So after much debate, I sold my 10x42 EL Range Binoculars and bought another pair of these. Thats right, I had these at the beginning of the year and sold them to buy the EL Range. I loved my 12x50's before but the thought of the built in rangefinder was so appealing.
This is what the problem was for me. I was hesitant about the 33 yards as the minimum, but could overlook it if everything else was perfect. The range button on the left was not an issue, as you could easily use your right hand only and hit the button. Here lies the problem.....The rangefinder measures in meters, then a conversion is done and displayed in yards if you have yards as your display choice. The downfall to the conversion process, is there are several yardages it could never display due to this and it was not as accurate because of this.
I took a 300' tape to the range and used the EL Range at every ten yards past 35 out to 100 yards. I could stand in the same spot at say 50 yards and get 48, 50 or 52 yards and not move from my spot. Using my Nikon Archers Max, I would get 50.2, 50.6 or 49.4 almost always within a half yard. I also checked the angle compensation and at a 16 degree down hill angle at 50 yards, it would read all the same as above, 48, 50 and 52. At that angle and distance the cut is just under 2 yards. But because of this conversion process it always showed the cut at 1 yard no matter what, I am guessing because it doesn't round up the equation. My Nikon on the other hand showed the cut between 1.8 and 2.0 every time. I also found that on dark back grounds the EL Range always read a couple yards long, but ranging something on a light background right next to it, showed a closer reading. In comparison, the Nikon could care less about the lighting and was fairly true all the time.
Reality, for rifle hunting it doesn't matter and probably even for bowhunting, 2 yards is not going to make a miss. But 2 yards and 2 yards on the angle, making 4 could make a miss depending on the initial distance.
So the 12x50 are back around my neck with the Archers Max nearby. The 12x50 I personally think is Swarovski's best piece of glass overall for my hunting style, but $hit I really wanted the EL Range to work out.
It also cost me about $200 for this little experiment between buying and selling and buying again.
This is what the problem was for me. I was hesitant about the 33 yards as the minimum, but could overlook it if everything else was perfect. The range button on the left was not an issue, as you could easily use your right hand only and hit the button. Here lies the problem.....The rangefinder measures in meters, then a conversion is done and displayed in yards if you have yards as your display choice. The downfall to the conversion process, is there are several yardages it could never display due to this and it was not as accurate because of this.
I took a 300' tape to the range and used the EL Range at every ten yards past 35 out to 100 yards. I could stand in the same spot at say 50 yards and get 48, 50 or 52 yards and not move from my spot. Using my Nikon Archers Max, I would get 50.2, 50.6 or 49.4 almost always within a half yard. I also checked the angle compensation and at a 16 degree down hill angle at 50 yards, it would read all the same as above, 48, 50 and 52. At that angle and distance the cut is just under 2 yards. But because of this conversion process it always showed the cut at 1 yard no matter what, I am guessing because it doesn't round up the equation. My Nikon on the other hand showed the cut between 1.8 and 2.0 every time. I also found that on dark back grounds the EL Range always read a couple yards long, but ranging something on a light background right next to it, showed a closer reading. In comparison, the Nikon could care less about the lighting and was fairly true all the time.
Reality, for rifle hunting it doesn't matter and probably even for bowhunting, 2 yards is not going to make a miss. But 2 yards and 2 yards on the angle, making 4 could make a miss depending on the initial distance.
So the 12x50 are back around my neck with the Archers Max nearby. The 12x50 I personally think is Swarovski's best piece of glass overall for my hunting style, but $hit I really wanted the EL Range to work out.
It also cost me about $200 for this little experiment between buying and selling and buying again.
