Which binocular(s) did you use today? (1 Viewer)

[Thotmosis]

This morning I took the little Nikon with me as i was not in the mood for watching birds but afterwards i was very glad that i did because i saw a beautiful common kingfisher. This nifty little Nikon surprises me everytime i use it!

 

[dries1]

Nice calm view there. Tried the 7X never the 6X, it does have a wider FOV.. maybe worth a go.

 

[Ignatius]

SFL 8x40 to see greater flamingos, black-winged stilts, little egrets, horses, the Phare de la Gacholle and the Phare de Beauduc ... all on, or near, the Digue a la Mer in the Camargue.

 

[VonMaunder]

A few, 8x42 NL Pure, Ultravid HD+ 8x32, and so lovely much older 8X30 SLC Swarovski MkII. All have a place, the NLs are largely for astro and birding, the UVids are walking binos, and the SLCs live in the van. I'm not rich at all between, just a buy once, cry once sort of bloke.

It does seem you may have cried 3 times here....

 

[Maljunulo]

This morning I took the little Nikon with me as i was not in the mood for watching birds but afterwards i was very glad that i did because i saw a beautiful common kingfisher. This nifty little Nikon surprises me everytime i use it!

View attachment 1586578View attachment 1586582

I envy you your Common Kingfisher, ours is rather drab.

“Beautiful Common Kingfisher” is almost a redundancy.

 

[Mike Crawley]

popped up to the RHS gardens in Salford yesterday afternoon.
Took to compact Hawke Endurance ED 8x25
Common Whitethroat was the best thing we found

 

[VonMaunder]

The Hawke Frontier ED X out on a drizzly gray day. Spied two birds I haven't seen in a long time, Good views of 2 separate Veery and elsewhere, a Northern Waterthrush. While standing still for the latter, a Broad-Winged Hawk flew in and perched on a low branch, 20' away before it noticed me. A lot of Ebony Jewelwings about, along a wooded stream:

 

[Binocs]

Got the 8x42 Noctivid a few weeks ago and was so pleased with it that the 10x42 version arrived this morning. I know I still need more binoculars.

 

[Ignatius]

Zeiss Victory Pocket 8x25 to look at tons of Eurasian Jays which populate the forests here around Meyrargues, Bouches-du-Rhone. I've never seen so many of them.

 

[Binocollector]

My current favourite - the Meopta Meopro Air HD 8x42 which was on sale by German seller "Frankonia", a well known hunting goods store here in Germany. Price was just too good as eBay added a 50€ coupon on top which brought the price lower than many of the (most likely) Kamakura-models sold by DDoptics, Kite, gpo, et al. Arrived a couple of days ago actually but I didn't have time to take a few pics.
Overall great optics, I'd rate them slightly above my Fuji HC - FoV is wider (even though on paper they shouldn't be - but Canip already established that the Fuji has only 7.7 instead of claimed 8° and the Air HD has a stated 7.9 but somehow seems wider.
An interesting problem and an advantage as well as disadvantage is the super long eye relief. On the one hand, I can view the whole FoV comfortably with my glasses, on the other hand I get blackouts when the eye cups touch my eye sockets without glasses. So I need to do the old, rest bino on eyebrows trick. Slightly longer eye cups would fix the issue. But on walks/hikes it's actually great because taking off the glasses is annoying anyway. Still, the eye box is rather unforgiving but the view makes up for it so I'll rather learn how to use these and not send them back. I was on the fence a few days about them. But optically, mechanically and as far as the handling is concerned - I like the double bridge - those are pretty nice. I won't bother taking pics through the bino though. Those never come out well with my crappy cell phone cam. They are rather sharp, very low on false color off axis and it's pretty much absent in the center. But far more experienced users have reviewed them like Binomania.it
I don't have much to add to those reviews. (edit - forgot one thing though that isn't even mentioned by Meopta themselves - they really know how to "undersell" a product if they don't mention it - there's definitely field flatteners involved, even a slight "Absam ring" can be noticed.)
But these lenses do look lovely I have to say.

 

[Paultricounty]

My current favourite - the Meopta Air HD 8x42 which was on sale by German seller "Frankonia", a well known hunting goods store here in Germany. Price was just too good as eBay added a 50€ coupon on top which brought the price lower than many of the (most likely) Kamakura-models sold by DDoptics, Kite, gpo, et al. Arrived a couple of days ago actually but I didn't have time to take a few pics.
Overall great optics, I'd rate them slightly above my Fuji HC - FoV is wider (even though on paper they shouldn't be - but Canip already established that the Fuji has only 7.7 instead of claimed 8° and the Air HD has a stated 7.9 but somehow seems wider.
An interesting problem and an advantage as well as disadvantage is the super long eye relief. On the one hand, I can view the whole FoV comfortably with my glasses, on the other hand I get blackouts when the eye cups touch my eye sockets without glasses. So I need to do the old, rest bino on eyebrows trick. Slightly longer eye cups would fix the issue. But on walks/hikes it's actually great because taking off the glasses is annoying anyway. Still, the eye box is rather unforgiving but the view makes up for it so I'll rather learn how to use these and not send them back. I was on the fence a few days about them. But optically, mechanically and as far as the handling is concerned - I like the double bridge - those are pretty nice. I won't bother taking pics through the bino though. Those never come out well with my crappy cell phone cam. They are rather sharp, very low on false color off axis and it's pretty much absent in the center. But far more experienced users have reviewed them like Binomania.it
I don't have much to add to those reviews. (edit - forgot one thing though that isn't even mentioned by Meopta themselves - they really know how to "undersell" a product if they don't mention it - there's definitely field flatteners involved, even a slight "Absam ring" can be noticed.)
But these lenses do look lovely I have to say.
View attachment 1587445View attachment 1587446View attachment 1587447

Nice glass. I also like the fact you called it a double bridge, never understood calling these things open bridges. Enjoy.

 

[Binocollector]

Nice glass. I also like the fact you called it a double bridge, never understood calling these things open bridges. Enjoy.

Thanks . That's actually just the translation of the German word for it, "Doppelbrücke", double bridge but it could also be called open bridge.

 

[Alaska4me]

My current favourite - the Meopta Meopro Air HD 8x42 which was on sale by German seller "Frankonia", a well known hunting goods store here in Germany. Price was just too good as eBay added a 50€ coupon on top which brought the price lower than many of the (most likely) Kamakura-models sold by DDoptics, Kite, gpo, et al. Arrived a couple of days ago actually but I didn't have time to take a few pics.
Overall great optics, I'd rate them slightly above my Fuji HC - FoV is wider (even though on paper they shouldn't be - but Canip already established that the Fuji has only 7.7 instead of claimed 8° and the Air HD has a stated 7.9 but somehow seems wider.
An interesting problem and an advantage as well as disadvantage is the super long eye relief. On the one hand, I can view the whole FoV comfortably with my glasses, on the other hand I get blackouts when the eye cups touch my eye sockets without glasses. So I need to do the old, rest bino on eyebrows trick. Slightly longer eye cups would fix the issue. But on walks/hikes it's actually great because taking off the glasses is annoying anyway. Still, the eye box is rather unforgiving but the view makes up for it so I'll rather learn how to use these and not send them back. I was on the fence a few days about them. But optically, mechanically and as far as the handling is concerned - I like the double bridge - those are pretty nice. I won't bother taking pics through the bino though. Those never come out well with my crappy cell phone cam. They are rather sharp, very low on false color off axis and it's pretty much absent in the center. But far more experienced users have reviewed them like Binomania.it
I don't have much to add to those reviews. (edit - forgot one thing though that isn't even mentioned by Meopta themselves - they really know how to "undersell" a product if they don't mention it - there's definitely field flatteners involved, even a slight "Absam ring" can be noticed.)
But these lenses do look lovely I have to say.
View attachment 1587445View attachment 1587446View attachment 1587447

Meopta rocks

 

[jafritten]

I've been using these a lot. In the garden and on my everyday walks. 7x21 Curio semi-leatherette edition

 

[Paultricounty]

I've been using these a lot. In the garden and on my everyday walks. 7x21 Curio semi-leatherette edition
View attachment 1587535View attachment 1587536

I think this is the first time I’ve seen these in black, very nice.

 

[jafritten]

I think this is the first time I’ve seen these in black, very nice.

Thank you, Paul. The leatherette is not original. I used self-adhesive leatherette from a camera repair shop to mod these. They feel a bit safer now in my hands. My first attempt to cut out the Swarovski-bird failed dismally. That is why they're semi -leatherette for now.

 

[Mike Crawley]

Swarovski 8x32 EL
RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands volunteering day
Hobby, Green Sandpiper, Spotted Redshank, Little Ringed Plover, Avocet (of course) - windy day and small birds skulking in the relatively safe denser vegetation.
Bee Orchard, Pyramidal Orchid, Marsh Orchid sp. couldn’t get close enough to identify properly.

 

[Ackerschlepper]

Just took the dog to the lake. Beautiful light and a little cooler after a heavy rain, that took away much of the days heat. The little ckicks are out of the reeds and following their parents around. I saw families of Fulica atra, Cygnus olor, Podiceps cristatus and a single Anthya nyroca (which is not very common where i live).

Had my Minox HG 10x43 with me, which is the only proper binocular i own.

 

[Maljunulo]

To paraphrase another famous saying .... "A man with only one binocular probably knows how to use it."

 

[Ackerschlepper]

To paraphrase another famous saying .... "A man with only one binocular probably knows how to use it."

Thanks Maljunulo, that surely is a variation of "a man with only one testicle probably knows how to use it"

Having used my Minox for the last 13 years (after a Zeiss Jena Dekarem MC) i did not have the impression it could or would get any better. Until my father (retired biologist, passionate birder and the prime example of a one-binocular man) decided that his Eastern German Zeiss Jena 10x50 Deakrem (Blue coating) was going to get retired after having used it for 50 years.
He ordered a Zeiss Conquest HD and a Leica Trinovid HD for comparison. Well, they are optically both definitely a notch above my Minox.