I finally decided last week on the Swarovski 8x50 slc over the Zeiss 8x56 victory, and they arrived today from Adorama. Unfortunately, I knew within a few minutes that I had to return them. There was a fog / haze on the inside of one of the elements, a couple of cleaning wipe marks on the inside of another element, general light scuffing all over the body, and no documentation of any kind. Overall the impression was of a defective demo unit. I emailed Swarovski, who were very reasonable but pointed out that Adorama were not an authorized dealer and the binos were thus not under warranty. I then called Adorama to complain, to their credit they scheduled a UPS pickup of the binos at their cost for return.
I had only a few minutes to try these out, so take my impressions for what they are worth (not much). Still, I was able to look at trees and telephone poles at home that I know very well through other binoculars and telescopes, so my quick look was better than a look in the shop. The slcs gave the impression of high quality, as they should, but did not fit my hands well. If I put my thumbs in the indentations on the underside, the focus dial was out of reach. The screw up/down eyecup mechanism was excellent, the best of its kind I have ever used. The apparent field of 56 degrees matched the specs, and was just wide enough to satisfy me - noticably wider than my Fujinon 7x50 FMT-SX, which I had on hand to compare. They were pleasantly lighter and smaller than the Fujinon, as I had hoped (this was the reason for buying the slcs).
The view was beautiful. Just as bright as the Fujinons despite the slightly smaller exit pupil. The amount of softening at the edge of field was almost exactly the same in the two binoculars. The Swarovskis were better in that they had none of the chromatic abberation I notice sometimes in the Fujinon in high contrast situations like (today) dark tree trunks against blue sky or melting snow on grass. It was obvious, however, that the slcs had a golden/yellow cast to the view. It was not unpleasant, and may have even increased the contrast of the view slightly. I may not have noticed had I not had the absolutely pure image of the Fujinon to compare it to.
In any event, I would have been very satisfied with a non-defective pair of Swarovskis, but now the search continues for handheld astro binos to replace the Fujinons. I am thinking that the Zeiss 8x56 victory will get a try.
I had only a few minutes to try these out, so take my impressions for what they are worth (not much). Still, I was able to look at trees and telephone poles at home that I know very well through other binoculars and telescopes, so my quick look was better than a look in the shop. The slcs gave the impression of high quality, as they should, but did not fit my hands well. If I put my thumbs in the indentations on the underside, the focus dial was out of reach. The screw up/down eyecup mechanism was excellent, the best of its kind I have ever used. The apparent field of 56 degrees matched the specs, and was just wide enough to satisfy me - noticably wider than my Fujinon 7x50 FMT-SX, which I had on hand to compare. They were pleasantly lighter and smaller than the Fujinon, as I had hoped (this was the reason for buying the slcs).
The view was beautiful. Just as bright as the Fujinons despite the slightly smaller exit pupil. The amount of softening at the edge of field was almost exactly the same in the two binoculars. The Swarovskis were better in that they had none of the chromatic abberation I notice sometimes in the Fujinon in high contrast situations like (today) dark tree trunks against blue sky or melting snow on grass. It was obvious, however, that the slcs had a golden/yellow cast to the view. It was not unpleasant, and may have even increased the contrast of the view slightly. I may not have noticed had I not had the absolutely pure image of the Fujinon to compare it to.
In any event, I would have been very satisfied with a non-defective pair of Swarovskis, but now the search continues for handheld astro binos to replace the Fujinons. I am thinking that the Zeiss 8x56 victory will get a try.
