I am writing this to help anyone who is struggling to decide between an $1100 pair of binoculars and a $3500 pair of binoculars. Or those of us who can't afford the NL Pure and don't know anyone who owns them and will always wonder how the best binocular you can afford stacks up to the NL Pure. If that binocular you have is the B.2 9x45, then stop wondering.
I have been able to borrow a pair of the Swarovski to compare to the Mavens for a week. I will show a chart of the two to show which was better in what category, then follow it up with more detailed descriptions. I will say this, and I will probably get some [bleep] for it, but the Mavens really impressed me when going up against the top rated Bino in the world right now. I was surprised that the Mavens were very close to the glass and image quality of the newest Swarovski. They were very close in glass quality and the more noticeable differences were in the refinement areas.
Daytime Clarity/Resolution: Winner=Swarovski
Clarity at Sunset: Winner=Dead Even
Last Light Visibility: was not able to test
Color: Winner=Maven
Edge Clarity: Winner=Swarovski
Chromatic Aberration: Winner=Swarovski
Depth of Field: Pretty Even, but could use more testing
Focus Adjustment: Winner=Depends on your use of the binoculars, but I favor the Maven for my style.
Brightness: Winner=Maven
Weight & Size: Winner=Swarovski
Eye Piece Alignment: Winner=Even
Image Bending: Winner=Swarovski, hands down
DETAILS
-Daytime Clarity (resolution):
They are SO close, but when I got the focus perfect, I could tell the Swarovski was able to focus hair sharper image. Within 500 yards the Swarovski are a hair sharper, but for long distance viewing it becomes unnoticeable as the thickness of the atmosphere brings the sharpness of the Swarovski down to the same level as the Mavens and they seem to resolve the same at long distance. again, I couldn't believe the Mavens were so close to the Swarovski in resolution. On a cold, dry winter day, when the atmosphere is free of dust, humidity, and heat mirage, you might be able to see the Swarovski's increased sharpness at long distance.
-Clarity at sunset (resolution):
When the sun begins to set, and the image resolution of both binos is not perfect anymore, the clarity gap between the Swarovski and Mavens is gone and they seem to resolve the image the same. (read the chromatic portion about this also)
-Last Light Visibility:
I was not able to test as the sun fully set and complete nighttime took over, but, I suspect they would loose visibility of the outline of a deer in a field at about the same time. I could be wrong though. Again, I did not test this.
-Color:
In my review of the Zeiss Conquest vs the Maven, I mentioned how they were so close it was almost impossible to tell a difference, but I believed the Zeiss had a hair more color saturation. Well, when comparing the Swarovski to the Maven, the difference was more noticeable, but still very close. The Mavens produced more color saturation and really made the browns to reds pop more. They were very close in color saturation in the greens, but the Mavens just edged out the Swarovski with greens. The one area the Swarovski seemed to do better with color was with light blues. I couldn't believe the Mavens had better color saturation than the Swarovski, but they did.
-Edge clarity:
This was a noticeable difference between both binoculars. The Mavens are not bad but the Swarovski is near perfect to the very last edge. I would say the edge clarity on the Swarovski go to about 99% of the edge. The Mavens go to about 85% of the edge (this is with the eye pieces all the way in with maximum field of view) When the eye pieces are out, the difference is not as great and the Mavens appear to have less edge distortion than when their eye pieces are all the way in flush to the lense. This is going to be one of the first things you would notice when looking into the Swarovski. They just have awesome edge to edge clarity.
-Chromatic Aberration:
The Mavens have very little chromatic aberration and anyone who has not used $2500+ binoculars would probably never notice it in the Mavens. That being said, the Swarovski has about non-existent chromatic aberration. After looking through the Swarovski and it's lack of chromatic aberration, I learned that this makes more difference than you would think in image quality. With the Swarovski, the edges of everything you look at are just so sharp and I believe this aids in the perception of the overall image resolution. During sunset, I believe that aids in seeing the shapes of animals in a field because the edge/outline of them is more defined with less chromatic aberration. With both Binos, you had to try hard to find it (looking at barbed wire reflected by the sun, looking at treetops on the horizon with the sun shining through them towards you). When you could find it, the Swarovski was definitely better and produce crisp, sharp edged images, with no mixing of the object edge with it's background. In other than extreme conditions, they are very close.
-Depth of field:
They are very close in how close the near and far in focus with one another. If there was any difference, it would be the last thing you would notice on comparing these two Binos, so I didn't spend as much time on this aspect. For all intents I would say they are equal.
-Focus Adjustment:
This is a big difference in feel. Two completely different feels and one is better for a certain style of glassing and the other is better for another style of glassing. The Mavens are fast with no slop, with more resistance in turning, and tends to snap into focus and stop. I found this to be preferable when you are changing your view from near to far, and far to near, and back and forth. If you do a lot of panning where as you pan you are going from near mountains to far mountains in-between your panning, I think you might be happier with the Maven focus system. The maven are so quick, it's just a flick of the knob to get focused on any distance. But they are not so fast you can't find a good focus and seem to naturally stop when you want it to. You can fine tune the focus but the Swarovski is better for slowly fine tuning the focus. The Swarovski is very slow in comparison and turn with very little resistance, but still no slop, with the slightest push of your fingertip. I actually found this annoying, now that I'm use to the Mavens, when changing views from near to far. I had to repeatedly lift my finger, to get back to the other side of the focus knob to keep on turning it. There is a plus side for this slower softer focus though. It allows you to really fine tune that focus once you decided on the object you want to focus on. I found myself vigorously spinning the Swarovski's knob to get to the depth I wanted, then just eased into it and watch the image clarity focus into 100% perfection. For purely hunting I would lean towards the Maven being a better focus system that will stay in the last focus position you left them in when pulling them in and out of a bino case, and snap to where you want it when changing views. For precision, leisurely viewing and really taking your time focusing in on bugs, birds, plants, animals, etc..., where you want to take your time enjoying the splendorous view in front of you, the Swarovski's may be better. For pure feel of the knob texture on your fingers, I have not felt a focus knob that feels as pleasing to the skin as the metal stippled knob on the Maven.
-Brightness:
They are very close on brightness. I would say the Mavens look closer to the Swarovski's brightness than the Zeiss Conquests I compared them to in the last review. Now for the clincher, the Mavens are brighter than the Swarovski, barely. With the higher brightness and more color saturation the Maven produce a stunning image. With the near brightness and better resolution, the Swarovski produce a stunning image. That's right, they are both stunning to look through, but they have different attributes that they are more stunning in one than the other. The Mavens use an Abbe-Koeneg prism that provides 94% light transmission and they have a larger 45mm objective, with 1x less zoom. If the object size and zoom were identical the Swarovski might be equal in brightness.
- Weight and Size:
Big difference. I believe the Swarovski are slightly lighter, but in the hand they feel very similar in weight. The big difference is in the grip in your hand. The mavens are more full and easy to grip without your fingers running into each other on the other side of the barrel. The Swarovski feel tinier than they are with that contour into the barrels. I tend to like the larger rounder grip of the Mavens better, but the Swarovski still feel great in my hands. I suspect that the majority of people would like the Swarovski better and those contours will allow a greater range of hand sizes to feel comfortable with them. The ones who might prefer the Maven feel could be more middle aged, blue color people who are use to using tools daily with their hands. The Swarovski will feel slightly more body conforming sitting in a bino pouch on your chest than the Mavens. Since they are both a pleasure for me to hold, this does not hinder my opinion in which binocular I prefer overall.
-Eye Piece Alignment:
I think they both have great eye pieces for eye alignment for my face, but there is one noticeable difference. The adjustments on the Swarovski are harder to change (not nearly as hard as the Zeiss), but they will hold their positions, setting them on things, stuffing them in and out of a bino pouch. The Mavens are super easy to rotate and very decisive when you have moved them from one level to the next. they are more likely to get knock off the position you had them on, when fumbling with the Binos. If you do a lot of back and forth between tripod and hand held in one session, you might like how easy the Mavens are to turn as it is so easy to go back and forth from handheld eyepiece adjustment, to fully retracted for tripod/maximum field of view use. If you want them to always be where you left them, the Swarovski are better. I would say when you snap your eyes up to the Swarovski quickly, they are just slightly faster to get in perfect alignment with.
-Image bending: With the eye pieces retracted flush with the lense and you don't touch your face to the Binos, but just put your eye up close to them and start looking around at your entire field of view, the Swarovski are vastly superior. The Mavens have this spherical bending distortion that bends all the objects as you move your eyes around the field of view. When they eye pieces are in the out position, for handheld use, you do not see much of this bending, so they look very close to the Swarovski when the eye pieces are adjusted out. But when those eye pieces are in and your just holding you eyes up close to the Bino, the Mavens, very noticeably, bend the image. The bending is around the central point of the lense and the further away from the center you get, the more it bends as you move your eye alignment around. If you're eye alignment is consistent and not moving, you don't see much bending. Contrast that with the Swarovski. Put the eye pieces all the way in, put it on a tripod, and start changing your eye alignment around to look at all sides of the field of view and it's rock solid. Every line is straight from edge to edge, with zero bending of the image around a central point, or any point for that matter. The only thing you can pick out, if you are really moving your eye alignment around from edge to edge, is a very slight shift of the image up/down or left/right. I mean Barely! you have to try really hard to create this effect and there is no bending or distortion at all, only a shift of the entire image as one single unit that doesn't change size proportion or bend in reference to any other object in the field of view. This is hands down the biggest superiority of the Swarovski over the Maven and the second would be the Chromatic Aboration superiority of the Swarovski. All the other attributes of the lense quality are so close between the two.
There are some other things I noticed different about the two Binos.
-Rubber body material: Both feel high quality, but there is a major difference in grippiness of the rubber. The Maven's rubber is more towards the rubber side of plastics and is very grippy on harder surfaces. I didn't realize I liked this until using the Mavens in more field like circumstances. If you want a bino that you can set on rocks, logs, tree branches, unsecured on top of a tripod on that little flat platform and angle it up and down at extreme angles without the Bino sliding off, then the Maven material is for you. If you want to be able to set your binos on angled surfaces such as the curved hood of a van, car or truck, and not worry about it sliding off, then the Maven material is for you. On hard surfaces, the mavens will more likely roll over before they slide and slip. Now the Swarovski. The Swarovski material leans more towards the plastic side where it is still not hard plastic, but they slide on surfaces a lot easier. I really have to pay attention to what I set the Swarovski on, for fear of them sliding off an angled surface.
-The forehead rest on the Swarovski: People say this thing makes a big difference in holding stability. I think is makes a slight difference in holding stability. Two handed, I didn't notice much a difference, just a slight bit more stability. One handed is when I noticed it make a marked improvement. If you use your binos 1 handed a lot, then this headrest will absolutely help your stability. If you have a hard time getting a solid position two handed, then this would probably help some. I'm finding, now that I'm middle aged, and my skin is not as tightly wrapped around my face and head, and I can wiggle my skin around more, that that forehead rest moves around quite a bit when pushing it onto my forehead, as my skin slides across my skull with it. If your younger, with tighter skin, less fat in your face, I think the forehead rest would make more of a difference and be more solid.
-Macro-Viewing: When looking at tiny flowers, insects, or other tiny objects up close at very short distances, the Swarovski are FANTASTIC and noticeably better than the Mavens. I can't quite put my finger on why this is, but imagine you have the two tubes of the binocular. You then take a pencil and move it closer and closer to the binocular, while remaining dead center between the tubes. As you approach the binoculars, the tubes cannot start to angle inward to keep aligned with the pencil as it almost passes between the two tubes. The Swarovski acts like the tubes magically start turning inward to follow the pencil as it passes between the tubes, they keep perfect tube to tube alignment and focus. I suspect this may have to do with the world leading field of view and the edge to edge clarity and focus of these binoculars. If you do a lot of macro viewing with you binoculars, you will be amazed by the Swarovski.
-Image Flatness vs 3d effect: I won't go into this too much, but if you have both binos in front of you and you go back and forth between them, you will notice the Swarovski produces a flatter image while the Mavens look slightly more 3D. It's not a big difference, but is noticeable and I won't say one better than the other. You would have to literally have both binos to look through and decide for yourself which you like better.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
When I got my hand on these $3500 Swarovski, I expected to be blown away at how much better they were than the $1100 Mavens. I wasn't. I was surprised at how close the Mavens were in optical quality to the Swarovski. I would say, as far as overall glass quality goes (all glass attributes combined), I believe the Mavens are at 95% the quality of the NL Swarovski. The clarity was right there with the Swarovski, but just a hair (I mean a hair) less. The Maven color was better and they were brighter. Once I got to using the Swarovski, I was able to focus on the superiorities in the Swarovski, such as fine tune resolution, magnificent edge sharpness (lack of chromatic aberration) in your field of view and edges on the objects you look at through these binos, and a slightly wider field of view (but the wider field of view was not that much more impressive than I would have thought). I will say the Swarovski are a 10x and have a slightly wider field of view than the 9x Maven.
If the Swarovski are truly worth $3500, then I would say the Mavens are worth at least $2500. Are the Swarovski better in a lot of areas that matter? Yes, but the Mavens are so close on a lot of things that matter, and even better in a couple of things that matter. Can I believe how close the optical quality of these two binoculars are? No I cannot believe it and remember, the Maven B.2 9x42 is probably the best glass/prism/coating/objective size, out of all Maven's offerings. In the end, I like the Swarovski better because of the next level clarity, edge to edge sharpness, lack of chromatic aberration on birds in the sky and treetops, and the rock-solid image with no distortion when the eyepieces are all the way in and scanning around in the eye box. One thing stood out to me, that I never thought I'd see, testing these binoculars. While going back and forth between them, looking over a field with random trees scatter into the field, I noticed these diamond looking strands flowing off the tips and tops of the trees and tall grass blades. It was spider web strands, from those tiny spyders that hitch a ride on the wind and use their web like a tether cord. Once I noticed them, I looked harder for them and tons of them appeared. They looked like the diamond edge of the ripples in a flow of a water stream, only in the air, off the sunlit leaves of the trees. I thought to myself, "I really am looking through some amazing binoculars, when I'm watching single strands of spider webs flow through the air, from across a 500-1000 yards field at sunset!"
If you can't or just don't want to spend $3500 on binoculars, but are willing to spend $1100-$1200 on a set of Mavens, know that you are getting very close to the quality of glass as the very top binocular that currently exists. If you can afford it and really want that edge to edge clarity, ultimate resolution, non-existent chromatic aberration, no image bending when you move your eye around the eye box, then you will notice this improvement when you buy the Swarovski.
Wish I could compare the top end Zeiss, but have never looked through them yet.
