Razor uhd 12x50 vs bx5 12x50?

[amateurhourhunter]

What would yall prefer to own? Pros and cons

 

[Reed104R]

I have not used the bx5, but muliple reviews suggest it is not up to par with the Vortex Razor HD's. I doubt it would compare favorably against the UHD's, which cost 40-50% more. The UHD's are optically alpha grade binos, but I don't think the build quality is as good as the big three. Leupold and Vortex both have outstanding warranties. Try them both and decide which you prefer. You stand to save a few bucks with the Leupold.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

I have not used the bx5, but muliple reviews suggest it is not up to par with the Vortex Razor HD's. I doubt it would compare favorably against the UHD's, which cost 40-50% more. The UHD's are optically alpha grade binos, but I don't think the build quality is as good as the big three. Leupold and Vortex both have outstanding warranties. Try them both and decide which you prefer. You stand to save a few bucks with the Leupold.

What multiple reviews?? Lol. I own both. The Leupold Santiams are by far the superior glass. Its not even close. The Vortex’s have a weird blue hue to them.

 

[amateurhourhunter]

What multiple reviews?? Lol. I own both. The Leupold Santiams are by far the superior glass. Its not even close. The Vortex’s have a weird blue hue to them.

I havnt seen any reviews comparing the two. UHD have a heftier price tag but are they that much better. I can’t get over that they are a brick. How are the eye cups on the bx5, I’ve read they are horrible. Thank you

 

[J.r. Shinkle]

Well i for one tried the Santiums and thought they where terrible,but everyone's eye are different.

 

[Reed104R]

Color rendition varies quite a bit among the brands. The reviews I have read compared the Vortex HD's to the Leupolds. I have not seen any reviews comparing the UHD's.

 

[skyfreek60]

Know this thread is a few months old but posting for others wandering this journey. I also have both and am actually trying to figure out which to keep. Here is my journey so far.

Bought a pair of bx5 12x50 and used then a season. The color and Optics are very good. However, those dang flanged eye cups are awful to me. I also would prefer a locking diopter like they have on the bx4 models but the eye cups were the real reason I continued my search... there is more to the bx5 story that I'll circle back to.

So, my brother had a pair of the razor uhd 12x50 for a year already and I would occasionally use them. I was with him when he bought them and they compared very well with the swaros in the store. They are awesome glass and the eye cups feel great. Knowing I liked them, I ordered a pair for myself after growing frustrated with leupolds eye cups. Well they come in and I use them a bit but was annoyed because they were not as good as my brothers or my bx5. They had aberration and blue haze when looking at white (i.e. snow) and seemed like the diopter focus (not main wheel) needed constant adjustment as you changed range. So I spoke with vortex and they sent a return label to send them back. Will circle back to these too...

In the meantime, I had sent another optic back to leupold. A couple of the reps wanted to downgrade them but when I got the return shipping notice for my replacement, it had the wrong address. So I called and this time got a VERY helpful rep. He actually brought up that they shouldn't be sending me a downgrade and fixed that, among the address. We get to bs-ing and he mentions exactly the same eye cup problem I have had with my leupolds (both bx4 and bx5).... sends me 2 free pair of FLAT eye cups (no flange like original). Put them on my bx4 10x42 and bx5 12x50.... World of difference.

Back to the razors now. Vortex gets my pair and reads my notes. A week or two later I have return tracking info. Box comes in and it's a brand new pair with a note that the originals "could not be returned to factory specifications". So I got to keep the accessories (nice chest rig and harness) from the original and got a whole new packaged pair. This pair is optically comparable to my brother's.... so what I believe should be expected from the uhds.

I literally just walked in from looking all around my neighborhood and other side of the highway and whatnot trying to figure out which pair I would rather keep and it's very tough. I feel like the leupold have a more natural color hue to them. The vortex have quite a bit less distortion near the edge and are pretty much clear to the edge (which seems to be the typical gain going to top tier glass). The vortex do seem to add a little fringing/hue to white objects in bright light, but seem to have a little more "pop" at times. This makes it hard because the resolving power of each varies depending what you're looking at. Both resolve well and I have used them during season and been able to see well past legal hours. The vortex "extras" are nicer if you will use them. The chest rig is probably a $50-100 bonus, but the price gap is wide.

In conclusion, I'm having a hard time deciding. The replacement flat eye cups really change the bx5 (if you read many reviews you would see that is almost always the main/only gripe). I did get a dud razor at first. Both companies were awesome (edge to vortex, leupold dependent on rep you get). I think out west the edge to edge clarity of the uhd may be worth it. I mainly hunt the fields of PA looking a couple hundred yards but would like to get out west at some point. If it wasn't for the new eye cups my decision would have been soooo much easier.

Anyway, hope my journey helps muddy the waters for someone else too...lol.

 

[Tahoe1305]

I compared both in a thread back in 2018 and preferred the UHDs. I wasn’t a fan personally of the BX-5s. Didn’t like the eye cups either.

I personally thought resolution and edge to edge was better on UHDs. The color differences didn’t bother me but I won’t say they weren’t different.

I didn’t like the size of UHDs though. If you want good glass and don’t care about the size, UHDs are cool.

I have swaros now. They are better than both for a bit more $.

 

[jrock_jeep]

I have had both, prefer the the UHD over the BX-5. The UHD were a gift and i got the BX-5's from a sent in pair of Gold rings. The BX-5's were 10x42, the UHD 12x50. Both are ok glass, but I think there is other glass out there that is better for similar money. Have since sold the BX-5's and am now searching for some Alpha's. I did have an issue with the BX-5's in snow where the edges turned purplish in color, and the UHD's didn't.

 

[nobody]

UHD's without question. The Leupold's ergos suck, and their eyecups are blocky and square and poorly designed. The glass in the UHD's is superior as well. About a year and a half ago, a coworker warrantied an old pair of Leupold Switchpowers and they sent him the BX5's as a replacement. He was kicking around going to Maven's, and I had the UHD's already. He and I spent some time comparing the 3, and between the two of us along with a few other fellow hunters/coworkers, it was unanimous that the Maven B.2 and UHD were neck and neck, and the BX5's were a loooooooooooong ways behind optically. Throw in their sucky eyecups and it was a nail in a coffin. The glass didn't suck, it was better than Viper glass but not quite as good as Razor HD level. If a guy has the BX5's and he can't find animals, the glass won't be the reason. The eyecups might though haha.

The BX5's would be a great bino if they were about $400 cheaper, but as it stands, they are grossly overpriced for their optical performance.

On the note of price, my old coworker also took an INSANE bath on the BX5's when he sold them to fund the Maven's. After listing them starting at $950 and slowly dropping them, he finally was able to offload them for $550, IIRC. That's nuts for a bino that retails for $1200.

 

[amateurhourhunter]

Know this thread is a few months old but posting for others wandering this journey. I also have both and am actually trying to figure out which to keep. Here is my journey so far.

Bought a pair of bx5 12x50 and used then a season. The color and Optics are very good. However, those dang flanged eye cups are awful to me. I also would prefer a locking diopter like they have on the bx4 models but the eye cups were the real reason I continued my search... there is more to the bx5 story that I'll circle back to.

So, my brother had a pair of the razor uhd 12x50 for a year already and I would occasionally use them. I was with him when he bought them and they compared very well with the swaros in the store. They are awesome glass and the eye cups feel great. Knowing I liked them, I ordered a pair for myself after growing frustrated with leupolds eye cups. Well they come in and I use them a bit but was annoyed because they were not as good as my brothers or my bx5. They had aberration and blue haze when looking at white (i.e. snow) and seemed like the diopter focus (not main wheel) needed constant adjustment as you changed range. So I spoke with vortex and they sent a return label to send them back. Will circle back to these too...

In the meantime, I had sent another optic back to leupold. A couple of the reps wanted to downgrade them but when I got the return shipping notice for my replacement, it had the wrong address. So I called and this time got a VERY helpful rep. He actually brought up that they shouldn't be sending me a downgrade and fixed that, among the address. We get to bs-ing and he mentions exactly the same eye cup problem I have had with my leupolds (both bx4 and bx5).... sends me 2 free pair of FLAT eye cups (no flange like original). Put them on my bx4 10x42 and bx5 12x50.... World of difference.

Back to the razors now. Vortex gets my pair and reads my notes. A week or two later I have return tracking info. Box comes in and it's a brand new pair with a note that the originals "could not be returned to factory specifications". So I got to keep the accessories (nice chest rig and harness) from the original and got a whole new packaged pair. This pair is optically comparable to my brother's.... so what I believe should be expected from the uhds.

I literally just walked in from looking all around my neighborhood and other side of the highway and whatnot trying to figure out which pair I would rather keep and it's very tough. I feel like the leupold have a more natural color hue to them. The vortex have quite a bit less distortion near the edge and are pretty much clear to the edge (which seems to be the typical gain going to top tier glass). The vortex do seem to add a little fringing/hue to white objects in bright light, but seem to have a little more "pop" at times. This makes it hard because the resolving power of each varies depending what you're looking at. Both resolve well and I have used them during season and been able to see well past legal hours. The vortex "extras" are nicer if you will use them. The chest rig is probably a $50-100 bonus, but the price gap is wide.

In conclusion, I'm having a hard time deciding. The replacement flat eye cups really change the bx5 (if you read many reviews you would see that is almost always the main/only gripe). I did get a dud razor at first. Both companies were awesome (edge to vortex, leupold dependent on rep you get). I think out west the edge to edge clarity of the uhd may be worth it. I mainly hunt the fields of PA looking a couple hundred yards but would like to get out west at some point. If it wasn't for the new eye cups my decision would have been soooo much easier.

Anyway, hope my journey helps muddy the waters for someone else too...lol.

Thank you for the in depth feedback from each. I actually went w the leupys as they were half the price. I do like everything about them except you guess it the eyes cups. I wonder if I call they will send me a pair (would you mind DM me and telling me exactly what they are) the razors were just a ton and very bulky. I wanted the 12x50 for west and I currently use a kowa 6.5 for my treestand and ground hunting. Thank you again for sending all that. Much appreciated.

 

[csrichardson97]

I own the razor HD's, took a look through the BX-5s at Sportsmans last night. Eyecups were terrible, and I personally thought the glass was far below the razors. Build quality also felt cheap compared to the Vortex product.
Not a real comparison, I know.... But if you can tell a difference inside a store, the actual differences will be accentuated in the field.

 

[OneH]

Personally sent back to Leupold an incredibly sucky brand spanking new BX5 Santiam 12x50 which wasn't even close to my optically superior15x56 BX5 Santiams (which I actually own two of since I wanted to own one of each in different colors) the 12s weren't much better than the extremely sucky brand new BX4s I also sent straight back to Leupold.

I also own nearly every single model of the Vortex Razor UHDs as well as practically all models of the SIG Zulu 9s and 10s and they're far superior to any of the BX5s they're in totally different leagues.

I recently bought a Zulu 8 12x50 and it optically smoked the 12x50 BX5 I sent back to Leupold and would rate it between Vortex Razor HD and UHD Abbe Konig level of glass.

See my other replies elsewhere on other threads for better cheaper options as well.