How much better are Swaro El's over Razors?

timberbuck

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Buy an alpha binocular. Its a very small investment if you break it down to cost per year for the benefit.

$2000=$200 per year for ten years.

Totally worth it.
 

CAhunter

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I just made the leap and purchased the Swaro 12x50 EL’s. I’ve always liked my Zeiss Conquests and still do but those EL’s are on another level
 
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If Swaro El's are rated at a 100 for argument sake...what would a set of Razor's be rated as.

Swaro 10x42, 10x50 vs. Razor 10x42,10x50

Thanks
To me, making that comparison would be like comparing a "pick your top of the line production rifle" vs. a Savage arms rifle.
 

WRO

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To me, making that comparison would be like comparing a "pick your top of the line production rifle" vs. a Savage arms rifle.
That's not true, savages shoot well, is like the difference between a nice custom and a ruger American..

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Boreal

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That's not true, savages shoot well, is like the difference between a nice custom and a ruger American..

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Here we go! It’s like a great pickup vs a Ford!


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That's not true, savages shoot well, is like the difference between a nice custom and a ruger American..

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Okay, maybe it’s more like a super tender, perfectly cooked, elk back strap and a cold beer (of your choice) vs. a steaming pile of bear shit, in the middle of the night, still 2 miles from camp. Oh, and you got the last 100 lbs. of that elk on your back.


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MtnMuley

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Undoubtedly the Swaro's are superior, but a good hunter with Razors will do better than an average hunter with EL's. Even better yet, a good hunter with a good tag and a pair of Tasco's will do even better........just a different perspective when dumping $2K on glass.
 

snipepod

FNG
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Mar 18, 2016
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I own Japanese Razor 12X50 and Swaro EL 10X32. Bino discussions and bino tests are always so subjective. I am an engineer. I design and build all the Kramer Designs Corp products. I approach bino evaluations with the mind of an engineer. I handle many different binos in the course of a year, especially Swaro ELs as they come to my shop for hinge pin conversions to work with our bino/tripod mounting system. I take advantage of this opportunity to digi scope through the binos and then do image comparison on my computer workstation. I use a Sony QX10 wifi camera. 18megaPixel. Much higher quailty lens than any Iphone or Andorid. I live in Montana and have a nice mountain scene in my front yard to digi scope to assure an apples-to-apples comparison. The originals are quite large, 8MB or so, even with some .JPG compression. I have further compressed them to about 2MB, and they can be emailed. If anyone is interested in the images, send me an email and I will reply with images. I also have images shot through new Ultravids 10X42.
 
OP
R

rgrmike

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Sep 2, 2016
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Colorado
You guys have talked me into the Swaro's. Now I'm just deciding 10x42 or 12x50. I may be moving out to VA so I think the 10x42 would be a good choice but the 12x50 have the reputation of being "the best Swarovski has to offer etc". I carry my binos in a chest harness and mostly glass on tripod.
 

snipepod

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Mar 18, 2016
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consider the 10x32 EL. All the ELs, are the best Swaro has to offer. the light gathering advantage the 10x42 has over the 10x32 is very small, just a couple extra minutes at the edges of the day. but packability is an all day issue. If you need 12X, then the 12X50 won't disappoint. If you need 10X, the 32 vs 42 is really more about field of view and packability than light gathering. If you plan to mount them to a tripod, larger field of view is nice, because you have to reposition you bino fewer times. The edge to edge claritiy of the ELs is really stunning. Which lets your eyes wander across the entire field of view when tripod mounted. Personally I am always trying to lighten and shrink my pack system. Our Granite Peak tripod and Rapid Release System is evidence of this approach. The 10X32 ELs fall in line with that phlosophy.
 

Whisky

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Dec 25, 2012
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I have 10x42 SLC, 12x50 EL and 12x50 Razor HDs. I upgraded to the 10x42 SLCs from some lower end glass. I really liked them. To me the ergonomics and glass are phenomenal. I used them for a year, however over the course of that year I would compare them to my buddies 12x50 ELs and I was blown away how much better the 12x was then the 10 in certain situations. The comparison mostly took place on multiple open country mule deer hunts, and on 1 MT elk hunt. The 12x was most definitely preferred.

So the next year I got a deal on 12x50 Razor HDs and gave them a shot to see if I actually liked the 12x for most of my needs. I also live in whitetail country and do a lot of stand/ground hunting for them, among other hunting. Most of my bino glassing is done off hand. Well after a year of using the 12x Razors I decided I liked 12x for most all of my hunting. Again, over the course of that year I compared my Razors with my buddies Els and there was never a time where the ELs did not kick the Razors ass.

So the next purchase was 12x50 ELs. These are the binos I now use 90+% of the time in the field. The ONLY time I will use my 10 SLCs over the 12 ELs is if I'm whitetail hunting over my food plots. Can't see real far there. But if I didn't have the SLCs sitting around, I would be using 12x 100% of the time.

Hope that provides you with some insight.
 

Travis Bertrand

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I like the savage and ford comparisons :).

I’ll throw one more out there, a quality pellet smoker vs a traeger.

HERE WE GO!
 
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Nov 25, 2016
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I have both the razor and slc 10x42. My wife and I were glassing and I said see that sea lion on that ice berg out there, to which she said, give me your binos. I was using the Swaros.
The razors are good enough for most things. Sometimes good enough is good enough. But sometimes good enough isn't.
 

OFFHNTN

WKR
Joined
Apr 10, 2015
Messages
472
I have the 10x42 Razor HD's and have had the Swaro's to look through in a side by side comparison. Looked through one, then the other, back and forth. The Swaro's are brighter and clearer and I could see a definite advantage especially in low light with them. With that being said, I am totally happy with the Razor's at more than a 50% savings vs the Swaro's.
 

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