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6.5X32 Vortex fury

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cannonjr View Drop Down
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    Posted: July/01/2008 at 09:46
I am considering purchasing the 6.5X32 vortex fury's and am wondering if these are the best 6-7x in this price range.

These will be primarily be used by a novice birder for forest IDs.  My wife has had trouble locating birds with my 10X43 Pentax DCF SPs, which I absolutely love.  While I have no problem with the Pentax, I wanted to get something a bit smaller with much less mag and increased FOV so she can have an easier time.  I also want to stay around the price range of the fury's.  I have seen a lot of positive reviews here and just wondered if there is anything else out there in the 6-7x roof prism that compares for the price.

Thanks for any help.


Jason
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Klamath Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/01/2008 at 10:41
The Vortex 6.5 Fury is a very good glass.  The only problem is that they are now off of the market while Vortex deals with a faulty diopter adjustment mechanism.  Just talked to them a week or so ago and they don't yet have any idea when I'll get mine back.  I also have a Swift 7x36 Eaglet and a Leupold 6x30 Yosemite.  The Swift does not have the fov of the Fury (374' vs 445') but it is sharper in the center and a little better in the last light of the day.  The Fury is bigger than most 32mm binoculars, being about competitor in size between the typical 32mm and a 42mm binocular in physical size.  This is due to the huge ocular size of the Fury, where it gets its wide fov.  The Swift is more typical of the 32mm binocular family size and has the additional advantage of a full 5mm+ exit pupil.  The Eaglet is more expensive, at $410 than the Fury.  The best optical deal on today's market bar none is the Yosemite.  You can get a 6x for about $90.00 delivered to your door.  If there is a difference in the image with the Yosemite compared to the Fury, it is essentially not noticeable.  The Swift is just a tad sharper, but the Fury and Yosemite are just about identical.  The only problem I noticed with the Yosemite is the presence of a little flare while panning underneath or otherwise looking toward the direction of the sun.  The seem to be stout and they are listed as being water and shock proof.  They also have the advantage of being able to be adjusted to a narrower inter pupilary distance than most other binoculars.  They were designed for kids and others smaller in stature than the average size male.  Mine focus to 10' rather than the listed 16' or so listed by Leupold.  I also have an 8x Yosemite which is every bit as good as the 6x and almost any other roof for $500 or so so.  You will really not go wrong with any of the three.  Oh, by the way, the Swift is a fast focus binocular, using one turn of the focus wheel.  The others use about 1.5 turns.  Once the diopter is fixed, the Fury is the winner in the robust construction category.  My Swifts are a tad too loose in the center hinge for my real liking.  That maybe just a characteristic of my sample of one. The Fury and Yosemite stay where you put them with respect to the IPD, focus, and diopter. 
Steve
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cannonjr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/01/2008 at 12:03
Thanks for the info. To clarify:  Do all the Fury's have a faulty diopter mechanism?  I see several sources online for them, but don't want to consider something with out of the box problems.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Klamath Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/01/2008 at 13:26
All 32 and 42mm Furys have the problem.  I just got off of the phone with Vortex, because it dawned on me it had been more than a month ago that I in fact last talked to them.  They said that they are now looking at late summer (mid-late August). 
 
They have some updated ones from the factory (unfortunately they are made in China) and their tech people are trying to get them to malfunction.  So far they are holding up and Vortex is thinking they'll OK a production run.  The problem was that an extreme effort was required to lift the diopter, which is part of the center focus, up to adjust.  Some also had some serious hard focusing wheel problems. The design was a little tight and the factory further cut corners a little with an inferior part (or two).  Vortex takes its warranty pretty seriously  in my experience with them, so I think they will get it fixed.  The Fury is the only thing in its size and price with that level of magnification AND fov.  The Swift is an excellent binocular, but has less fov while being a tick superior in optical resolution.  The Yosemite may be an affordable stopgap, however once you use the Yosemite you will probably always find a place for it. 
 
You might try the Hunting Optics Forum at the 24 Hour Campfire.  I, along with several others, did reviews and comparisons of the 6.5x32 Fury with whatever other binoculars we had to compare it with.  Use the search function there and search for 6.5x32 Fury.  Lots of stuff there.  Look at Bird Forum as well.
Steve
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Klamath Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/01/2008 at 13:35
If you try the campfire, the Fury reviews were done in February-April 2008.
Steve
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Bird Watcher Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/01/2008 at 19:29
Have you looked at the Leupold Katmai 6x32mm?

Katmai 6x32mm

Leupold Katmai 6x32mm

Edited by Bird Watcher - July/01/2008 at 19:33
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tero Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/01/2008 at 20:26
For beginner birders, a 7x35 Nikon Action porro gives a good wide field. Porros are good value for the money and these are pretty light. In the long run she will want 7x rather than 6.5x. Birds are small things. I use an 8x32 most of the time, fov 400ft.

7x35
Field of View489 ft./1000 yds.
Eye Relief11.9mm
Close Focus16.4 ft.
Weight24.3 oz.
Dimensions (HxW)4.8 x 6.7 in.



Edited by Tero - July/01/2008 at 20:28
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Klamath Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/02/2008 at 13:15
For what it is worth, I have never had a Katmi in a direct comparison with the Fury.  However I have had the Fury and Yosemite side by side since I have both.  I have also had the Yosemite and Katmi side by side, so I suppose an indirect comparison can be made between the Katmi and the Fury.  As far as I can tell the only observable difference between the Katmi and Yosemite is in the obvious comparison of the roof vs porro design and perhaps the question of build quality vs cost.  The images are very comparable.  I doubt I could distinguish the Katmi and Yosemite by image alone.  The Yosemite and Fury comparison shows some very small image size increase if favor of the Fury.  This may be due either to the fact that a porro binocular tends to produce a smaller apparent image than a roof, or it could be the advantage of the extra .5x.  It is small enough to be insignificant out to a mile or so. 
 
There is absolutely no discernible image size difference to my eye with the 6.5 Fury vs the 7x Swift.  The practical differences there are the smaller size of the Swift and the larger fov of the Fury.  As far as "needing" the difference between 6.5 (or 6x for that matter) and a 7x, forget about it.  I have handed both my Fury and Swift to other people with the magnification and size of the binocular blocked so that the observer did not know what the magnification was.  All of them guessed the magnification of both was at least 8x.  I think that only the most asute binocular users will be able to tell the difference in .5-1x magnification differences.  Especially if they are handed binoculars of unknown manufacture or magnification.
 
 
Steve
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tero Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/02/2008 at 18:39
The 6.5x vs 7x is a bigger difference than say 10x vs 10.5x. One can wish that it works better. ;-)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Klamath Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/02/2008 at 18:51
Makes no difference how the math works out.  Neither difference is enough for at least 99% of optics users to notice.  Mostly it works out to if you thjink there might be a slight advantage to .5x then you may well think there is.  No different from the placebo effect.
Steve
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Bird Watcher Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/02/2008 at 19:22
Originally posted by Klamath Klamath wrote:

Makes no difference how the math works out. 


For what it is worth, I can SEE the difference betweeen my wife's Katmai 6x32mm and my Fujinon CD 7x42mm. For birding, the 1x difference is significant enough that the 7x is more desirable for me, and, it gaves me views that are noticably better than the exact same views at 6x. For instance, I SEE more detail at 7x than at 6x.

My wife loves her Katmai because it is small and lightweight in her small hands. The FOV is pretty close with the nod going to the 6x. The 3D effect, which is not suppose to be noticable on roof prism binoculars, nonetheless is visible on both, I guess due to the greater depth of field.



Edited by Bird Watcher - July/02/2008 at 19:23
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Klamath Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/02/2008 at 20:06
OK.  Not trying to be contentious here.  For the record I did not say everyone is unable to see the difference.  I can see no diference im image size between 6.5 and 7x.  I also see no difference between 8 and 8.5.  Just because I don't feel, and based on my own informal comparisons, don't feel that the great majority of binoculars will either.  I also said I can see a slight difference between 6 and 6.5x.  The real point is, at that small level of magnification difference, the ability of a binocular to resolve the details of the image for the users eyes will determine the best view, not the small magnification difference.
Steve
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tero Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/03/2008 at 18:41
I still back the Nikon 7x35  porros as a sensible choice. The waterproof ones are heavier and have fancier eye cups. Both work for birds.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Bird Watcher Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/04/2008 at 19:26
Originally posted by Klamath Klamath wrote:

OK.  Not trying to be contentious here.

No offense taken. The easiest thing to do is to simply take a paper rifle or pistol target and set it at any variety of distances that you like, compare one binocular against another and SEE for yourself IF you CAN tell any difference between the lettering or the numbers on the target. It is an easy test and also quite helpful in testing sharpness, fall off, etc.



Edited by Bird Watcher - July/04/2008 at 19:28
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Klamath Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/04/2008 at 23:08
Well that approach was pretty well the one I took when it became apparent that something like that was going to be necessary to split off the differences between my then new Swift 7x36 and a couple of 8x glasses, primarily a Nikon Monarch 8x42.  In any test I did the Swift would not take second place. For my eyes I can see easily as much detail  with that 7x Swift as with any optically comparable 8x.  In short, it remains my opinion that resolution is more important than small magnification differences of 1x or less, provided one is comparing field use. It seems to me that while resolution chart tests are certainly useful, they tend to porvide a built in bias toward the highjer magnification.  I do not try to deny the laws of physics here, because anybody's eyes at some level will begin to discern a difference in magnification. On that note, my recently aquired 8x Yosemite seems to have a slightly bigger image than the Swift or my Nikon, but I can't honestly say it is any easier to see any more detail with the Yosemite.  Go to 10x for me and the difference is then much more obvious.  DIfferent eyes see things differently.  Maybe my Swift is an anomaly and actually has more than 7x magnification.
Steve
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Klamath Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/05/2008 at 13:38
Tero,
I agree with you that the Nikon 7x35 is a good binocular.  While I haven't had a  chance to do a real comparison, my only knock against the Nikon is that it has a much more noticeable amount of field curvature than the Yosemite.  I did that with an in store comparison at Wal-Mart.  The curvature was more noticeable in the Nikon.  I would venture the guess that the Fury is much flatter in its apparent field than the Nikon.  Since most binocular use is actually done with the object of interest centered in the fov, the curvwture may not be much of a real life issue.
Steve
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tero Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/07/2008 at 20:52
I have had a few Vortexes in hand, and I could only recommend Viper and Vanquish, the Furys have not seen. I was interested in a few models of Fury, but not the 6.5x.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Captain Vallo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/11/2008 at 02:19
For what its worth I just bought and returned a pair of Vortex Fury's 8.5x32.  The main reason was that the focussing wheel was noisey with a grinding sound which resonated through ones skull. When I checked out the demo model, it too was the same.

From other discussions, it appears that whilst the Vortex range of stuff uses top quality materials relative to the price, there may be some design issues (lack of experience?) and definitely manufacturing and quality control issues ... that one would expect from Chinese based manufacturing.

Yes you can have all the same problems with any manufactured item from anywhere,  but in order to keep costs down you must expect less quality control.


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