Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics New Zeiss Victory Bino

There are an awful lot of folks who's job - or passion - requires the best in optics and a lot more who simply want and can afford the very best.
but even if many of us can't afford the very best , we all benefit from the new technology as the competition tries to catch up.

Thanks for logging on Mike and keeping us informed.

What I'd wonder is if people will spend $2400 on your new binocs as compared to $1700 for SLC HD's, ultravid HD's, $1000 euro HD's, etc. The Nikon EDG is fantastic, but at $2200+ they can't give them away. Time will tell.

Agreed on all counts.

I'm continually amazed at folks that have a safe full of rifles and one crappy set of binoculars... I'd always rather have the very best binocular and only a couple rifles if it came down to it.

Yes, And, yes.

And kudos to Mr. Jensen for sticking his neck out here.
The "boots-on-the-ground" mentality in a leader is to be commended and will no doubt serve Zeiss very well.

Leica can suck their wake. <grins>

Aic, all very valid points. Competing in the top 3 is a challenging endeavor, it's like building a better Indy car, all that's left are small improvements but in the end, it's the driver (our consumers) who wins the race .

We had 3 objectives when we started this project.

The Brightness
The best center resolution
The best ergonomics

#1. Brightness. Over the last 10 years, although we slightly led the pack, the top 3 all had between 89% and 92% light transmission. Nobody was really willing to make the claim "the brightest". With our new glass, existing prisms and enhanced coatings, we are the first to get to 95% on a premium roof prism product. With that, we are comfortable to make the clain "The Brightest".

#2. Center resolution. As a core hunting product for the most extreme users, center resolution was a top priority. Judging mass or G3 tine length at 600+ yards is critical for those guys. I'm not an optical engineer, so I can't explain what they did or how they did it, but center resolution has been enhanced. Enhancing the center resolution should theoretically widen the "sweet spot" since resolution is a diminishing calculation from center to edge. Since there is no sweet spot measurement standard, we'll have to wait for guys like you to get your hands on it, test it and tell your peers your findings. I am comfortable to say that you'll like what you see.

3. Ergonomics. No longer will Zeiss build great optics and drop the product into a "brick" and say "buy it". Ergonomics matter, period. As the picture of the product reveals, this HT is a departure from our old ways. We built and tested models of the human hand in a resting state when held in front of the face. With this as a guideline, we added ribs to fit the crease of the hand, moved the focus wheel forward so you don't have to split your fingers to reach it, made it larger and slower for control, changed housing texture for comfort, used magnisium for weight and pinned the focus wheel on both sides for durability. Consumer surveys so far says it looks cool and feels incredible in your hand. Ergonomics are in many cases personal preference, but my opinion (albeit bias:) is that we nailed this one.

Hope this feedback helps.

My apologies in advance for a vague answer forthcoming, but to be honest with you and all the readers here, I'm unfortunatly a little cautious how I answer future product introduction questions, since I'm fairly certain my friends at Swarovski and Leica are now reading these posts . However, I can say that rangefinding binoculars are a very important new category for us all, and new offerings as well as "in-line" upgrades are probably on everyones new product roadmaps. We all see market shift to where consumers want a dual package, but we all have limited engineering resources so we normally apply those resources to new categories that help us grow, so what's next in line on a product roadmap can change from one day to the next.

So back to your question of "do we have plans for new products or product upgrades in rangefinding binoculars utilizing HT Glass?", yes we do. What's uncertain is (here comes my vague answer) what timeline and priority these products have.

Sorry for a long winded lack of an answer. .

...and this one was my main hunting binocular since then. I found the so-called "sweet spot" large enough, and couldn`t find any difference with that Leica on this. For me the natural eye position when using a binocular, or a scope is to center the vision. And if I want to look at a side, I move the binocular!, not the eye around the optic field! Of course there must be a center view large enough...

PH