New Sig Zulu

[bigbuckdj]

You may want to hang on to those 10x. I absolutely love mine. The 20's are OK.

In a more perfect world I think I would have the 10's on my chest and the new Sawro 14's for tripod use but I am OK with where I am at.

Yeah I really want to try some ranging binos instead of the 10s but it’s crossed my mind keeping them.

I’ll be curious to see if sig finds something wonky with this set. I’ll be happy to buy another set of 42mm 16s if this ends up being consistent.

 

[roadrunner]

Man my kidneys are getting nervous the more people talk about stabilized NL’s lol

I've heard you can substitute your an eye or a hand for a kidney.

 

[swavescatter]

Update:

TLDR - stay away from the HDX Pro generation. Straight trash. No upside.

I spoke to Sig Sauer today after they checked my brand new 18 Pro's. "ThEy mEEt SPeC." When I pointed out how they market their new HDX Pro glass as superior light transmission, color and clarity, they backed ALL the way down and just reiterated "LoW lIGht tRanSmisSiOn is ImpROveD." The rep claimed that larger objectives should be expected to have worse clarity.

So they will only stand behind this generation as being superior during low light scenarios, which in my experience with the Gen 2 HDX is about the first/last 5 minutes of light. For a 12 hour day in the field, that's 1.4% of the time that these binos are superior, while 98.6% of the time the cheaper, lighter, less power hungry HDX Gen 2's are superior. Got it.

They offered a 10% discount toward the Gen 2 Kilo10k's I've been eyeing, but that's still hundreds more than I get them. No thanks. In fact now I'm leaning harder towards the Revics.

Big thumbs down Sig. Do better.

 

[voltage]

Update:

TLDR - stay away from the HDX Pro generation. Straight trash. No upside.

I spoke to Sig Sauer today after they checked my brand new 18 Pro's. "ThEy mEEt SPeC." When I pointed out how they market their new HDX Pro glass as superior light transmission, color and clarity, they backed ALL the way down and just reiterated "LoW lIGht tRanSmisSiOn is ImpROveD." The rep claimed that larger objectives should be expected to have worse clarity.

So they will only stand behind this generation as being superior during low light scenarios, which in my experience with the Gen 2 HDX is about the first/last 5 minutes of light. For a 12 hour day in the field, that's 1.4% of the time that these binos are superior, while 98.6% of the time the cheaper, lighter, less power hungry HDX Gen 2's are superior. Got it.

They offered a 10% discount toward the Gen 2 Kilo10k's I've been eyeing, but that's still hundreds more than I get them. No thanks. In fact now I'm leaning harder towards the Revics.

Big thumbs down Sig. Do better.

Thanks for sharing. This will certainly have me reconsidering future purchases.

 

[Okie84]

Update:

TLDR - stay away from the HDX Pro generation. Straight trash. No upside.

I spoke to Sig Sauer today after they checked my brand new 18 Pro's. "ThEy mEEt SPeC." When I pointed out how they market their new HDX Pro glass as superior light transmission, color and clarity, they backed ALL the way down and just reiterated "LoW lIGht tRanSmisSiOn is ImpROveD." The rep claimed that larger objectives should be expected to have worse clarity.

So they will only stand behind this generation as being superior during low light scenarios, which in my experience with the Gen 2 HDX is about the first/last 5 minutes of light. For a 12 hour day in the field, that's 1.4% of the time that these binos are superior, while 98.6% of the time the cheaper, lighter, less power hungry HDX Gen 2's are superior. Got it.

They offered a 10% discount toward the Gen 2 Kilo10k's I've been eyeing, but that's still hundreds more than I get them. No thanks. In fact now I'm leaning harder towards the Revics.

Big thumbs down Sig. Do better.

Thanks for taking the time to post your experience. I’m glad I read this before I pulled the trigger..that’s some horse dukey!

 

[Time2fish]

I received my 16x50 pros last week, and finally got them out today. I was discouraged to hear some the recent negative reports, after what seemed like glowing reviews from the people who got them over a month ago.
I had my 12x42 zulu6 hdx out for some side by side.
This was a drizzly western Oregon day looking mostly north over a semi fresh cut.
At first I wasn’t to impressed by the 16’s vs the 12’s. Apparent FOV is not noticeable bigger, scan mode is the same with the 12x42’s having the bonus target mode.
The 16’s do take on more light, and have better color saturation for my eyes. I’ve never liked the 12x42 with any sun glare, and when I got a few breaks in the clouds the 16’s seemed to have better coating for those sideways sunrays. The 16’s have a shallow depth of focus, more so than the 12’s.
The only life I saw was a coyote I picked up at 900yrds while using the 16’s. I picked up the movement right away, even though the grass was tall and slash was everywhere, the 16’s stayed on him very easily and the color was very noticeable. When I switched back to the 12’s the yote seemed muted in color, harder to pick up his movement, and color between the logs, stumps and grass.
I was hoping to pick up some cow elk or blacktail does to do some digiscoping but nothing walked out at last light.
Over all first impressions of the 16x50 pros are not all bad. I like the color, extra light (although not great) it’s better than the 12x42’s. The shallow depth of focus could be better but was not bad when following the coyote, I was able to keep it crisp. They are a bit heavy to hold for extended period of time, propping my knee up to rest an elbow on helped.
I purchased the 16x50’s to be in my pack for when I decided to leave the tripod and ATC at home. I love my Maven b1.2 8x42’s on my chest, and thought the 16’s would be a good pairing since they are 10-12 oz lighter than any 15x56s out there, and no tripod is needed.
I will give them another shot later this week.

 

[swavescatter]

Can you please set them up to take some pictures side by side? It's easy for me to convince myself I didn't waste $1700 but when looking at something like antlers or branches at distance the clarity was glaringly poor. I didn't notice an improvement in color.

 

[swavescatter]

Update here

 

[Hollywood_139]

I just ordered a pair of 14x pros directly from sig. I will write a follow up after I have used them for a couple weeks. I hope they are a good upgrade from the 12x hdx for the weight penalty. But I currently run 10x swaro el ranges that are over 30 oz.

How have you liked the 14x pros vs the 12 hdx? I am debating between the two. I feel like you run into more problems with the 16x and 18x but I want to hear your opinion on the 14x pros

 

[outheretryin]

How have you liked the 14x pros vs the 12 hdx? I am debating between the two. I feel like you run into more problems with the 16x and 18x but I want to hear your opinion on the 14x pros

I love them! I was fortunate enough to take these on a variety of hunts this year. desert sheep to bc moose, and they felt at home in both settings. Close range target acquisition took a little getting used to, but not much different than classic 10x binos. The OIS tech is very seamless and effective compared to the rather clunky on/off activation of the previous generation. I found the 14s easy to get behind, no ill effects or eye fatigue from the extra mag. I havent felt the need for more mag as I carry a spotter nor have I wished I had less mag. They are BIG AND HEAVY. Especially if you need to carry a range finder, upwards of 40 ozs on the chest. If I could I would carry a handful of different options. But if I had to grab one, these would be them.