My views on my Carl Zeiss Victory SF 10x42 binoculars

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have had these bins, which I primarily want to use for birding, but are a useful lightweight addition for astronomy, for a couple of days, and have been able to put them through their paces for both birding and astronomy (albeit the latter only briefly).

As expected, the binoculars are very well made, feeling very solid, without being too heavy. They come with a strap and a sturdy carrying bag, which should protect them well. My two minor gripes with the Nikon Monarch 7 10x42 were (a) the fact that the (very soft) bag had no shoulder strap, only a means of attachment to a belt (which I find uncomfortable), and (b) that the rear lens caps fell off the eyepieces at the drop of a hat. They were secured by a strap, but it was still annoying. With the Zeiss, no such problems. The bag has a detachable, well padded shoulder strap, and the lens caps are secure, and yet easily removed when needed.

The views through these binoculars are amazing. It is difficult to spot any chromatic aberration, even along high contrast edges close to the edge of the FOV. The views are very sharp, and focusing is very intuitive, with the image snapping into focus easily. I spent some time over lunch last week following a common tern which was hunting over one of the large ponds on campus, and it easy to keep the wheeling and sometimes suddenly diving bird both in the FOV and in focus. The Nikons seemed to be a touch more sluggish in this respect.

I have also been amazed at the wealth of detail visible in the plumage of various birds, even in unfavourable lighting conditions, like strong backlight, or at dusk. I have not had any trouble with glare or internal reflections, or blackouts and kidney beaning. The binoculars show slight pincushion distortion. There is plenty eye relief for use with my glasses.

I also had a short spell under clear skies at night, and was very pleased with the views as well. On the whole, stars seem pinpoint across the field, and only if you take a very bright star like Arcturus can you note some astigmatism towards the edge of the FOV (say, the outer 10-15%). There is no trace of field curvature I could make out.

In short, I am very pleased indeed with the performance of these binoculars, and would say that these are easily the best birding binoculars I have even looked through. The Helios LightQuest 16x80 do show much fainter objects at night, of course, but for sheer image quality the Zeiss bins are definitely better

 

[ollypenrice]

I don't think off axis performance is as important in binoculars as in a scope because, in a scope, you will move your eye or even your head to peer into the field stop. With hand held bins you'll just move the bins with your head, keeping your subject central. I tried some Victories belonging to a guest and found them absolutely stunning.

Olly

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

I don't think off axis performance is as important in binoculars as in a scope because, in a scope, you will move your eye or even your head to peer into the field stop. With hand held bins you'll just move the bins with your head, keeping your subject central. I tried some Victories belonging to a guest and found them absolutely stunning.

Olly

Agreed. You generally just use the centre, and scan the skies. Still, I have always found field curvature really annoying. And severe infiltration of the outskirts of the FOV by seagulls is also hard to ignore.