New Leica Bino/Rangfinder combo Geovid HD-B

[Tilzbow]

I talked to the Leica rep today at SCI. Based on that conversation I think there's an extremely good chance we'll see changes made within the next hear to make these binos suitable for archery. He said they've received a ton of feedback from archers and that company is aware of the need. It only requires a firmware change that's already been developed for the newly released range finder.

I also talked to Zeiss and although they weren't extremely forthcoming it seems they'll be releasing an angle compensating bino soon and they're also aware of the need for an LED color, other than red, for color blind hunters. We thought Zeiss blue would be perfect. I had the some color blind discussion with the guys at Leica and they didn't think it would happen but after we got deeper into the conversation and they realized it might be a firmware change they seemed more hopeful. One of the Leica guys suggested purple which might just be the perfect color to make it work for guys with normal vision and us color blind guys.

Bottom line there is hope for archers and color blind guys!

 

[HONEYBADGER]

I talked to the Leica rep today at SCI. Based on that conversation I think there's an extremely good chance we'll see changes made within the next hear to make these binos suitable for archery. He said they've received a ton of feedback from archers and that company is aware of the need. It only requires a firmware change that's already been developed for the newly released range finder.

I also talked to Zeiss and although they weren't extremely forthcoming it seems they'll be releasing an angle compensating bino soon and they're also aware of the need for an LED color, other than red, for color blind hunters. We thought Zeiss blue would be perfect. I had the some color blind discussion with the guys at Leica and they didn't think it would happen but after we got deeper into the conversation and they realized it might be a firmware change they seemed more hopeful. One of the Leica guys suggested purple which might just be the perfect color to make it work for guys with normal vision and us color blind guys.

Bottom line there is hope for archers and color blind guys!

They are vaporware anyway at this point. To my knowledge nobody has actually been able to buy a set yet and the release date has been pushed back from March, to June, to July and now late August. I am guessing you will not see these things available in time for this hunting season. There is always next year....

 

[ckleeves]

They are vaporware anyway at this point. To my knowledge nobody has actually been able to buy a set yet and the release date has been pushed back from March, to June, to July and now late August. I am guessing you will not see these things available in time for this hunting season. There is always next year....

Pretty sure Cameralandny just got some in and is shipping now.

 

[Benny]

Mine came in last Thursday...haven't had any time to play with them yet.

 

[woodtick]

I just got mine today they are pretty impressive, my only concern is the barometer is not even close and I've had the battery in for over 3 hours and I pick up the binos every 20 min or so and check the barometer and it hasn't changed. My hand held say 30.05, so does the internet for my current location, the rangefinder says 25.53. Not good as for now, hopefully Leica has some insight.

 

[RosinBag]

woodtick, what elevation are you currently at? If you are around 4500 to 5000, your rangefinder is correct and your handheld and internet is showing adjusted for sea level, which is fairly common.

 

[woodtick]

Rosin, I'm at 4450- my problem is the clicks that the Leica say to adjust are vastly different from my handheld. My guns follow the handheld almost spot on out to 1000. Am I missing something, I've been shooting long range back when rangefinders were slow and finicky at the best. I'm totally open for insight!!

I don't spend much time surfing the web this time of year, I farm for a living so I will recheck the thread when I get the chance, might be a couple days.
Cheers!

 

[RosinBag]

Your rangefinder is reading the pressure at your elevation and not recalculating it for pressure at sea level which is always around 30.00. A simple formula is every 100' of elevation subtracts about .10 from the pressure. So 30.00 minus 4.50 is the 25.50 you are getting on rangefinder. Pressure obtained from weather sources or the internet may or may not adjust to their sea level equavalent pressure. You can tell if you use the formula above. If you have a custom turret or using a ballistic calculator, you have to make sure your inputs are correct for your drops to be correct. Your hand held device might be set to adjust the pressure back to sea level equivalents. If so, you probably can change those settings inside the handheld.

 

[RosinBag]

Woodtick, this may explain it better....

Taken from a website.

To compare pressure conditions from one location to another, meteorologists correct pressure to sea-level conditions.

Because the air pressure decreases as you rise in altitude, the sea-level corrected pressure (the pressure your location would be at if located at sea-level) is generally higher than your measured pressure. Thus, your pressure may read 28.62 inHg (969 mb) at an altitude of 1000 feet (305 m), but the corrected pressure is 30.00 inHg (1016 mb). The standard sea-level pressure is 29.92 in Hg (1013 mb).

Pressure conditions greater than 29.92 inHg (1013 mb) are considered high pressure and less than are considered low pressure.

Most weather stations instruct you to find a reporting station near your location to identify the corrected pressure, but Virtual Weather Station calculates this offset for you.


So my guess would be your rangefinder is not correcting for sea level and your handheld is, thus screwing your drop data up at long range.

 

[woodtick]

Well I didn't get the chance to call Leica, I had already planned to shoot with my buddy this afternoon, so I took my stuff up to his place. Once there I reformatted the SD cards and ran through the ballistics program again and reloaded the data for my 260AI and 300RUM. We also had a Kestrel 4000, Suunto Core watch to measure barometric pressure, the range has no angle at all and there are 24"x24" steel plates at 600-800-1000yds. Long story short, I started at 1000, no wind and put the settings in my hand held ballistics app (knights armament bullet flight 3 and an exbal based program on my buddies droid) both gave the exact adjustment, I fired 2 shells out of my 300 and they impacted roughly 4" high, I then picked up the Leica's, inserted the 300RUM SD card and went through the settings and bam the adjustment called for 1/4 MOA less than the hand helds. I fired 2 more shells 1st hit almost dead center( minus wind drift, we had a slight breeze) and the 2nd was about 2" low. OK so were getting somewhere, I then pulled the SD card and replaced it with my 260AI card and went to 800 and did the exact same process above, the data for the hand helds were exactly the same as the Leica's. So what the hell was I doing wrong yesterday? I have no clue! I think I might have had my sight in distance wrong on the online calculator, but I don't know, the heat does funny things to me. So with that being said the bino's were more accurate than all of our other gadgets, it was even getting the exact same temp as our kestrel. I'm gonna do some shooting at some really weird angles and see what that does, with the SD card plugged in, they will only range 1000yds and give you your adjusted values. You have to turn off the ABC in the bino's to get it to range to its full potential, as for now I love these things. I will repost after the angled shooting is concluded.

 

[RosinBag]

Woodtick, another thought is you just getting them. The are sometimes formatted where they were built, overseas. Could have been just off of an airplane also. It may have taken a day for the Leica's to recalculate exactly. I am not sure, but if it is working that is all that matters.