I am writing this because I could not find a single review that compared these two particular binoculars and hopefully this will help someone else looking to step up into the $1000 range of glass.
I have compared these two binos back and forth for about a month and I can tell you they are very close to each other optically and everyone I know who have looked through these, side by side, has not been able to choose a clear winner. I will show a chart of the two to show which was better in what category, then follow it up with more detailed descriptions.
Daytime Clarity: Winner=Maven: Barely noticeable.
Clarity at Sunset: Winner=Maven: Slightly better, but very close.
Last Light Visability: Winner=Dead Even: Looking at deer across open field roughly 500 yards (mavens seemed brighter but loosing the shape (outline) of the deer cut out at the exact same time.
Color: Winner=Zeiss: Barely noticeable but the colors seemed slightly richer with the Zeiss.
Edge Clarity: Winner=Zeiss: Easy to notice the difference. This was not bad in either but was one of the most noticeable differences between the two.
Chromatic Aboration: Winner=Dead even: I could not tell a difference in the amount of chromatic adoration. Both had it but only under extreme bright lighting and barely noticeable in both.
Depth of Field: Winner=Maven: Easy to notice the difference. They are still pretty close but the maven was noticeably more focused on a greater range difference.
Focus: Winner=Even: VERY different, but I can't decide which I like better. One is tight and fast, the other is soft and slow.
Brightness: Winner=Maven: The Mavens are noticeably brighter in the day and after dusk, but strangely it was not the same thing as being able to tell the shape of a deer at dusk.
Weight & Size: Winner=Zeiss: The Zeiss are definitely smaller and lighter (this does not mean they are the best hold though.)
Eye Piece Alignment: Winner=Maven: For me the Mavens were better, but this is highly variable from person to person.
DETAILS
-Daytime Clarity (resolution):
They are SO close, but when I got the focus perfect, I felt the Mavens produced a hair sharper image in the center of view (but the Zeiss had clarity farther out to the edge so it's really tough to pick a favorite.) Up close I would say they are dead even, but at a distance is the only time when I think I could see the Maven pull a head (barely). I looked at tag barcodes, on products, across the yard, and it did not help me decipher if one was better than the other. Only at distance could I notice a difference, and BARELY a difference.
-Clarity at sunset (resolution):
About the exact same as during daytime, but I feel the slightly brighter image of the Mavens allowed me to pick out a hair more detail at sunset.
-Last Light Visibility:
I spend multiple nights looking at deer over an open field, until the sun completely set, and I was no longer able to make out the shape (outline) of the deer. when I could not tell if the image was a deer any more is when I considered it failing. Even though the Mavens are a hair brighter, I lost the shape of the deer at the exact same time each night with both binoculars. I could not pick a winner no matter how many times I tried.
-Color:
They were very close and it took a lot of time behind the glass to start to tell a difference. They both showed vibrant color, but I felt the zeiss had a slightly richer color tone and I think it is because the Mavens increased brightness washed out the colors a hair more than the zeiss. This is something that someone else might see differently and it is so close I would not factor this into which to choose.
-Edge clarity:
This was a noticeable difference between both binoculars. The Mavens are not bad but the Zeiss are definitely a lot better for edge clarity. I would say the edge clarity on the Zeiss go to about 95% of the edge. The Mavens go to about 85% of the edge. Now the distortion at the edges is not bad, but it is there. This was the first and only thing I noticed right away when I first got to compare both. The zeiss were just more even across the entire lense where the Mavens seemed like a better option for focusing in the center 85% of the lense.
-Chromatic Aboration:
I am not plagued by chromatic aboration like some people, but I can tell you it is definitely a step up from your $400 binoculars. There was barely any noticeable chromatic adoration (purple outlines at the edges of things) and I had to really try hard to find it. The only instances where I could see any was focusing on a barbed wire fence with the sun shining towards me, or on the edges of a white tag that was backlit by the sun. I had to try very hard to find it in both binoculars. Once I could get the ideal conditions to bring it out, I spent a considerable amount of time going back and forth to see which was worse, and I could not see a difference.
-Depth of field:
This is noticeable between both and depending on your situation, you may prefer one over the other. The Mavens were more in focus from near to far where the Zeiss had to focus back and forth slightly more viewing from far to near. I think most people would prefer the greater depth so the background and foreground are more in focus with each other, much like you would prefer a wider field of view to see more of your picture, but there is an instance where I could see less depth of field helping you out. With the Zeiss, because you could focus on the background and make the foreground more blurry, it actually helped the foreground seem less intrusive when trying to view through the foreground to something farther off. My example is looking through closer brush to an open field behind. With the Zeiss, the brush I was looking through seemed to blur out of my concentration, allowing me to focus more on the field behind the brush. If I had to characterize both, I would say the Mavens would be better for wide open spaces where you want to view the near and far together. The zeiss would be better for cluttered areas where you want to focus on a specific distance and blur out everything else.
-Focus:
This is a big difference in feel. Two completely different feels but I can't decide which I like better. The Zeiss is softer and slower to focus and I liked this better at first. With the zeiss, I felt confident in fine tuning the focus, and with a slight back and forth of the focus, I knew I was able to get the best focus available with these binoculars. The Mavens have a stiff and very fast focus wheel. It feels sharp, precise, and the metal grippy knob feels great on the fingers. With the Mavens, at first, I didn't feel confident I was achieving the absolute perfect focus. The knob would break free, move, then instantly stop when you let up on pressure too much. It is a very precise tight feel. Once you get use to it and break it in a little, it is not too hard to get it to do what you want and with practice it seems to snap right to focus instead of wheeling back and forth to find the right focus. Now that I'm use to it, I can not decide which I like better, but the feel of the knob it's self is really growing on me, and with the greater depth of field in focus, I don't actually have to adjust the focus as much as I do with the Zeiss.
-Brightness:
It took a lot of time to figure out the Mavens were brighter. They are both very bright when compared to a $500 set of binos. Brightness can be deceiving though. Even though the Mavens are brighter, the Zeiss are still able to pickup shapes and outlines to the same time at dusk as light disappears. I would liken it to turning up your gamma on a computer monitor. Yes you get a brighter image, but what you gain in brightness, you loose in richness of color. Again, they are so close that your not giving up a lot in one attribute to the next between the binoculars.
- Weight and Size:
Big difference. The Mavens are heavier and bigger while the Zeiss are lighter and more compact. It took a while to get use to the Mavens, but once I did, I know prefer the feel of them over the Zeiss. The Zeiss are better at holding with a half grip and loose grip, using your finger to do the lifting work. The Mavens are more of a full grip, palm and hand doing the lifting work. The sweet spot with the Mavens is holding your hand around the widest part of the barrels, like a can of beer. It just fits and stabilizes against your face. I am actually able to hold the Maven more steady now. At first the Mavens felt tiring compared to the Zeiss, but after I got use to them, they are no more tiring to use than the Zeiss and now the Zeiss feel more tiring to glass with (for me). I think this all has to do with the individual person and which hand and arm muscles are stronger and more stable with that person. If you try the Mavens, put some time behind them before making a decision if you like or dislike the weight and feel.
-Eye Piece Alignment:
Again, this is going to be personal preference and I recommend physically trying both on your eyes, if at all possible, as that is the only way to gauge which you prefer. To give you an idea of my situation in this review, I do not wear glasses when using binoculars. I'm also American (people from different countries tend to like different feels of things). Zeiss review-There was a black bean effect protruding into the view with these at first. I had to adjust the eye pieces out fully and narrow the gap between the eye pieces to get a proper picture. My best picture came when the eye pieces were close enough where they would rest on the skinny upper portion of my nose, where those little pads on eye glasses would normally sit when you where glasses. Once I found that sweet spot, there was no issue with black intrusions into my view (you need to learn to rest it on your nose instead of pushing it into your eye sockets. The Zeiss would probably fit a woman or child better to be honest and my daughter and mother both said they like the feel of the Zeiss better. Maven Review-These eye pieces are very easy to naturally align and I get the best alignment when they are resting into my actual eye sockets instead of on the bridge of my nose like the zeiss. With the mavens, I also run the eye cups fully extended or one click down from fully extended. On a tripod, I will collapse the eye pieces to make it easier not to touch the binoculars at all.
Now the bad for both binoculars' eye pieces. The Zeiss eye pieces are very tight and difficult to extend and don't be surprised when you unscrew the eyepiece instead of extending it. Once, in place they will stay though. With the Mavens, they are very easy to extend and collapse. They will not collapse from just putting pressure on them, but if you brush the edge of them up against something like a wheel touching the ground, they will rotate. I do find my self checking these eye pieces each time to make sure I didn't accidentally move them.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Both these binoculars are superb and they are so close in optical quality. I think the feel is going to be the biggest deciding factor for people when choosing one over the other. FYI, Maven has a "try before you buy" program. you basically make a deposit for the binos, try them out, send them back, and you either get a refund or you can buy a new set. If you buy one and it's just eating at you that the other brand may be better, stop worring and just live with what you bought because I can tell you the quality of glass is so close it's not worth the worry. Now if they just do not fit you, they are too heavy or too light, or you just can't get good eye alignment, then I would definitely try the other brand. For me I am going to keep the Mavens, but I am still not sure in my decision on this as they are so close. For me, I am liking the bigger frame of the Maven and am starting to really like the focus knob and slightly more field of view. The best thing I liked about the Zeiss was the clarity from edge to edge. I wish I could get the edge to edge clarity of the zeiss in the Mavens, then the Mavens would be about perfect for me. I wish I could clearly say one is better than the other as it would have made my decision of which to sell easier, but I just could not come up with a clear winner.
Be warned- Once you try these binoculars, you will start researching the very top tier Binos because now you know what you've been missing. If you are happy with you $200-400 binoculars, they do work great during the day. But... where good glass takes over is in the shadows, dusk, dawn, peering into the brush to spot a hidden animal, color richness, image sharpness, seeing the water drops, individual hairs, or counting antler points. The next tier up ($1000 glass) has a noticeable improvement and the image just pops compared to the $500 binos. I've heard the very top tier binos just pop that much more and are crystal clear from edge to edge compared to the $1000 bracket.
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