Swarovski Binoculars?

[Brent]

I would go all the way with the 80mm spotter if I spent the money myself. I'm using the 12-40 Leopold now also and it works great, nice field of view and eye relief. The one thing to be sure of on the doubler if you go that route, is to check and make sure that it can be used in BOTH eye pieces. I'm not positive but something makes me think that it is made to fit in one eyepiece only. I may be wrong, but but if that's the plan I would be sure first.

I like the tripod adapter on the Swarovski a little better than the Leica but the brightness and clarity was noticably better on the Leica at dark hands down when I compared the two, that's what sold me on them. I thought both were superior to the Ziess although they were nothing to sneeze at. You'll do good to compare at dark all models one after the other viewing the same object.

I looked down the street at the underside of a couple vehicles with only a street light on in the distance lending little light. It was about 200yds away. The Ziess resilution chart proved to validate my findings also. Peoples eyes may be different, I'm not sure how much that affects these type of tests though. Lots of luck.

[Nicholas]

I know the doublers can be used on both eyepieces as my friend has a pair of EL's and has tried it, he only has one doubler though.

As far as the eyepiece goes do you like straight eyepieces or angled eyepieces better. I have only used straight but think I would prefer straight over angled.

[ 10-25-2002: Message edited by: sr90 ]

[Brent]

I'd be curious to see what it looked like through them with both doublers too. Any store around there have another doubler to stick in there to let you evaluate them? Will the doublers stack on top of eack other to double it again? Maybe it's Ziess that can do that.

[Nicholas]

I know of one guy who double stacks his doublers to acheive 40x. Swarovski doesn't garentee it will work but it is working for the guy. I am sure using a doubler on each eyepiece will work just fine. I am planning on going to my buddies store tomarrow to play with all the optics I will let you know how it goes.

[QuietHunter]

My opinion and my advice
Life is too short for bad optics. Get a good pair of 10x binoculars and you will be happy. Go to a retailer that sells the high end stuff (Leica, Zeiss, Swarovski etc.) and compare them. See if they are comfortable and fit your hands, take em outside and check them for optical clarity - especially around the edges. Look for color differences caused by different coatings. See if you like the adjustability. You will likely get a better deal online, but see at least look at the differences.

Personally. I use and would recomend the Zeiss 10x40 Classic. I like the Zeiss Classic better than the newer Victory because they fit my hands better and the glass is actually better. The Victory weigh less (glass is not leaded) and are waterproof. Cabelas seems to have the best price on the Classic right now.
I have a friend who uses the Leica Trinovid 10x42 and they are a very nice piece of glass. Hotbuyelectronics.com has really good prices on most optics.

Spotting scopes. I currently use an old Redfield 15 - 45x. It works well enough, but optical clarity is an issue. I would recomend getting the compact Leupold or something in that range. If you have the money, Leica Televid is awesome, but weighs more than what I want to pack to the top of the mountain. BTW Leopold makes a really nice compact tripod.

Get good binocs first since that is what you should spend most of your time looking through. Then work on a good spotting scope.

[Nicholas]

I checked out the optics today and I have decided to get the 10x42 EL's with two doublers. Much easier on the eyes than any spotting scope. I tried using two doublers and it worked great for 20x bigeyes. I didn't try double stacking them as I don't really need 40x.

However the new Swarovski spotting scopes are awesome!!! Best I have ever seen. Very lightweight and rugged. I think I will get one in the future but for now the binocs will suit me great.

[Brent]

If you get a chance I'd be interested in knowing what power the Leopold 12-40 spotter is at when the field of view is the same. Those will be nice.