I christened them yesterday afternoon and despite the cold and the fog/mist and dampness in the air, they truly, truly sparkled.
Yesterday's weather was a little brighter, still dull, but the fog/mist we've experienced over the past few days had more or less cleared. There were far more birds on the wing, so I was better able to assess how the 12x50's worked for me as a daytime handheld binocular.
For a relatively hefty binocular, I found I was able to deploy them and settle on a target surprisingly quickly. I've found a point of contact for the eyecups in the roof of my eye sockets which I am able to hit reliably after very little practice, which sets eye relief (with the standard two click-stop eyecups fully extended) at a level which minimises blackouts and allows me to pan comfortably whilst following a target. As a handheld birding binocular, they do work remarkably well. And adding to the panning comfort, which is admittedly easier on the horizontal than the vertical, due to the weight of the binocular, I find the speed of focus to be just right, small inputs of rotation enough to keep a target accurately in focus without over rotating and going through the point of fine focus. The focus movement on my copy is perfectly smooth, with the tension nicely weighted in both directions, and gave perfect 'feel' through my gloves. I judge the usability of a large objective binocular based on my ability to quickly deploy and settle on a target. For their size, these Ultravids have extraordinary agility, I'd have no hesitation carrying them on a daily basis, especially through the winter with shorter days and more frequent dull overcast days.
I owned a pair of 10x50 Ultravid when I was still wearing glasses, but for some reason, the combination of me, my glasses and those binoculars generated unacceptable levels of CA which I was unable to reduce sufficiently through changing eye placement and angle of view, so they were returned (this was almost certainly due to eye relief being too borderline wearing glasses). On my first outing with the 12x50's two days ago, I was unaware of any CA whatsoever, and almost reported as much. I was wondering if my 10x50 copy had been a lemon. But yesterday, following red kites on the wing, there it was, the well documented Ultravid CA. I experimented changing the angle I looked through the binocular, and after a little practice eradicated CA in all but the very periphery of the view, but this will require further practice and experimentation to reduce it to a level at which I'm unaware of it. I'm hoping the five click-stop eyecups might help with this, when they arrive.
Will report further when I receive the other eyecups, but so far, (apart from the CA) I'm absolutely delighted with how they are performing, handheld.
