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Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

Reviews: premium 8x42s - Zeiss SF vs HT vs Leica Ultravid Plus vs Swarovision vs SLC (2 Viewers)

Are you charmed by my description of the Ultravid or by the one in your cupboard???

Tobias,

Sadly not one in the cupboard. I've just tried them a few times as retailers and the whole range at BirdFair. As I said, you could argue that any of the others are superior for one reason or another but for me the Ultravid HD plus is most desirable..... particularly as the 7x42.:t:

David
 
Last spring I had to opportunity to compare those five bins for 6 weeks in parallel. The comparative review as well as the new reviews of Zeiss SF, Zeiss HT and the Ultravid HD Plus are now online:

http://www.greatestbinoculars.com/index.html

Tobias



Tobias,

Great article from you. Just wanted to know how significant is color saturation in Leica compared to Swarovision. I have SV 10*50 and I would agree that the colors are little cold in SV. My understanding is that few colors can be more saturated at the expense of others. can we say that all colors in visible spectrum in Leica are more saturated than Swarovison.

Regards

Sanjay
 
Great Reviews Tobias, and very easy to read and nice with these pictures rivaling the ones of Binomania (well almost ;) )

This pic is impressive : http://www.greatestbinoculars.com/images/M5 small and big 2.jpg the Leica looks like a 32x bin next to the SF. Certainly one of the main reasons I'll not switch to anything else anytime soon...

I find your comments about ergonomics very interesting. In principle, I think the SF concept is very convincing, and the short time I had one in my hands, it also felt very good. But indeed, with the Leica the hands are a good bit closer to the face than in the SF (and probably also the centre of gravity, despit the ocular heavy balance of the SF), which could make a difference with prolonged viewing...
 
Tobias,

Great article from you. Just wanted to know how significant is color saturation in Leica compared to Swarovision. I have SV 10*50 and I would agree that the colors are little cold in SV. My understanding is that few colors can be more saturated at the expense of others. can we say that all colors in visible spectrum in Leica are more saturated than Swarovison.

Regards

Sanjay

Yes, to my eyes, fitting with the extreme contrast, the Leica has the most saturated colors over the whole spectrum of all 5 bins in the test.
 
This was a great read, Tobias, thanks. I was surprised to find the strong performance of the HT, especially in light of the SF's less-impressive showing; Zeiss' SF advertising suggests the opposite outcome.

I understand how 5 pairs of binoculars would be a practical upper limit for testing, but it would be interesting to see a similar in-depth review that provides direct performance comparisons for some upper-tier alphas to "second-tier" alphas like the Viper Razor HD/Zeiss Conquest HD/Kowa Genesis XD (maybe also the Nikon LX-L). Cornell's extensive review, as simple and subjective as it may be, already suggests that the best second-tier binoculars can compete with many of the top-tier models.
 
Great reviews Tobias, many thanks!!

BTW I met Michaela from Zeiss at the British Bird Fair, what a nice lady. When you see her to hand back the SFs please say hi from me.

Lee
 
Great Reviews Tobias, and very easy to read and nice with these pictures rivaling the ones of Binomania (well almost ;) )

This pic is impressive : http://www.greatestbinoculars.com/images/M5 small and big 2.jpg the Leica looks like a 32x bin next to the SF. Certainly one of the main reasons I'll not switch to anything else anytime soon...

Yes, that pic was a :eek!: moment for me, too. As a "four eyes" I tend to shy away from Leica, but I think I'll make a point of looking through this one. My little 8x20 UV has the same eye relief and it is quite usable for me.

By the way, Tobias, you describe the SF as "baroque." Could you explain? Given the size and the impressively vaulted hinges I might have gone with "Gothic." ;)

"Jurassic Park" for the SLC. :-O Honestly, what was Swaro thinking with that green rubber leather texture?

Thanks for a great read,

Mark
 
Honestly, what was Swaro thinking with that green rubber leather texture?

Seems quite clear that Swaro was deliberatly downgrading the SLC from the SLC HD in price, design, specs (close focus) and apparently even optical quality, to be closer to the Conquests HD and Trinovids and more distant to the SV EL.
 
I understand how 5 pairs of binoculars would be a practical upper limit for testing, but it would be interesting to see a similar in-depth review that provides direct performance comparisons for some upper-tier alphas to "second-tier" alphas like the Viper Razor HD/Zeiss Conquest HD/Kowa Genesis XD (maybe also the Nikon LX-L).

Such a comparison would be a nightmare for a single reviewer, I suppose. Plus I think that while the "second-tier" has got closer to the top tier in the past few years, the difference is still there, and it's pretty obvious in the field. There may be some exceptions, such as the Maven B2 9x45 (cf. Steve C's excellent review), but on the whole that statement still holds true. I think that becomes obvious when you compare e.g. the Ultravid HD Plus to the Trinovid, or the HT to the Conquest. I had that comparison a while ago, and I must admit I lost most of my interest in the second tier then.

Cornell's extensive review, as simple and subjective as it may be, already suggests that the best second-tier binoculars can compete with many of the top-tier models.

I personally feel that review is a sad joke.

Hermann
 
Those are very good reviews. I appreciate the time and effort and find the combination of readability and good information a rare one, thanks again.

My personal experience with the Swarovski SLC is that the 10x is a much better performer than the 8x. I had a 10x42 for a week and it really had no flaws I'd take great exception to. There have been a couple of 8x42 go through two local dealers here and I did not really like either one. Didn't dislike them, but they just did not say alpha either.

The rolling ball effect takes the Swarovision completely out of the picture for my personal use. I had been thinking of an SF next, but if the RB is worse there than the SV then after reading your comments on the Zeiss HT, that is where I'm going next in searching for an alpha. I realize my eyes may not react to RB in the SF, but I have a $2,500 SV EL 10x50 that is of no use due to rolling ball and I have no wish to repeat the experience, especially since flat fields and sharp edges have about zero interest for me anyway. The Leica Ultravid does not have enough eye cup extension for me.
 
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Last spring I had to opportunity to compare those five bins for 6 weeks in parallel.

Tobias,

Regarding your Leica UVHD+ 8x42 review, do you recall the conditions where you saw the CA? I just purchased mine back in early summer and haven't seen *ANY* CA at all. I'm not challenging your assertion but I am very curious to see if I can reproduce your red/green fringing. Do you specifically recall how you were testing for the CA?


Cheers,
-Nick

PS. Honest feedback: I thought your web site content was quite good but the design was too busy and hard to "read" the review titles. One quick suggestion would be to drop that secondary frame picture of the porro binoculars and just use a simple white background; otherwise, the page is very "busy" looking. Less is more in web design... :)
 
...

My personal experience with the Swarovski SLC is that the 10x is a much better performer than the 8x. I had a 10x42 for a week and it really had no flaws I'd take great exception to. There have been a couple of 8x42 go through two local dealers here and I did not really like either one. Didn't dislike them, but they just did not say alpha either.

The rolling ball effect takes the Swarovision completely out of the picture for my personal use. I had been thinking of an SF next, but if the RB is worse there than the SV then after reading your comments on the Zeiss HT, that is where I'm going next in searching for an alpha. I realize my eyes may not react to RB in the SF, but I have a $2,500 SV EL 10x50 that is of no use due to rolling ball and I have no wish to repeat the experience, especially since flat fields and sharp edges have about zero interest for me anyway. The Leica Ultravid does not have enough eye cup extension for me.

Steve,

I evaluated the 8x and 10x SLC-HDs before Swaro downgraded them, but wasn't too impressed with the 10x. This may have been due to sample variation, but eye relief of the 10x was also marginal for me. Why, oh why, did they ever elect to downgrade the originals?

Otherwise, I much agree with your comments about flat fields and sharp edges.

Ed
 
Tobias,

Found your overall review scheme and content excellent with an informative and clean layout, all with great comparative pics...Thanks! :t:

Ted
 
I enjoyed the review a lot. My conclusion is that all three top binoculars are good and choice might be made based on secondary characteristics (after a lot of splitting hairs). Or one might get one randomly and there aren't many possibilities that he might be disappointed. And, as with everything that feeds perception, subjectivity rules.
I haven't used any alpha yet but my experience from telescope optics is that where others promised "jaw dropping" experience or huge differences and hands down superiority of one eyepiece over another, I just saw moderate superiority for 2-4x price increase. And the Conquest is better than the Terra but not as much as I expected after reading reviews. Something similar might be true for Victory over Conquest but I can't be sure unless I try myself since I won't be seeing what you saw, only what my sensors and brain can make me see.
On the other hand I'm satisfied that these three alphas have a special character, because that makes a real brand, in contrast with cloned binoculars from chinese factories. Even if I'll never buy any of their top offers, they provide me with lots of interesting reads and eye candy. The way people that will never afford or need a Ferrari like to see their photos and read magazine columns about them and get inspiration from their fine lines.
 
Steve,

I evaluated the 8x and 10x SLC-HDs before Swaro downgraded them, but wasn't too impressed with the 10x. This may have been due to sample variation, but eye relief of the 10x was also marginal for me. Why, oh why, did they ever elect to downgrade the originals?

Otherwise, I much agree with your comments about flat fields and sharp edges.

Ed



Now help me out here-did they actually "downgrade" them or just drop the "HD" designator in the name? I realize the armor changed and the MSRP lowered, but I was THINKING (perhaps wrongly) they didn't drop the USE of HD glass...only the designation in the title to simplify things (?)

Anybody else thinking this or am I wrong here?
 
I enjoyed the review a lot. My conclusion is that all three top binoculars are good and choice might be made based on secondary characteristics (after a lot of splitting hairs). Or one might get one randomly and there aren't many possibilities that he might be disappointed. And, as with everything that feeds perception, subjectivity rules.
I haven't used any alpha yet but my experience from telescope optics is that where others promised "jaw dropping" experience or huge differences and hands down superiority of one eyepiece over another, I just saw moderate superiority for 2-4x price increase. And the Conquest is better than the Terra but not as much as I expected after reading reviews. Something similar might be true for Victory over Conquest but I can't be sure unless I try myself since I won't be seeing what you saw, only what my sensors and brain can make me see.

On the other hand I'm satisfied that these three alphas have a special character, because that makes a real brand, in contrast with cloned binoculars from chinese factories. Even if I'll never buy any of their top offers, they provide me with lots of interesting reads and eye candy. The way people that will never afford or need a Ferrari like to see their photos and read magazine columns about them and get inspiration from their fine lines.

I think I have found that to be true on just about everything.
 
Now help me out here-did they actually "downgrade" them or just drop the "HD" designator in the name? I realize the armor changed and the MSRP lowered, but I was THINKING (perhaps wrongly) they didn't drop the USE of HD glass...only the designation in the title to simplify things (?)

Anybody else thinking this or am I wrong here?

I thought they only changed the focus mechanism taking the minimum focus out to 3m.
 
Now help me out here-did they actually "downgrade" them or just drop the "HD" designator in the name? I realize the armor changed and the MSRP lowered, but I was THINKING (perhaps wrongly) they didn't drop the USE of HD glass...only the designation in the title to simplify things (?)

Anybody else thinking this or am I wrong here?

David,

Basically, they increased the close focus distance of the "HD" +1 meter, making the ocular end easier (and cheaper) to produce. I thought the SLC 10x42 (newest version) was an excellent optical performer, but found for me, eye placement was too critical and sensitive (kidney beaning)...hard to keep a fully open sight picture.

Going to the EL 10x50 SV, now That was an Eye Opener! :eek!:

Ted
 
Tobias:

A very nice review, you seem to have covered all the bases, and have done this
in a nice way to present your methods of observation.
I think your resolution study helps with actual chart measurements, and we do not
find that in others reviews.

From your review, I find the Swarovsion is still at the top of the heap, then follows the new Leica
Ultravid Plus, and the Zeiss Victory HT.

Good to see Leica has improved their flagship binocular.

Zeiss must be disappointed how the SF performed here, and the Swaro. SLC is rated a step below
the others.

Your pictures really show the difference in size among this group. The longer Zeiss models do offer
better glare, flare suppression, it seems.

Jerry
 
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