Leica Duovid experiences

[willfrye027]

I am very interested in these, particularly the 10-15x50. There’s not a ton of recent info out there in this or other forums. If anyone has these or has used them, and in particular compared them to some of the more recent offerings, I would love to hear your opinions and thoughts. I’m sure the newer 15x56 offerings are a little better than these at 15x50, but I kind of doubt the difference is enough to change the outcome of a hunt.

Also if anyone is selling a pair, I’m interested.

 

[Forest]

I'm curious to see the replies as well. Seem like a great option in todays world where a lot of people want to carry another pair of high powered binos....

Sent from my SM-G920R7 using Tapatalk

 

[willfrye027]

I think my main concern is poor FOV on these. But I sometimes feel like the whole FOV craze is a little overblown. It does feel nice to have an expansive FOV, but our brain can only take in so much information at once. I am not sure it truly makes a difference. But I do think always having the option to crank up the power and get a closer look at some object or some area that you cannot see well with the 10s, without having to switch binos completely, could be really helpful. I’ve also been told that the glass quality is roughly trinivod-ultravid, and probably compares to my Zeiss conquests, which are perfect IMO

 

[Steve O]

I tested a pile of binoculars last year when I had a set of Noctovids for review. I picked some objects I could see from my deck at my home at different ranges and compared what was the smallest detail I could see/read with each tripod mounted Bino. I also set a euro rack in a tree in the woods on a bright night and an overcast night and picked 3 details on the rack and had all the binoculars stacked on top of each other on a few tripods. I will have to dig it up. What it did show my was at 10x my Duovids were slightly behind the Alphas in every category but cranking them up to 15 put them on pretty equal footing with the 10 Alphas.


Also Trinovid/Ultravid glass is excellent...it’s not an detriment. You aren’t really at a disadvantage with anything like that.

And IMO, FOV is WAY overrated.

 

[willfrye027]

I tested a pile of binoculars last year when I had a set of Noctovids for review. I picked some objects I could see from my deck at my home at different ranges and compared what was the smallest detail I could see/read with each tripod mounted Bino. I also set a euro rack in a tree in the woods on a bright night and an overcast night and picked 3 details on the rack and had all the binoculars stacked on top of each other on a few tripods. I will have to dig it up. What it did show my was at 10x my Duovids were slightly behind the Alphas in every category but cranking them up to 15 put them on pretty equal footing with the 10 Alphas.


Also Trinovid/Ultravid glass is excellent...it’s not an detriment. You aren’t really at a disadvantage with anything like that.

And IMO, FOV is WAY overrated.

Would love to see that data! I would thing with a 50mm objective it would perform well at 10x.

 

[willfrye027]

I ended up buying both 8-12x42 and 10-15x42 new, with the intention of testing them out and returning them. Overall I felt like the quality of glass was excellent. I would give the slightest edge to my Zeiss conquests for having slightly better contrast to my eyes. The fit and function of the duovids was excellent—very smooth focus, sturdy eyecups, etc.

The 8-12x42 did not really add anything optically to what I could see with my conquest 10x42. Plus, the FOV was about the same at 8x on the duovid as it was in my conquests. The 8s were definitely easier to hand hold which was tempting, but I just didn’t feel like 12x was enough of a step above 10x. Previously I had looked through razor 12s compared to my Zeiss and preferred my Zeiss, and did not think the extra 2 power did a whole lot for me.

The 10-15s were pretty sweet. On 10x, the FOV is not very good unfortunately. It’s not a dealbreaker, but I do enjoy the expansive FOV of my conquests. The image sharpness was pretty much identical, as was the low light performance. Both did well past legal shooting light. On 15x, the duovids are awesome. Very bright, crisp, clear image. I was worried that the smaller objective and older coatings would disappoint but they did not. I would expect some of the newer 15s to perform slightly better, but to me the utility of having both bins in the same package outweighs the slight optical compromise. I wish Leica would update these things but I doubt there is enough market for them. In the meantime I am looking for a used pair to try in Wyoming this coming fall.