed me into a hasty decision...
Seeing an outstanding price for the 8x32 Verano being offered by a Welsh retailer (units appeared to be flying off the shelf and they've since raised the price), I decided to go ahead and make a purchase.
They arrived on Thursday afternoon and were unpacked yesterday morning.
I really liked the armour, the focus wheel had a nice feel and the movement (whilst not quite buttery smooth) was even across the full range with good tension. The overall impression was of a solid, high quality product, with nice sharp optics with decent contrast and resolution. Collimation appeared to be spot on too.
That said, I do own a 10x42 DBA VHD Plus monocular, and whilst it is an unfair comparison, it has to be said that the optics on the lower spec Verano were noticeably inferior (in terms of sharpness, contrast and resolution) to my eyes. My Verano may simply have been a bad copy, but I think the optics simply reflected the price point.
At this point, my initial testing came to an abrupt end. I tried to raise the eyecups for a non glasses wearer to try them, and the right eyecup was stuck. I tried tightening and unscrewing, but it wasn't going to move. I unscrewed it completely and discovered glue, lots and lots of glue. I tried to prise the rubber eyecup from the sleeve, but to no avail, I only succeeded in moving the sleeve slightly within the rubber eyecup which meant the ocular now sat proud of the rubber eyecup when I screwed it back on to the binocular. Oops!
I have returned the binoculars for refund rather than replacement, fearing an issue of some sort with a replacement copy, leading to a game of binocular ping-pong with the retailer, which neither of us would want.
I'm sure I was just unlucky with these binoculars. I liked the binoculars very much, there was nothing fundamentally wrong with them, just a seized/glued eyecup. I will consider repurchasing for sure, but only when I can get to a retailer to select a copy I'm happy with.
James