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I'll cover your bins with any color armor, as long as it's black... (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter St. Elmo
- Start date
PennineBirder
Well-known member
It's all a matter of taste I suppose but personally I think binoculars should only be sold in black. Green binoculars are not right. That is the main reason I have never been tempted to buy that Austrian make that are very popular these days. . . . . .As for those garish multi coloured compact jobs that were shown on here recently, or those red coloured ones that Leica made. . .there should be a law. . . 
.
Peter.
.Peter.
mjensen6577
Well-known member
It's all a matter of taste I suppose but personally I think binoculars should only be sold in black. Green binoculars are not right. That is the main reason I have never been tempted to buy that Austrian make that are very popular these days. . . . . .As for those garish multi coloured compact jobs that were shown on here recently, or those red coloured ones that Leica made. . .there should be a law. . .
Peter.
Can't speak on behalf of Leica, but for Zeiss it's a business reason. When a company offer 2 models of a similar product, they incur additional expense in inventory, forecasting, materials, etc, etc. This is OK if we are selling more units. However, most of the time people tend to chose the brand and technical features over style or color, so we ended up with a customer choosing (for example) an FL 10x42 for its features, then choosing between black or green. Most often it was black anyway. We found that when we discontinued Green, we didn't lose sales and we decreased inventory, materials and labor expenses to manage additional sku's. Therefore, most companies settle in with a single style of a premium product.
Mike summed it up very succinctly. Just putting an extra product in your range adds a whole lot of costs that are easy to overlook from the outside. Just having that product number lurking in your purchasing systems, production control systems, sales systems, catalogues etc, it all adds up.
At the premium level the trend is clear: Zeiss and Leica do black and Swaro does green.
Below that level it appears that fashionability plays an increasing part and one can find different colours appearing eg Zeiss Terra (have you seen the grey one? Its really classy) Swaro Companion and the imminent Leica pockets.
Lee
![images[1].jpg](/data/attachments/451/451925-1d206f8c233b06ccd26a9b3d46ad2775.jpg)
Thanks CG but those manipulated pics don't do the grey justice. Actually I am not sure any pics could.
I was not impressed by the pics but when I saw the grey Terra at the British Bird Fair I was struck by the elegance and subtlety of the shade of grey and how, depending on the light that was falling on it, it could have the merest hint of blue or sage green to it. The quality of the grey seemed to alter slightly according to the clothes of the person carrying it.
Could be the ultimate chameleon accessory :-O
Lee
I was not impressed by the pics but when I saw the grey Terra at the British Bird Fair I was struck by the elegance and subtlety of the shade of grey and how, depending on the light that was falling on it, it could have the merest hint of blue or sage green to it. The quality of the grey seemed to alter slightly according to the clothes of the person carrying it.
Could be the ultimate chameleon accessory :-O
Lee
Kevin Conville
yardbirder
It's all a matter of taste I suppose but personally I think binoculars should only be sold in black. Green binoculars are not right. That is the main reason I have never been tempted to buy that Austrian make that are very popular these days. . . . . .As for those garish multi coloured compact jobs that were shown on here recently, or those red coloured ones that Leica made. . .there should be a law. . .
Peter.
Such passion.
Green's OK with me :t:
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The " Best Birding Binocular in the World" is green! SV 8x32 Swarovision. Swaro's are best in green. It tells everybody your carrying the best.
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Sagittarius
Well-known member
I like both green and black but prefer black.
When I see a camo binocular, I think "cheap binocular".
When I see a camo binocular, I think "cheap binocular".
joe101
Well-known member
I think they should have binoculars like leica's ala carte system for cameras .I think some people are willing to pay a little extra for the finishing they want. But black comes as standard. Metal or plastic knobs , rubber or leather armour, leather or cordura case, Three or four different paint colours or even different anodized types
Hi Joseph
I'm afraid that would bounce the price up quite a lot just by having to have stock of all the differently-finished parts and final products.
However I can see how a leatherette finished HT would look very elegant indeed.
Lee
Kammerdiner
Well-known member
Porsche sells the Cayman in 15 colors, take your pick. That's a "premium product."
Leica's "Colorline" has a "Dove Blue" and "Aztec Beige." They both look yummy on a binocular. I'd take either over boring black. Swaro's "Fatigue Green" is OK. Nothing to write home about.
Would I pay a "premium" price for those extra colors? Yeah, maybe.
FYI: "Guards Red" for the Porsche pretty much rules, and no extra cost. :t:
Mark
PS: I made up the part about "Fatigue Green." All else is accurate. A more accurate description of the Swaro color would be "Turtle Poop."
Leica's "Colorline" has a "Dove Blue" and "Aztec Beige." They both look yummy on a binocular. I'd take either over boring black. Swaro's "Fatigue Green" is OK. Nothing to write home about.
Would I pay a "premium" price for those extra colors? Yeah, maybe.
FYI: "Guards Red" for the Porsche pretty much rules, and no extra cost. :t:
Mark
PS: I made up the part about "Fatigue Green." All else is accurate. A more accurate description of the Swaro color would be "Turtle Poop."
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Porsche sells the Cayman in 15 colors, take your pick. That's a "premium product."
Leica's "Colorline" has a "Dove Blue" and "Aztec Beige." They both look yummy on a binocular. I'd take either over boring black. Swaro's "Fatigue Green" is OK. Nothing to write home about.
Would I pay a "premium" price for those extra colors? Yeah, maybe.
FYI: "Guards Red" for the Porsche pretty much rules, and no extra cost. :t:
Mark
PS: I made up the part about "Fatigue Green." All else is accurate. A more accurate description of the Swaro color would be "Turtle Poop."
Mark
Please stop it you are killing me :-O
If you have to have a flat red then absolutely Guards Red is the one to go for.
Turtle Poop is quite a handsome colour to my eyes although now you have named it thus I will be reluctant to pick one of those funny Austrian bins up.
Have to admit though that Leica Dove Blue is pretty cool.
Lee
Dennis,
Why don't you just call it "green with envy" green? (They did have to class it up with some black accents, in case you didn't notice.... which could be construed as quasi camo as the outline is being broken between the green and black).
Have the tan versions been good sellers?
CG
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Pinewood
New York correspondent
PS: I made up the part about "Fatigue Green." All else is accurate. A more accurate description of the Swaro color would be "Turtle Poop."
:clap::clap:
Arthur Pinewood
NDhunter
Experienced observer
Zeiss has not dropped the color options in the Terra version.
If you go to post #61, on the large Zeiss Terra ED thread, they
are offering several colors. I would post a link if I was able.
Black and blue, orange and gray, it says available in China.
Jerry
joe101
Well-known member
Leica already does that for their M cameras so I don't think why not
I have a lot of friends who are willing to add 1.5k to their camera price to have the camera suit them. If I had the cash I would certainly do it too.
As far as adding 1.5K to the price of binoculars so that they will be seen by others, it was not for that group that I posed my question. I posed it for the benefit of those who desire their binoculars to be more unseen (despite my characterization of green FLs and Ultravids as "spiffy"). That said, camouflage and and wildly figured molded patters do tend to be indicia (not guarantors) of lesser quality.
