I guess from all this that the state of the art, newest Swaro's are "too good". I'm safe. I'll just hang onto my older Swaro 7x50's, which BTW have the best FOV and exit pupil one could ever imagine. Check out those numbers. They're heavy, so I use them in the box blind while deer hunting. My packing around binos are Kahles 8x42. The glass is pretty close to the Swaro and in a neat, solid package. With those two, I'm not in the market for new binos...
DF
I don't think I'd quite call it "too good" what it represents is a different level of design not before attempted in what we see in the SV EL. There has been lots of clamor, particularly in the birdwatcher's crowd, that has obsessed over sharp edges for a long time. Swarovski evidently decided they could sctratch that itch. I think they full well knew that rolling ball would affect a substantial portion of users, which is why they brought along the upgrade in the SLC-HD. Other that the very slight edge distortion in the SLC-HD the image is indistinguishable. The SLC-HD is less money than the SV EL because it does not need the extra very expensive field flattener lens in the eye piece and with fewer lenses in the eye piece it is somewhat less costly to make the SLC-HD. I think this is a Swarovski approach to offer the flat SV image and have something else with the SLC-HD in the "new and improved" category so they can appeal to a somewhat larger base.
But like you with your Swaro 7x50 and Brad with his Leica 8x32...if it ain't broke don't fix it.
