Zeiss SFL 12x50 Tested and Reviewed

[Matt Cashell]

What are your thoughts on 12x binoculars? Pros and cons?

Keep an eye on this thread for my full thoughts on Zeiss' new compact offering. Coming soon...

 

[holzphoto]

i owned them for a minute. the pair i had, there appeared to be repeating dark circles when you looked through them. I have very happy with the 8x40 SFL's.

 

[Matt Cashell]

i owned them for a minute. the pair i had, there appeared to be repeating dark circles when you looked through them. I have very happy with the 8x40 SFL's.

“Repeating dark circles”

Can you tell me more about that? I’m not sure I quite understand. My test copy has pretty good eye relief and doesn’t show blackouts from kidney beaning.

 

[Mojave]

I had the Zeiss 10x56 model before this one. They were great. I wish I still had them. Someone put a lot of miles on them before I owned them and they brought in light like no other.

Is Zeiss still doing sports optics? I had thought they were "shockingly" leaving the industry.

 

[Matt Cashell]

Is Zeiss still doing sports optics? I had thought they were "shockingly" leaving the industry.

Zeiss has recently expanded their sport optics lines and doesn’t look like they are slowing down anytime soon.

 

[Mojave]

We were told here in Germany the opposite. That 2025 will be the last year, they are going to focus on electronic optical devices like game cameras.

Maybe they had a change of heart in Wetzler.

 

[nm.otter]

They're having big fun (and making healthy profits) working on stuff like this.

 

[Mojave]

Wetzlar: Carl Zeiss Sports Optics will Fertigung einstellen

Die Produktion von Optiken für Jagd und Naturbeobachtung in Wetzlar steht absehbar vor dem Aus. Das kündigt die Carl Zeiss Sports Optics GmbH an. Betroffen sind 70 Mitarbeiter.

www.mittelhessen.de

They are done in Wetzler in 2026. I personally think they are done forever in sports optics. We will see though. They might still keep factories in America open. Or do the LOW thing using Schott Glass like others do.

 

[Bugger]

Wetzlar: Carl Zeiss Sports Optics will Fertigung einstellen

Die Produktion von Optiken für Jagd und Naturbeobachtung in Wetzlar steht absehbar vor dem Aus. Das kündigt die Carl Zeiss Sports Optics GmbH an. Betroffen sind 70 Mitarbeiter.

www.mittelhessen.de

They are done in Wetzler in 2026. I personally think they are done forever in sports optics. We will see though. They might still keep factories in America open. Or do the LOW thing using Schott Glass like others do.

No hablo deutsch. Is that saying they’re just done manufacturing sport optics in Germany? That would make sense, as Japan is the easy button nowadays and they’ve been pushing new models as well as jumping into the shooting glasses scene. They’ll definitely lose some of that European prestige by doing so, that’s a bummer.

 

[Mojave]

No hablo deutsch. Is that saying they’re just done manufacturing sport optics in Germany? That would make sense, as Japan is the easy button nowadays and they’ve been pushing new models as well as jumping into the shooting glasses scene. They’ll definitely lose some of that European prestige by doing so, that’s a bummer.

Genau! or Exactly in German.

 

[holzphoto]

“Repeating dark circles”

Can you tell me more about that? I’m not sure I quite understand. My test copy has pretty good eye relief and doesn’t show blackouts from kidney beaning.

When I looked through them at certain angles, there were black rings, multiple black rings that were visable. I also did not find them as sharp as the 8x40 SFL's.

 

[Matt Cashell]

When I looked through them at certain angles, there were black rings, multiple black rings that were visable. I also did not find them as sharp as the 8x40 SFL's.

Interesting. I wonder if you had a defective copy. I didn’t see that in my sample. Sharpness is also really good in my test sample.

 

[Mojave]

Interesting. I wonder if you had a defective copy. I didn’t see that in my sample. Sharpness is also really good in my test sample.

He is probably heavily near sighted, and does not have enough eye relief to get to where he needs to be hence the vignetting.

 

[holzphoto]

He is probably heavily near sighted, and does not have enough eye relief to get to where he needs to be hence the vignetting.

could be. i use the 8x40 SFL's and all of the swarovski NL Pure x42's w/o issue.