Anyone else question their Swaro SLC purchase?

[kaku3428]

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!

where did you hunt sitka deer? Maryland?

 

[Boonie327]

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.

What did you like about the EL's more? An upgrade across the board or any one trait in particular?

 

[Boonie327]

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.

I could see some validity in this statement about the Cabelas bins. I would snatch up a pair of the Alaskan Guides in a heartbeat if I saw them for a good price. Even though I plan on keeping the SLC's or sending back and getting EL's, they would be great to have for a backup or guests.

 

[Str8shooter]

What did you like about the EL's more? An upgrade across the board or any one trait in particular?

The ELs field flattening lenses allow for super high res observation in 100% of the field of view, its like SLC center "sweet spot" level of clarity in the entire image and this become apparent really only on a tripod when you're looking into nooks and crannies of the whole image. I found I was panning less and spending more time immersed in observation. Small movements or changes in texture/color in at the outer most edge are much more readily detected. Plus the jump in mag to 12x50 brings additional benefits to glassing in western terrain.

 

[bow_dozer]

What did you like about the EL's more? An upgrade across the board or any one trait in particular?

I had pre-HD trinovids for about 5 years, loved everything about that bino, still do, optically very very close to SLC's. During day light and 95% of "light" hours they met my fancy. My buddy had a pair of SV El's we compared with. To me, having more clarity, more light during the times animals are going to be moving was the selling point and getting into EL's. It was a lot closer than i thought though, like 4-5 min max, more light from the ELs (+ outdoorsman's adaptor system and swaro warranty which don't pertain to your situation of course.) But 100% agree, if you are spending $1500+ and look thru them and aren't in love, you need to sell them, doesn't matter what other people think or how they preform to their eye.