Anyone else question their Swaro SLC purchase?

[golfbum]

Mark me in the crowd that Slc’s didn’t work.

I to had an older set of Japan Razors that were on par with a set of Slc’s I owned. A lot of people love them, so I’m sure it’s just my eyes or the pair I owned, but I to sold them and have zero regrets.

I did just get a pair of Zeiss SF’s and so far I’m in love!

 

[pjohnson8168]

I will throw in with the last two fellas, thought the SLCs were very good but couldn't really tell enough of a difference between Conquests. I did see a big improvement for my eyes at the EL, SF level.

Those SFs are hard not to love!

 

[Str8shtr]

Are some of you guys talking about the old slc?
The new slc is better than the old el and I couldn't tell much difference between the new slc and new el.

 

[drmatara]

I have looked through a couple pair and they never made me think the upgrade was worth the extra cost. There's no much difference between them.

 

[golfbum]

Are some of you guys talking about the old slc?
The new slc is better than the old el and I couldn't tell much difference between the new slc and new el.

Mine were a brand new 2020 model. May have been a bad sample but I was not a fan especially for price over the razors I owned.

I have had several pairs of Leica’s that were on par or better then the Slc’s I owned. I just sold some Ultravids that were superior and the Zeiss SF is the best of the bunch for me.

 

[manitou1]

That is exactly what is going on so far with me. Not quite a collimation issue, but seems like the diopter needs adjusted constantly when using both eyes, but when I adjust it ends up at the same setting. But like I said, hoping to spend some time with them this weekend and figure out if they are for me.

I have that issue with every single bino I have ever looked through. I currently have four different brands and I experience this with all four. Drives me crazy.

 

[ElkArcher918]

Had my 10x42 SLCs for 2 full seasons and I'm pretty happy with them. Money well spent. Saving some $ for a Swaro spotter next.

 

[Str8shooter]

No. Until I looked through the ELs, I was in optical nirvana with my SLC 10s. They are superior to any offering by Vortex, Maven, Leupold in edge to edge clarity, low light performance, chromatic aberation, color fidelity and depth of view.

 

[Spiral Horn]

The SLCs were a great package that was solid across the board - high-end optics and a fairly compact body existing in kind of a unique price point. That just worked for a lot of folks who weren’t willing to jump up to an EL or SF. But folks who made the jump would likely find those high-end Alphas just a bit better across many points of comparison. Could have bought whatever glass I wanted and to me the Zeiss Victory SF T* were the apple of my eyes, and their ergonomics are superior to any other binocular I’ve ever handled.

I just recently had an opportunity to get a brand new set of SLCs at a discount and didn’t. The success of the SLCs remind me of my Zeiss Dialyt B/GA T* P* 10x40s. 15+ years ago that was the glass every sheep and goat guide (and serious birder) had around their necks. Even today, it remains a great hunting binocular that I still enjoy using. But just like the SLCs, their time as the go-to, fully featured but reasonably priced Alpha is over. The great news is there will be a lot of fierce competition to fill that niche. Cannot wait to see what great binoculars come out in the next few years.

 

[JGRaider]

The SLC's are still one of the finest hunting binoculars on the planet, period. It's mostly a matter of personal preference when you get to this level of glass and above. The SF's are too big for my liking, and much prefer the SV's for example. Many diehard birder dudes prefer the SLC to the SV's as well.

 

[Boonie327]

The SLCs were a great package that was solid across the board - high-end optics and a fairly compact body existing in kind of a unique price point. That just worked for a lot of folks who weren’t willing to jump up to an EL or SF. But folks who made the jump would likely find those high-end Alphas just a bit better across many points of comparison. Could have bought whatever glass I wanted and to me the Zeiss Victory SF T* were the apple of my eyes, and their ergonomics are superior to any other binocular I’ve ever handled.

I just recently had an opportunity to get a brand new set of SLCs at a discount and didn’t. The success of the SLCs remind me of my Zeiss Dialyt B/GA T* P* 10x40s. 15+ years ago that was the glass every sheep and goat guide (and serious birder) had around their necks. Even today, it remains a great hunting binocular that I still enjoy using. But just like the SLCs, their time as the go-to, fully featured but reasonably priced Alpha is over. The great news is there will be a lot of fierce competition to fill that niche. Cannot wait to see what great binoculars come out in the next few years.

I spent some time with the SLC's since last Friday and at this point I feel like I am trying to talk myself into justifying keeping them, which I shouldn't really be doing when spending this much on glass. I feel like the resolution/clarity just isn't there for me during normal light hours, and from what I have read, maybe this just isn't the SLC's biggest strength. With that being said, can those with time behind both the SLC's and the EL's, is there a big difference between the EL's and SLC's with clarity and resolution?

At this point, I agree with what you are saying about some fierce competition and really look forward to what Meopta does with their B2 when it finally comes out, which is now 2022 from what I have read.

 

[TX_Diver]

I went to SLCs from Kowa Genesis 10.5x44s.

If the weight/ergonomics was closer I would've stayed with the Kowas.

I have not used them hunting yet but figured I'd give them a season first but it pained me to sell the Kowas.

 

[Jesse Jaymes]

That is exactly what is going on so far with me. Not quite a collimation issue, but seems like the diopter needs adjusted constantly when using both eyes, but when I adjust it ends up at the same setting. But like I said, hoping to spend some time with them this weekend and figure out if they are for me.

Interesting to hear you state this. I bought the new Meopta B1.1 Plus HD this fall. This is the same type of frustration I am having. Constantly wanting to jack with the right side(only side) diopter....like it's jus the slightest bit off.....only to always end up tuning back to original spot. And also like you....really trying hard to love them and justify the expense and keeping them.

I never considered maybe Depth? These need pretty constant focus adjustment from objects viewed at 500 yards then switching to 800 yards across a field. Didn't expect that.

Guess I will cross SLCs off my list if I decide to move them.

The general summary I got from my rant/post last week was....there is really a very minimal gap between today's $500 optics and $1500 optics. It's any flavor $500 bino then it takes a huge leap to $2500 to be blown away.

 

[Newtosavage]

I just received a new pair of 10x42 slc’s...as one would expect I was pretty excited to get my hands on them but they didn’t impress me as much as I expected. It’s been a few years since I looked through my dad’s EL’s but I remember being in awe. I don’t have my old bins (Cabelas Alaskan Guides) to compare them to because someone broke into my truck and stole them this past season, so I was comparing them to my old backups, a pair of bushnell legend HD’s. They didn’t blow the legend HD’s away when looking at a license plate through brush at dusk about 100 yards away along with just glassing nearby fields and other objects. Something just seemed off. Anyone else ever get a pair of alpha bins and not be as impressed as you expected? Is it possible to get a lemon? I plan on spending a good bit of time evaluating to be sure, but this is my first alpha purchase just a little surprised.

I had a similar experience. Plus the chalky focus wheel and the focus wheel location on the SLC's was very annoying to me. So I sold my first pair. A year or so later, I figured I made a mistake, and I picked up a 2nd pair. Same experience. Sold those too.

I had at one point, a pair of Conquest HD's, my SLC's and some Cabelas Outfitter HD's (made in Japan at the same plant as the Conquest HD's) all on the windowsill of a hunting blind for a few hours one evening. It was drizzling rain and fog and dim light. I watched a bobcat at 200 yards for about 10 minutes, cleaning itself. It was a great test of those optics. I could only see the cat's whiskers clearly with the Conquest HD's. Not the SLC's or the Outfitter HD's. I went home and listed the SLC's that evening and have never missed them. I do however miss my Outfitter HD's. Best pair of "budget" bins I've ever owned, hands down and they would hang with $1K bins easily. I also didn't really care that much what happened to them because I had bought them used for $150. There is a good chance your Alaskan Guides were also built in that same Japanese Factory (Light Optical Works) and that's why you can't recall seeing much improvement.

At some point, Cabelas figured out that their store brand bins were too good, and they were eating into the sales of their competitor's bins like Nikon and Swaro and Leica, etc. I'm sure those brands put pressure on Cabelas to "dumb down" their store brands, and the temptation to move to a made-in-China optic with a larger profit margin was probably too great, so they did. I spoke with an older gentlemen who worked at the optics counter for Cabelas for a long time, and he confirmed this. He would only tell me very quietly that Cabelas "used" to make (or have made) world class bins from "that plant in Japan" and he said it kinda made him sick to push the Chinese crap they had branded now. I can see why.

 

[Felix40]

I regret my sts 65 purchase a little bit. It’s a nice spotter but definitely does not blow me away. It’s considerably darker than a razor 85 and MAYBE a tiny bit better clarity. I know the razor is bigger and heavier but it’s also 60% the cost.

I’ve compared my sig 15s side by side with swaros and definitely didn’t feel like i wanted to upgrade.

 

[MadMarkie]

Everyone's eyes are different, and optics selections should be made side-by-side if at all possible. It's also necessary to really push the conditions to see any differences.... I recently had my new Element Nexus scope out on the porch with a trusty old Tangent Theta, and thought they were comparable on the same magnification until it started getting dark. The depth of field was also significantly better on the TT... but would be hard to perceive without having them side-by-side on a tripod.

As for the SLCs.... they are fantastic, but do give up a little next to the ELs. I'm making a point of not checking out the NL Pures side-by-side, as I'm afraid of regretting buying my EL 12x50 (right before the NLs came out).

 

[PHo]

I spent some time with the SLC's since last Friday and at this point I feel like I am trying to talk myself into justifying keeping them, which I shouldn't really be doing when spending this much on glass. I feel like the resolution/clarity just isn't there for me during normal light hours, and from what I have read, maybe this just isn't the SLC's biggest strength. With that being said, can those with time behind both the SLC's and the EL's, is there a big difference between the EL's and SLC's with clarity and resolution?

At this point, I agree with what you are saying about some fierce competition and really look forward to what Meopta does with their B2 when it finally comes out, which is now 2022 from what I have read.

I wouldn’t keep the SLCs if I was feeling that way. That’s a lot of money for binos that you’re not 100% satisfied with.

As far as SLCs vs ELs, there is a noticeable difference between the two. The ELs have a field flattener which gives you image clarity all the way to the edges whereas the SLCs have a softer more blurry edge. The caveat, for me at least, is that the ELs seem to have more of a 2-dimensional view vs the SLCs 3-dimensional view. When I look through the ELs it feels like I’m looking at a tv screen, when I look through my SLCs it feels like my eyes are transported there and everything looks real. YMMV.

 

[Broomd]

Give the SLCs a bit more time and field use. In the past I've bought glass that didn't love up to the mental hype I'd created --only to realize that they were every bit as good as I wanted them to be.

New bincs are like a new ball glove, let 'em grow on you with use and you'll see just how stellar they are.

 

[tdhanses]

If you like the EL’s with Swaro vision checkout the Leica HDB 2200 and maybe their newer versions. To me the Leica was 99% of what the EL SV binos were. Weight being the biggest diff.

 

[Mdfowlman2]

Not one bit. First hunt this past season with the new slc and I was able to spot a Sika in some tall grass at last light while looking into the setting sun, I would’ve never dreamed of making that spot with my old binos. No question I never see and definitely never kill this one without the slc’s. I bought these for a elk hunt next season and planned to sell, I’ll die with the binos, never selling!