Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Wish you had more magnification? Test for binoculars.

At times I wish I knew what it was way out there! While my eyesight is good and I have used my Hensoldt 8X56 Nacht Dialyt's for a long time they nor my Leupold 8X42 Pinnacles just can't make out something far away. It seems that more magnification could.

I read the topic where Mule Deer favors his 8+12 Duovids for open country. So I looked at some binoculars at Cabelas and they had Leupold's Switch Powers in both 42mm and 32mm. I liked the sample 7+12X32 Leupold Switch Power roof prism binoculars. I went back and looked at them again and now I have them here.

I am very impressed with these dual or switch power binoculars. They trump the old ones easily for finding out "What is it?"

It's so easy to switch the lever from 7X to 12X and see what it is! No other binoculars here can do that or come close.

Also they are compact, light in weight and outstanding with eyeglasses.



Mule Deer on Duovids.

Leupold Switch Power Technology

Cabelas has them on sale.

I have not had a chance to check these out yet, went to Sportsman's Warehouse today and they dont have them yet. The one's that really interest me are the 10x17x42mm.
Will have to check them out at Cabela's tomorrow

I've had the Duovids, about every high power Ultravid, Swaro 15x56, Minox 13x56 and some lesser known brand Big Eyes in my never ending search to see more detail. Always tossed around the idea of image stabilized binocs but never gave them serious consideration until this year. Bought a pair of 15x50 Canon IS binocs and can't understand why I didn't try these years earlier. I've tried telling some other fellas on these but it seems their odd design and non-alpha name makes people scoff at them. If you have a store around that carries the Canon and say the Swaro 15x56, put them to a test and see for yourself(handheld or resting). In my opinion, it's not even close, no matter how beautiful the Swaro optics are. The image stabilization will show you detail you never knew was there.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/192389-USA/Canon_4625A002_15x50_IS_Image_Stabilized.html

Junk

Care to expand?



You could offer me my old Swaro 15x56 SLC's back straight up for my Canon and I'd gladly decline.

These Canons sound interesting, but not waterproof, short 3 yr. warranty, and what
are you going to do when they take a poop. Repair costs may send them to the recycle bin.
Swarovski will take care of them for years to come.

RR: Care to expand?

Jerry

more power than a 8x32 or 8x42 means a spotting scope on a tripod for me

Yes they are not completely waterproof. They're weather resistant but I searched quite a bit for complaints on the weather resistant models and didn't find much. I also weighed the idea of the 3 year warranty and to be honest, I wasn't very happy with that considering these are $1,000 binocs but even without the image stabilization, these are excellent binocs with crisp edge to edge sharpness. A bit dim at dusk.


I guess I'm just going to roll the dice and hope these last longer than 3 years. Have read about them for awhile on the birdforums and haven't heard any complaints yet so we'll see. I'm just so stunned with the level of detail I see that it's worth it for me to take the chance.



Here's a pretty good review.

http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=2228

It's the 10/17x42 Leu's that got me interested in the switch powers as thats all that Cabelas had as a store sample at the time. The clerk mentioned that the 32 mm was on sale at $599 with another $100 off if I was a Cabelas Club member.

Look for a net price like that or ask for it on the size you select. I have had plenty of big binocs in the field and on the boat. I really like these 32mm's.

Here are the little 7X/12X Leupolds at the range Wednesday. I was scanning the hill thats our ranges backstop with them. They are on 12X now as you might read. I really like these small binoculars. Something to have with you. Not so big and heavy that ...

One of the biggest surprises I ever got testing binoculars was when I tried out a Pentax DCF ED against my Leica BA. After a couple of days of stacking them, I had to admit that they were dead even when stacked from a rest as far as seeing detail goes. That included ranges of 2.5 miles.
But, when I tried them from various field positions, the difference was quite apparent. Not much difference at 50-150 yds. Beyond that, the Leica was better. At 1-2 miles, the Leica could show me stuff that the Pentax couldn't show me at all.
Same magnification, 8X. The Pentax was an 8X43, while the Leica was an 8X42. No significant difference there.
Weight, however, made the difference. The Pentax is a 26.5 oz. glass. The Leica weighs in at 34 ozs.
That's why, when I bought my 12X50 Leica, I insisted on the heavier BN over the new Ultravid.
This is also why I bought the 6X version of the Leopold Kamai, not the 8X or, especially, the 10x. They only weigh 19 ozs. E

Those Katmai 6x32's are great binoculars.

I can add a hearty ditto on the Canon IS binos. I've got the waterproof 10x42Ls that are nothing short of miraculous. Seriously, they're that good. I don't care what quality the glass, if you can't stabilize the image, it's not going to do as well. They're expensive but I've abused mine for five years now no problems. The only thing is that they eat AAs at a pretty good pace, about two per five hours of glassing. That and they're heavy. I don't care, they're that amazing.

I'd buy a pair every three years if they went bad, but they haven't. Once you go image stabilization, you'll never like anything else.

I'm an optics freak. I have a Swarovski ED 80mm spotting scope too but there's no loss of love with my Canons.

The Leupold switch power 10/17x42 I looked at side by side with my GR HD 10x42 wasn't in the same ballpark as the HD. At 10x the HD was brighter, clearer, and much sharper. At 17x42 the SP needed to be on a tripod to be useful, and as you would expect the image was very dim. I felt they were a waste of money.

No offense to the Canon IS guys, but I'm not going to be caught out in the field with a bino that needs batteries, ever.

On top of that, one can get "image stabilization" w/o going the stabilized binoculars. One either uses a tripod or simply rests them on a something like a pack or a rock where the subject can be viewed w/o touching the binocular. Have done it for many years out here in the wide open spaces of the west.
However, if God ever allows a decent 20X60S Zeiss to cross my path for around $3500 when I'm a bit more flush than present, I'd be all over them. They, of course, use no batteries. E