15x vs 18x Binos!

[Jens22]

Would love to hear opinions on 15s vs 18s. Where you were using them, type of terrain, and why you would be using one over the other. Thanks

 

[PredatorSlayer]

I looked through a bunch of 15x and 18x binos - ended up going with the Santiams in 15x. No regrets, the 18’s I was looking at were the Vortex UHDs and if I remember correctly, there was a significant different in the FOV.

Since I went from 12’s to 15’s, the spotter never leaves the truck. I almost always run them on a bipod, its a game changer. Mostly used to hunt big game in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

My buddy runs some 12x50’s along with a Razor 11-33 spotter. I didn’t feel like I was left wanting with just my 15x’s.

 

[Jens22]

I looked through a bunch of 15x and 18x binos - ended up going with the Santiams in 15x. No regrets, the 18’s I was looking at were the Vortex UHDs and if I remember correctly, there was a significant different in the FOV.

Since I went from 12’s to 15’s, the spotter never leaves the truck. I almost always run them on a bipod, its a game changer. Mostly used to hunt big game in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

My buddy runs some 12x50’s along with a Razor 11-33 spotter. I didn’t feel like I was left wanting with just

I looked through a bunch of 15x and 18x binos - ended up going with the Santiams in 15x. No regrets, the 18’s I was looking at were the Vortex UHDs and if I remember correctly, there was a significant different in the FOV.

Since I went from 12’s to 15’s, the spotter never leaves the truck. I almost always run them on a bipod, its a game changer. Mostly used to hunt big game in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

My buddy runs some 12x50’s along with a Razor 11-33 spotter. I didn’t feel like I was left wanting with just my 15x’s.

Thats awesome, I have been debating the Santiam bx5's or the Maven 15s/18s. So pretty cool to hear your enjoying those. What model 12's were you using before?

 

[PredatorSlayer]

Thats awesome, I have been debating the Santiam bx5's or the Maven 15s/18s. So pretty cool to hear your enjoying those. What model 12's were you using before?

I had some BX4 Proguides and some razors (non uhd).

 

[willfrye027]

I tried some maven 18s. For me the FOV was a little too small and the depth of focus was short. The depth of focus was a bigger issue for me. Harder to effectively pan around and glass lots of country, too much monkeying with the focus knob. I’m sure they have their place just wasn’t for me

 

[Sled]

i'm in the same boat but leaning toward the b5 15x instead of 18 for the added FOV. most of my spotting is done between 1 mile and 3 miles. the current scope i have is nice but hard to pack. with 20-60 zoom i'm just a little too zoomed in on the low end and interested in trying something a little lower power. in the future i'll try to swap the eye piece for something wide angled and on the lower end magnification (15-40).

 

[couesfreak23]

Would love to hear opinions on 15s vs 18s. Where you were using them, type of terrain, and why you would be using one over the other. Thanks

Good quality 15s i think beat the 18s hand down if you need see much further just use a spotter or double spotter set up is king well at least for coues deer hunting

 

[WI in the west]

I personally loved using my maven 18’s this past season. Paired woth maven 11x45’S. I went that route in anticipation of buying some 12x nl pures, which come in Thursday. I thought the 15x might not have enough power to justify carrying thwm over the 12x. And i dont care for using a spotter to scan much. If the nl’s out do the 18’s then i may save for a swaro spotter to mostly just verify what stuff is.

Edit: youll commonly find that the swaro slc hd 15’s are king though. So if money permits thats probably your end all option unless they come out with a new 15 or 18 soon.

 

[alaska_bou]

I had a different experience. When the B.5 Maven's first came out I bought a pair of the 18x56 to compare with my 15x56 swaros. In the end I sold the maven and highly favor the swaros. The difference between the maven @ 18x and the swaro at 15x was insignificant, and the swaros had better edge clarity, brightness and MUCH better depth of feild. The maven are okay for the money but the swaros are well worth the upgrade.

 

[Blue72]

Both are nice, I think it depends how much range you need to determine which magnification

many 18x sacrifice very little FOV compared to their 15x counterpart. Some actually exceed the AFOV compared to 15x

plus you can see the ring in good 18x binoculars, where Saturn is just a football in 15x

 

[robby denning]

completely subjective opinion here, but having used both, I keep going back to the 15x. FOV is underated.

 

[700MtnMan]

I have a pair of 18x56 Vortex UHDs and love them. I haven't owned a pair of 15s for comparison but am very satisfied with the 18s.

 

[TXJacob]

I've been thinking about the 15x vs 18x debate for a while now and was looking at the BX-5 Santiam's as well. For someone in Texas who uses 8x binos 99% of the time, I've decided to get a pair of high power binos rather than a spotting scope for my 1 western hunt a year. And because I'm only using these binos once a year its hard to make the jump up to a Swarovski.

 

[Sled]

I've been thinking about the 15x vs 18x debate for a while now and was looking at the BX-5 Santiam's as well. For someone in Texas who uses 8x binos 99% of the time, I've decided to get a pair of high power binos rather than a spotting scope for my 1 western hunt a year. And because I'm only using these binos once a year its hard to make the jump up to a Swarovski.

Base on Robby's B5 15x review I ordered a set over used swaro SLCs. I run the maven b3 8x for nearly everything. The large spotter stays in the truck and the small spotter doesn't come in the pack as often as I thought it would. If nothing else, the 15x will give me better fov than my spotters for pre season scouting.

 

[SuperDUECE22]

since I've owned the 15x56 bx-5 santiam HD's the spotter rarely ever leaves the truck. Only 18x that I've compared them to were my buddy's vortex Kaibab 18x56 and thought the Leupold's were much better

 

[ColoradoV]

If I had a choice between giving up my 15z swaros or my bow I would pry choose my bow.

Yep I use them that much..

 

[TXJacob]

since I've owned the 15x56 bx-5 santiam HD's the spotter rarely ever leaves the truck. Only 18x that I've compared them to were my buddy's vortex Kaibab 18x56 and thought the Leupold's were much better

Do you take the 15's as your only set of binos and run them on a chest rig? I was thinking about having a pair of 15's in my pack and only using them with a tripod. I would continue to run my 8x in my chest rig.

For people running their binos in their pack what type of case are you keeping them in?

 

[SuperDUECE22]

depends on the terrain and type of hunt. but when i bring the 15xs they are in the LARGE marsupial bino harness