Review of Hawke roof prism binoculars - 8x42

[Moonshane]

Hi all

I was looking through a family member's Miranda 10x50s the other day and a short while afterwards, when my eyes had suitably recovered from the trauma of miscollimation, blue sheen to the images and finger strain from constant refocusing to try and get the image sharp, I suggested he might want to consider buying another pair. Both Jim and his wife enjoy watching birds at the feeders and generally spotting things in the fields behind their home. Brenda also likes a quick look at the moon now and again.

He really liked my 20 year old Opticron 7x36 roof prism bins which are good quality and a roof prism design.

On this basis I scoured the FLO site and came across First Light Optics - Hawke Nature-Trek Binocular

A quick email to FLO and Martin confirmed they were decent quality for the price and reminded me of FLOs usual 30 day no quibble return policy; for £84 delivered next day I (or Jim) could not really lose.

As expected they arrived from FLO the next full working day after order and I did a very quick comparison with my 7x36s. I am quite fussy when it comes to optics and use Televue eyepieces and good quality newtonian scopes.

My initial impressions were as follows:

• Well packaged from FLO.
  
• Box contains all you need - rainguard and objective caps, strap for binoculars, decent quality soft case which also has a strap and belt loop.
  
• Quite light but extremely well built.
  
• Coatings look lush and green - almost Televue-esque.
  
• Feel nice in the hand.
  
• They are nitrogen purged too.
  

So far so good. I put them to my eyes indoors and was quite surprised by the quality of the image. I went outside and it continued to be excellent.

Compared with the good quality Opticrons, they certainly held their own but with slightly less robust build quality as would be expected for the price.

I found images were extremely sharp and bright and compared well with the 7x36s. Focus had just the right amount of tension and was very positive but be aware that as with all close focusing bins (they focus to about 2-2.5m) the travel from closest to infinity was quite a few turns. I don't mind this though.

In general use they were exactly as good as the 7x36s and this is high praise indeed. The only negative optically was that there was a little more chromatic aberration when viewing things directly against the sky. Nothing nasty but I expect on the moon this would be about the same as a standard achromat scope.

There are click lock eye cups (only up or down) which perform well and a good diopter adjustment on one side which seems robust enough to stay in position.

I have only three very minor quibbles with them :

(The chromatic aberration - this would not stop me buying a pair for myself so this is not a quibble).

The objective caps whilst of decent quality soft rubber, have a ring which holds then in place on the end of the binocular. This is easily removed without any trace it was there but for me they would be likely to flap into view in the wind. I will be recommending that once Jim is happy with them, he cuts off the rings and then just uses the caps (which stay on without them).

There is a plastic collar just below the eye cups which is a bit too, well, plasticky. If it was made from the slightly softer plastic of the rest of the parts it would add to the apparent build quality.

The binocular strap is probably average quality but a little foam sewn into a two layer neck area would make for a more 'luxurious' strap and feel more like quality - it serves the purpose well though.

Given that these are the only gripes with an £84 pair of bins that's really not so bad at all!

If you are looking for some 8x bins for general purpose and astro use for around the £100 mark then I cannot see you going far wrong with these. I'd recommend them highly.

I would add the caveat that I have only used these briefly so do bear this in mind but I can see now reason why these would not serve you well for many many years.

Cheers

Shane

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

I've just been given a pair of these as a late xmas present. Naturally, it's cloudy right now, but the views of streetlights etc seem amazingly crisp compared to my old greenkats (which i'm convinced are made of spares and repairs). I can't quite put my finger on it, it's kind of like when you see something in HDTV for the first time

While they are slightly less aperture than the greenkats, they are also less magnification. I expect these to provide brighter views to be honest. Comparing 12x50s to 8x42s, all things being equal i'd imagine roughly the same image brightness. But all things are not equal, the greenkats coatings are pretty bad. Infact, i think i have different prisms in each side since they have a slightly different hue to the images.

The best thing about these new ones though, THEY HAVE A MOUNTING BUSH! finally i can stick them on my tripod.

These are more expensive than i'd personally spend on binos, a £30-40 pair of 10x50s was on my to-do list for the next month or so, but given the quality of these, i'm pretty satisfied.

One thing i will say - it might well be an alignment issue - but i get some of the "kidney beaning" effect if i look through the eyepieces and move my eyes left to right. It's pretty annoying, with the eyecups all the way in, finding the viewing position is actually quite tough. With the cups fully extended, i get a decent view, but only when looking straight forward, and the interpupilary distance needs to be as close as it goes, meaning rather than bridging either side of my nose, the cups sits pressed against the bridge of my nose... :/

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

Just been looking around, by the sound of things, the kidney beaning i'm experiencing is somewhat common, and is a result of long eye relief. I wasn't aware there could be ~too much~ eye relief, but thinking about it, it makes sense. I guess i just need to get used to looking through them, as opposed to looking ~with~ the greenkats. Strangely, i prefer shorter eye relief (to an extent) since you get to experience the full FOV, being much closer to the glass.

[MjrTom]

A very good review Shane

I have tried a few different Hawke bins out recently and the optical quality is very good as is the build quality.

Personally I prefer 10x43 bins but I use them for both wildlife and casual astronomy when there is a break in the clouds.

[Veracocha]

I have had every derivitive of the Hawke Frontier ED's (six) and now I settle for the 10 x 43 (Mk 1). I have a brand new pair of Swarovski 10 x 42 EL's and still the Frontiers provide me a clearer image than the Swaro's despite a £1300 price difference. This Chinese glass is becoming better value all the time. For stargazing they offer some outstanding clarity that is hard to come by. For birding they are amazing.