Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Another Doug's mystery bino review

All,

Well I finally got a chance to sit down and do some comparison of the Promaster 8x42, no longer mystery, bino�s from Doug with my Leica 8x42 Ultravids. I also included a couple photos for those that haven�t seen them. As a baseline I lived for 18 years with a pair of Steiner 7x42 Military Marines so I�m no expert and it wasn�t until Jorge1 loaned me a pair of his Swarovskis on a pig hunt a couple years ago I didn�t know what was missing that led me to the Leica�s I have now. A lot the details have already been covered so I�ll get right to it.

Initial impression? Very cool case, feel like it should be standard equipment for a Panzer IV tank with it�s classic leather but why make it so small you have to screw the eyecups in to fit? If I needed them out this time I�m going to need them out next time! I do find the gold ring a bit glitzy for my taste, as it�s bright and shiny. Maybe it�ll tarnish a bit with time.



They�re nicely armored and have just the right amount of heft to hold steady with nice little divots in the bottom where your thumbs fit. The focus is every bit as smooth as my Leica�s and the lock-to-lock spin is short enough that it�s easy to change distances but long enough that fine-tuning is pretty easy.

You can see the size compared to the Leica's it's a bit larger but not too much.


So, I spent some time first looking through them, first at the finches in the feeder at about 25 yards then swinging around and looking about 50 then out to 400 yards away breaking out details on the neighbors flower boxes, the squirrels in the walnut tree down the street and a redtail hawk sitting in a tree at 100 yards (I never would have seen him but I was looking for one of our neighborhood owls that hooted and he was roosting up for the evening). Inside of 75 yards in good light I found pretty much no difference between the two sets but as I moved out towards 200 I started to find that there was a subtle but noticeable milkyness between the 7 and 9 o�clock at the edge of the glass. It took some time and swapping back and forth for me to decide it was really there and I did a lot of adjusting to see if I could get rid of it. I asked my wife what she thought and without prompting she noticed it too. When I went on out to 400 yards the sample yielded sharp views easily breaking out individual leaves on the walnut but I was surprised to see the depth of field differed noticeably with a tree at 325 or so sharp in the Leica�s but noticeably blurry in the Promaster without refocusing. Not sure what would cause that and not sure it would be that big a deal in real world use but it was noticeable.

Now before you think I�m going to go negative these are darn nice and at 1/3 the price of the Leicas represent a darn good value. They�re solid and will deliver lots of years of service and I�d certainly recommend them for those looking to step up from lesser bino�s.

Thanks for the opportunity to look at them Doug, who gets them next?

Allen

Allen, Never had the opportunity to look thru some really good glass.Bring 'em along on Sat. if it's not an inconveience.

Nice review Pugs, not to technical just straight forward. I think 95% of hunters could read and understand it without knowing that the 400 to 325 focus thing was depth of field, etc, etc.

We here know alot of technical terms and things to look for thanks to the more optically educated members here, and thats a good thing.

But if you mentioned CA, DOF, Flare, and sweet spot to 95% of hunters in the US they would look at us and say WTF??!!

I'm not sure the rest of us 5% are all that lucky, now we are anal about everything! LOL!


Bill

Nice review Pugs and some beautiful pics. Your experiences with the bin mirror my own. I just did a little more in depth comparison between the Promaster ED and the Meopta Meostar over on BF. I will repost it here as soon as I can log into the other site this afternoon.

Pugs,

Nice review. It's beginning to look like everybody has noticed the somewhat shallow depth of focus. And I agree about the case. It sure doesn't seem like rocket science for them to make the case an inch longer so you could snap it closed over ready to "grab and go" binoculars.

Now, since you have the Promaster and Leica side by side, my question is this. Do you think you would see the difference, or how much difference would you see between them without having them side by side for comparison?

As a point of general reference, a fellow over on Bird Forum posted some nice technical data he collected on his new Promaster. He made a comment about the focus rate that maybe bears repeating here. His comment was that his focus wheel still had 180* of rotation left after focus at infinity was reached. Since there is not a lot of practical reason for this, that takes care of 1/2 turn of the 2 1/2 total. As a side note he noted the resolution of his Promaster was comparable to the European binoculars he has tested.

So Pugs, this leads me to ask you if your Promaster is like the one above in the focus to infinity regard. Also, if my memory serves me correctly, I think there was a lot of focus travel between the close focus distance and out to say 25-30'. Can you check that while you still have the glass? I have to admit that I should have taken better notes. Nice to have these things going around so I can ask somebody who has quick access. Mine haven't yet got here.

FrankD, if you're listening I pose the same questions to you, or to anybody else who's reviewed these.

Steve,

I will check when I get home later today. It would be something I would be interested in since you brought it up. It would be an easy "fix" for the manufacturer. I should have noticed it as well though because I just noticed how quickly after Infiniti the Vortex Diamondback stops.

Allen,
I, as well as I am sure, the members thank you for taking the time to do this review and those images are great (BTW, what camera shot the photos?)
I just PM'd you AZJR's info so you can send them off to him.

I would like to thanks all the members that have tested these. You individuals sure make it a bit easier on me/those who are looking for something specific and don't have the ability to get them in hand.

Again Thanks

Rob

I think I would see a difference, particularly having used the better one. If I had gone straight from my old Steiners to these I would be thrilled with them. Indeed Steve, this sample has a significant amount of rotation left after the infinite focus point, can't imagine that is useful, for the close focus I thought it worked fine.



Happy to do so Doug and thanks for the opportunity! The pictures were taken with a Leica C-LUX2. I didn't bother to put in on the tripod or I think they would have been a little sharper. I picked it up from this great little place in NYC called CameralandNY I don't see it on your website any more though.

May be Monday before I get them in the mail but I'll take them up silhouette shooting Saturday so 284Luvr can take a look.

[my emphasis]

Clearly Steve you are not a myope (short sighted)

Or have owned a bin that you can't focus without using your glasses. I own two bins like that (one is just at the end stop for me and the other I can't focus in the right eye at all)

The reason for giving extra travel at the end of the focus is so that myopes using the bins without glasses can get enough negative range to focus out to infinity.

I'm only moderately myopic (L -3 sphere -1 cyl and R -3 sphere -3 cyl) but there are people out there who are worse than me.

Though for people with no need for correction this extra range is never an issue (you'll never use it so it doesn't change the rate).

I do have a pair of Celestron Ultima DX and Promaster 7x32 (two generations earlier than this and not as good is an understatement) and both have > 2 turn focus rates (and spare at the end). For me this is a bit slow and I find them rather frustrating in use. I'd prefer 1 turn max (plus some extra) or perhaps a bit faster.

Kevin,

Well thanks for pointing that out. Before I offend the short sighted I will vote for leaving it there. You are right of course, if it's not needed, just don't use it. It may well be that the reason I didn't feel any particularly slow focus when viewing at any particular object is because I had no need for the extra movement.

Pugs,

Thanks for checking.