The difficult £400-£700 range? (1 Viewer)

[Binocollector]

Sounds weirdly as if you have never been birdwatching then, as close to far and back and far to close is par for the course in every environment bar dense primary canopy. In my birding experience of course - your experience may have varied, but I cannot see how unless you ignore most of what is out there.

Rest assured - that is what I bought them for. But even when I switch between watching birds at the feeder which is around 5 meters away to watching birds about 300 to 500 m away, it's simply no issue. How long does it take to make a half turn of the focuser?
And for anything further out than about 500m I'd use a higher magnification anyway.
I do have much faster ones of course, too.
My DDoptics Pirschler 10x45 takes a half turn from closest focus to infinity. I think that's almost too fast.
Edit: just compared it to my Vortex Diamondback -- focuser has about the same speed. I set it to 2m on both and had a look at how many turns it takes to get to 330 m (I have used an app to determine the distance to a known target) -- it takes around a quarter turn more on the Fuji compared to the Vortex DB. The Fuji HC however has a really close focus, I can see my feet in focus (which not many of my binos do) -- and indeed then it takes some fiddling with the focuser to get at infinity.
But from the usual distances -- simply no problem and not slower than something like a Vortex DB which often gets recommended.
How often do I look at birds right at my feet? Normally they fly away.
Edit again: Svbony SV202 10x50 -- same speed of focuser from 3m to 300m as Fuji HC.

 

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True - that they do. Not an issue when using them with glasses like I often do.
Still for the price I paid, I really can't think of many that might be better optically. But of course I didn't pay full price but 530 instead of the regular 850€. Not sure I'd have bought them for regular price.
But I absolutely love the neutral colors and lack of CA in the center as well as sharpness and contrast. I also like how they handle and build quality is solid.
But as always - try before you buy would be best.

They were pretty soft on the edges compared to a Nikon Monarch HG also. I didn't care for that.

 

[Binocollector]

They were pretty soft on the edges compared to a Nikon Monarch HG also. I didn't care for that.

No, they are not. I don't see any difference compared to a flat field bino.
Edit: or at least not much softening. Maybe slightly but very little compared to other binos. Might be my eyes of course. When getting older, softness at the edge will probably increase. But for me -- I don't see much if any difference in edge sharpness to the FMTR.
If the FoV would be larger -- more softness as well as pincushion distortion would certainly show up.
When comparing different non-flat binos, the amount of curvature increases of course over the FoV. As well as pincushion distortion, even though they are not related but you just see more of it when FoV increases.
The main reason an NL or Zeiss SF is more expensive.
But I am perfectly fine with the 8° (Canip measured slightly less but a bit more mangification as stated so AFoV will probably still be about the same as the official specs). For me they are an undervalued bino but I think that much is clear.
And I don't need to convince people, just wanted to throw it in the mix.

So pros and cons:

pro: great control of CA, great neutral color rendition, minimal field curvature, great build, good price when lookin for a good offer, good coatings, brightness and contrast.

cons: cold eye cups, no bragging rights, field stop can look slightly fuzzy depending on facial geometry (for me that is an issue with many binos but it is no dealbreaker for me), slow focus -- but not really all that slow compared to other binos. Problems might arise when constantly switching between birds sitting at my feet and some that are 300 m out. No problems however when they are more like 5 m away and from there on out the focuser is fast enough for my taste.
Dialing in the focus is a pleasure with these due to the grip, feel and smoothness when turning.

 

[Ratal]

Binocollector - And THAT is where a man knows contentment: an instrument he loves, that fits him, works for him, and delivers pleasure. That, when all said and done? Is binocular Nirvana.

Game of life played well. Hat doffed Sir.

 

[[email protected]]

No, they are not. I don't see any difference compared to a flat field bino.
Edit: or at least not much softening. Maybe slightly but very little compared to other binos. Might be my eyes of course. When getting older, softness at the edge will probably increase. But for me -- I don't see much if any difference in edge sharpness to the FMTR.
If the FoV would be larger -- more softness as well as pincushion distortion would certainly show up.
When comparing different non-flat binos, the amount of curvature increases of course over the FoV. As well as pincushion distortion, even though they are not related but you just see more of it when FoV increases.
The main reason an NL or Zeiss SF is more expensive.
But I am perfectly fine with the 8° (Canip measured slightly less but a bit more mangification as stated so AFoV will probably still be about the same as the official specs). For me they are an undervalued bino but I think that much is clear.
And I don't need to convince people, just wanted to throw it in the mix.

So pros and cons:

pro: great control of CA, great neutral color rendition, minimal field curvature, great build, good price when lookin for a good offer, good coatings, brightness and contrast.

cons: cold eye cups, no bragging rights, field stop can look slightly fuzzy depending on facial geometry (for me that is an issue with many binos but it is no dealbreaker for me), slow focus -- but not really all that slow compared to other binos. Problems might arise when constantly switching between birds sitting at my feet and some that are 300 m out. No problems however when they are more like 5 m away and from there on out the focuser is fast enough for my taste.
Dialing in the focus is a pleasure with these due to the grip, feel and smoothness when turning.

View attachment 1498968View attachment 1498969

They look a little soft on the edge compared to an EL or NL, but those are the extreme flat field binoculars.

 

[jring]

Hi,

the used Aurora for 650 quid seems a nice deal... or if you want 2nd tier Zeiss instead of Opticron's top dog, you could try this Conquest HD...

ZEISS CONQUEST 8X42 HD (TH) :: In Focus

EXCELLENT CONDITION

www.at-infocus.co.uk

Joachim