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A bargain 10x42 roof prism? |
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River Runner
Optics Apprentice Joined: January/24/2012 Location: Colorado Status: Offline Points: 50 |
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Posted: February/24/2012 at 15:20 |
10x42 roof prisms are a pretty popular bino for both hunters and birders. The allbinos.com website does testing on the binoculars they review similar to testing done on camera lenses. There was one medestly priced model that was rated right up there with some expensive, highly regarded models. The Swift Horizon 10x42. I found it for $179 at B&H photo. Binos.com rated it just below the Vortex Razor. Might be worth a look it you are shopping for some 10x42s.
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Randy
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black crow
Optics GrassHopper Joined: February/05/2012 Location: Oregon Status: Offline Points: 38 |
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Where were you two days ago?
Well if the pair I bought don't work out I'll return them and give these a try. Or I may get a pair anyway. I love a good deal.
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“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself”
― Henry Miller |
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Klamath
Optics Master Joined: May/20/2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 1308 |
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When looking at a site like Allbinos, remember that there is no such thing as an objective review. It's what thay call an oxymoron, sort of like objective journalism. Allbinos takes a lot of well deserved gaff for some of its methods and stances. That is part of the problem. When you decide on what objective factors, you include or not, you do that on a subjective basis. You make a further subjective decision on how to collect data and another on how to analyze, it and yet another on how to present it.
What they do not do is make any particular attempt to delve into how typical their sample of any particular one is. For example, is that Swift Horizon one on which the stars aligned and we are looking at the results of an atypically good glass. Or is there something else that was atypically below spec. Sometimes they do out the obvious, but when testing one glass, how do they know? Simple, they can't.
For the rankings to meaningful statistically they would have to test enough binoculars of a make and style so that they get to a point in the data set that an atypical score, good or bad, does not shift the average rank score.
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Steve
"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted". William Bruce Cameron |
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black crow
Optics GrassHopper Joined: February/05/2012 Location: Oregon Status: Offline Points: 38 |
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True but it's a place to start. From here I look to places where customer reviews are hopefully numerous. From the reviews I've seen so far things sound good.
A real problem for the would be buyer who doesn't live in a major city is one often has to take that leap of faith and buy something they haven't handled yet. That's about all I've done and so far it's worked out fairly well but there have been duds or bad samples for sure. For me I've realized this ain't a perfect science however much I was hoping against hope that it would be. It's a lesson it seems I have to learn over and over again when using modern technology.
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“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself”
― Henry Miller |
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Bitterroot Bulls
Optics Master Extraordinaire Joined: May/07/2009 Location: Montana Status: Offline Points: 3416 |
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Allbinos has some good information, but the rating scale isn't one of them. It also doesn't take unit variation into account. I don't know anything about the Swift Horizon, but the Zen ray ZRS HD is in that price range, and is a fine instrument.
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-Matt
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black crow
Optics GrassHopper Joined: February/05/2012 Location: Oregon Status: Offline Points: 38 |
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I do like the larger Fov on the Swift. But that's just me. I was toying with buying the ZRS yesterday because they are well spoked of, but ended up buying another ED2 to get a larger FOV.
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“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself”
― Henry Miller |
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River Runner
Optics Apprentice Joined: January/24/2012 Location: Colorado Status: Offline Points: 50 |
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It was at Binoculars.com, not B&H Photo that saw the Swift Horizon for $179.98, which is cheaper than I've seen the Zen Rays, which they hadn't reviewed and may very well be better than the Swift I can't make a judgement on that.
When choosing binoculars, or cars, or anything else, one has to rely on "test drives", which are usually based on a single unit. If quality control is good, that one unit should be representative of what you might purchase. Opinions are subjective, but resolution tests etc., shouldn't be. To some degree any purchase is a crap shoot. You never know if you are going to get that one lemon in a hundred, or if you are going to get that one cherry, but I feel more confident basing a purchase on actual testing than I do on poster opinions unless I see a number of posters offering the same opinion. I haven't seen any opinions on how the Swift compares to similarly prices binocs so I would have nothing to go on other than that single review. Admitedly purchasing a Swift based on that one review is risky, but you can always send it back.
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Randy
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River Runner
Optics Apprentice Joined: January/24/2012 Location: Colorado Status: Offline Points: 50 |
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Zen Rays do seem to be good bargains too. The 10x42 Summit running around $215 and the Vista running around either $130 or $140 (can't remember which). Well reviewed at their site and this one.
Swift had another model (Ultra Lite) other than the Horizon that ranked a few places above the Horizon, giving them two binos that were well placed in the rankings, giving them more credibility. The Ultra Lite was listed as less expenive at allbinos.com, but they were more expensive at binoculars.com
At around $300, Olympus has a 10x42 that was ranked pretty high.
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Randy
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black crow
Optics GrassHopper Joined: February/05/2012 Location: Oregon Status: Offline Points: 38 |
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And the list goes on. There are many offerings in the $2-300 range that I would be happy to own. In fact as far as I'm concerned the market is a little flooded. Too many choices.
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“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself”
― Henry Miller |
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SChunter
Optics Journeyman Joined: December/02/2007 Location: usa Status: Offline Points: 376 |
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Hey guys. We aren't supposed to be advertising sites when swfa.com has the item and the price match guarantee.
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SChunter
Optics Journeyman Joined: December/02/2007 Location: usa Status: Offline Points: 376 |
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3. Do not advertise other retailers selling the same or similar products as SWFA, this includes posting links to other retailers for products sold by SWFA. SWFA does not provide this forum as a vehicle to redirect customers to our competition.
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Klamath
Optics Master Joined: May/20/2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 1308 |
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Steve
"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted". William Bruce Cameron |
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black crow
Optics GrassHopper Joined: February/05/2012 Location: Oregon Status: Offline Points: 38 |
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I was talking the topic of 10x42. In this configuration the ZRS is 315' fov. Not bad but nothing to brag about. It's not hard to find quality 10x42s that go over 340'. In fact the Sightron 10x42 comes in at 367' and sells here for under $180
For myself, even though I was looking for a 10x I went with the 9x Zen to get 371' fov. I have the 7x and I think one main reason I end up using it so much is that huge fov. The view feels nice and open. For me this helps me feel less like there is a binocular between me and the scene. But again that's just me.
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“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself”
― Henry Miller |
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