Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Leica 10x42 Trinovid comparison-old BA/BN vs new version (not the newer HD)

Concur. Only thing I noticed between my 8x42 BAs and my 8x42 BNs was the BNs would focus closer. At the time it was sold as a birding feature. I could tell nada between the glass. Worst mistake I ever made was getting rid of those and buying into the ultravid bit... I love my Ultravid BLs because they are lite and elegant, however, they have little to nothing on the Trinovids the were supposed to replace. Kind of like when Beretta replaced the $5000 and up DT-10 with the DT-11... I happened to ask one of the team shooters as all it did to those of us shooting DT-10 Tridents was to knock a couple grand off your gun. He smiled and said "marketing"... "Nothing but marketing...". It was as that point I became a Krieghoff Guy... When they updated the K-32 to the K-80 there a real metallurgical reason behind the name change. There was an actual upgrade. You have to separate the wheat from the chaff...

I still regret getting rid of my Zeiss Night Owls from the late 90's... The 10x56's were like NVGs to my young eyes at the time. It has taken a long time for unleaded glass to approach the old standards. Dunno as they are there yet.

Regards, Matt.

I'm not getting rid of my Trinovids...for sure not the 8x32. Maybe the 10x42 if the new ones are equally brilliant but I may just keep them for nostalgia

Had the 10x42's and wish I'd not sold them. I still have my 8x32's though and won't part with them. I have to agree with all that Matt stated in his post, including the DT-10-DT-11 'upgrade' <insert eye-roll emoticon here>

I had the new and old 10x Trinovids out this AM..

The new are definitely sharper, slightly brighter (very- very slight) and just feel great.
Super satisfied and having a warranty in my name does not bother me.
Serious considering a set of 8x...

The differences between the old (BA) and newer Trinovid HDs are:

- Trinovid HD has the newer dielectric prism coatings vs the old silver coated prisms. This gives slightly better light transmission.
- HD has Magnesium housing, reducing weight.
- HD has closer focus distance.
- HD has improved eyecup adjustment and retention.
- HD has newer generation of lens coatings, which are supposedly improved.
- Aesthetics / ergonomics have been changed. That could either be good or bad.

I have an 8X50 Trinovid BA and an 8X32 Ultravid HD. I will say the UV HD is definitely sharper. Both are bright and both have nice contrast. Since they have drastically different objective diameters, it's hard to say that the UV HD is leaps and bounds "better," but the little 32mm UV HD does hang with the Trinovid 8X50 surprisingly well in low light.

I don't plan to part with either, but I seldom ever use my 8X50 anymore since the little 8X32 does everything I need in a bino.

Ted- my "new" Trinovids are not the newest cheapened HD version but the recently discontinued Trinovid

Ah, sorry I missed that.

Still, all of the same changes apply, except not sure of the body construction differences on the one you have.

The main difference is later generations have the dielectric prism coatings, so they're a little brighter.

Leica makes cheap optics now?

Cheapened......

In what way have they been cheapened?

I just got a pair of 8x42 HD's from CL and they are fantastic, cannot get over the overall quality of these things and how solid they feel. I had the 8x42 BA's which i loved and like an idiot got rid of to get something "better". I missed them and these are a real nice replacment and much more ergonomic.

See 4 th bullet

http://blog.aba.org/2016/01/review-leica-trinovid-hd-binoculars.html

Yeah Doug said that the HD was not noticeably better then the old models for sure. All I know is for 779.99 they are the best binoculars for that pricepoint in my gunsafe . These are exceptional binos.

I wasn't knocking them but for $80 more I like the previous version.

I think I paid 850 bucks for my BA's back in 1988