Swarovski NL Pure Binocular

[wseidel]

Many of us are impacted by the "rolling ball" effect when using field flattening binoculars. For example, though I wanted to love the 8.5 EL's, I needed to go with the 8x42 SLC's due to the "rolling ball" issue. Does anyone know if people who are sensitive to this issue have noticed it on the new NL? Thanks.

 

[eltaco]

For comparison across a few brands:

Zeiss 8X42 Victory SF is at 444 ft @1000yd. Blaser 8X42 is 424 @1000yd. Vortex Razor UHD is 420ft at 1000yd. Nikon Monarch HG is 435 @1000yd.

Swaro SLC 8X42s are 408 ft @ 1000yd. and 8X32 EL's are 423 @1000yd.

All Leica 8X binocs (that I looked at) are at 380-400ft @ 1000yd.

So, 30-70 feet of added FOV over other 8X competitors. I'd love to look through a pair and see how they handle a lot of the distortion issues that wide FOV creates, and then see how bright they really are. Add FOV, add distortion, add correction lenses, or modify the shape of an existing lens. Lot's of tradeoffs to get there. EL's annoy me with the rolling ball effect, so I like SLC's in the Swaro lines for general scanning use.

The benefits will really pop at 12X and higher IMO if they get better than the typical 300ft @1000yd 12X binos give you or the 240ft 15's get you. 300ft or close to it out of 15's would be sweet.

I can't find specs on the other NL Pure models. Does anyone have those?

Jeremy

10x is 399ft / 1000yds
12x is 339ft / 1000yds

I’m with you on assessing the trade offs. Definitely looking forward to comparing these to EL in person.

Rolling ball is such an interesting phenomenon to me personally. The first time I looked thru ELs, it absolutely made me sick. By far, the worst experience I’ve ever encountered looking thru Optics. I completely wrote them off and just happened to look thru a pair about 5yrs later. I expected the same result, but found no issue the 2nd time around.... absolutely magnificent how great these ELs are for me now.

I don’t know why that change occurred, but now I wouldn’t even consider buying binos without field flattening. Complete reversal for me from my previous experience. Sounds from above the NL will have field flattening as well, but I don’t know to what extent it’ll be comparable to that of the EL.

 

[FlyGuy]

I wonder if whatever magical optic engineering technology that was utilized to make such a big step forward in FOV in these binos will also find it’s way into Swaros line of alpha Spotting Scopes next year?




You can’t cheat the mountain

 

[Graves14]

It drives me insane that they’d come out with new single bridge binoculars without threading for a stud. Their Ta-SLC bino adapter is fantastic, why would they release new binos that aren’t compatible.

 

[jremmons]

I wonder how the flare/glare/stray light control of these new NL binoculars will compare to the EL Swarovision. To many (including me w/ the 8x32 SV EL), they were perfect/near perfect aside from this issue.

 

[robby denning]

It drives me insane that they’d come out with new single bridge binoculars without threading for a stud. Their Ta-SLC bino adapter is fantastic, why would they release new binos that aren’t compatible.

Scratching my head on that too.


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[MattB]

10x is 399ft / 1000yds
12x is 339ft / 1000yds

I’m with you on assessing the trade offs. Definitely looking forward to comparing these to EL in person.

Rolling ball is such an interesting phenomenon to me personally. The first time I looked thru ELs, it absolutely made me sick. By far, the worst experience I’ve ever encountered looking thru Optics. I completely wrote them off and just happened to look thru a pair about 5yrs later. I expected the same result, but found no issue the 2nd time around.... absolutely magnificent how great these ELs are for me now.

I don’t know why that change occurred, but now I wouldn’t even consider buying binos without field flattening. Complete reversal for me from my previous experience. Sounds from above the NL will have field flattening as well, but I don’t know to what extent it’ll be comparable to that of the EL.

I experienced the rolling ball effect for about 5 minutes with my ELs and them not again. The brain is a glorious organ.

 

[MattB]

Scratching my head on that too.


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Not to mention the method for attaching a strap/harness. Almost all harness manufacturers have gone away from the problematic split rings that wore on the mounting points, so why not?

 

[guosim]

I have pretty bad astigmatism and wear glasses. Is the 18mm eye relief enough or would the 20mm eye relief of the ELs be better? I figure better FOV is worthless if I get scope shadow with it.

 

[NevadaZielmeister]

It drives me insane that they’d come out with new single bridge binoculars without threading for a stud. Their Ta-SLC bino adapter is fantastic, why would they release new binos that aren’t compatible.

It is almost as if they take away any improvement and create a substandard binocular when they can't be mounted effectively on a tripod. I mean, with tripod mounting, you increase the effectiveness of binoculars many fold, so much so that that I would never use binoculars for any period of time without a tripod.

I wonder if they will have some other mounting option that doesn't involve silly straps and extended base plates.

 

[MidGAHunter]

It is almost as if they take away any improvement and create a substandard binocular when they can't be mounted effectively on a tripod. I mean, with tripod mounting, you increase the effectiveness of binoculars many fold, so much so that that I would never use binoculars for any period of time without a tripod.

I wonder if they will have some other mounting option that doesn't involve silly straps and extended base plates.

My understanding is The Outdoorsman will have an adaptor for this new bino, so there is that...

 

[Wapiti1]

I have pretty bad astigmatism and wear glasses. Is the 18mm eye relief enough or would the 20mm eye relief of the ELs be better? I figure better FOV is worthless if I get scope shadow with it.

Hard to say. I used to wear glasses (lasik) and depending on the frames I had, the eye relief varied. You'll have to try them and see.

2mm makes me think you're good, but it's just a guess on my part.

Jeremy

 

[Wapiti1]

Scratching my head on that too.


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You are thinking that they care about hunters and our tripods. They care about birders that don't use binocs on tripods very often. It's an annoyance that I have seen with Swarovski (and others) for a couple of decades. They have traditionally been very careful to not offend the bird crowd and appear to pander to hunters. We are not their largest consumer group.

Jeremy

 

[guosim]

You are thinking that they care about hunters and our tripods. They care about birders that don't use binocs on tripods very often. It's an annoyance that I have seen with Swarovski (and others) for a couple of decades. They have traditionally been very careful to not offend the bird crowd and appear to pander to hunters. We are not their largest consumer group.

Jeremy

Funny, I just read a discussion on birdforums a couple days back saying that hunters spend more on binos than birders.

 

[justin davis]

How come they didn’t make a 12x50?

 

[eLightfoot]

When they make a 12x50 NL Range, and include a threaded stud built in.......Thats when I'll be upgrading my EL 10x42 Ranges. Swaro not including a viable tripod mounting system on the ELs and now NLs is the absolute dumbest sh@t ever. Makes no sense.

 

[AkMtnRunner]

How come they didn’t make a 12x50?

I guess is whatever they discovered they could do to widen the FOV meant a serious retooling process and they can only manage to do it one size at a time. The introduction being on the 42mm models. I am certain, if successful, it'll be applied to their others. It's also a better business model to not satisfy us completely and keep our hopes up for the next fancy thing.

 

[AGPank]

I had read (theory maybe, maybe somewhere on Rokslide) that Swarovski and Leica recommend their binos use the rubber strap adapter when on a tripod. The reason being a fall from the tripod would be less impactful in the rubber strap versus a rigid mount to the tripod.


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[BackCountryMulies]

My only complaint is they released them the day after I ordered 12x50 ELs

 

[StopMakingSense]

I'm patiently waiting for my preorder to show up on Sept 1st, hoping Outdoorsmans has the stud they're working on by then.