hawke ed or zen ray ed or promaster ed

tell me why you picked a certain bino and tell a little about them. im going to by a pair as the hawke were number 1 then zen ray's number 2 and finally 3 are the promaster, im just making sure i dont get the wrong pair.

Edited by skilly1979 - April/05/2009 at 01:41

the reason why im asking is because i was going to fork the money out for a high end bino like swaro's, leicas etc!. but i been reading those up top are just as optically good and at 1/4 the price.

I would place the order of those as ZEN ED first, Promaster second and Hawke third.  The Hawke is last because it seems to have a common complaint of softness at the edge of the field.  I have the ZEN ED and Promaster.  Optically they are too close to call. The chief difference is the ZEN ED is a little slimmer because it has a littler thinner armor on the barrels and it has nicer eye cups.  The ZEN also has a listed higher fov.  The Promaster has both water an oil repellent coatings, while the ZEN does not.  Both ZEN and Promaster have quite flat fields and little edge distortion.  ZEN has the best price.

Edited by Klamath - April/05/2009 at 09:57

don't have hands-on experience with Hawke or Promaster. I received the ZEN ED.  After a brief use, its optical quality is actually better than I have anticipated. After reading many positive reviews on them, I was like, come on, it must be decent, but not stellar for $360. Well, it is very good indeed. Thanks a lot for the recommendation.

New price drop on the ProMaster's ($350 shipped), just look around.  

With the price of the zen's and the promasters equal which one would you choose? Now it comes down to optics, low light performance, warranty, fov.

There is zero difference optically.  You will blow your eyeballs out through your ears trying that one.  The image is a little more color neutral in the ZEN and maybe a bit on the yellowish side of warm on the Promaster.  But what you can see with one, you can see with the other.  The  differences will be that the Promaster has rain and oil repellent coatings (which is likely the reason for the slight image difference) and the ZEN does not.  The ZEN has a wider fov than the Promaster, but it is close enough that the difference does not jump out at you.  The barrels on the ZEN are set a bit further apart, but that is because they have thinner armor than the Promaster.  If you have small or deep set eyes the ZEN has more accommodating eye cups.  Zen Ray does however, optically inspect all binoculars before shipping them.  Not many places do that.

Edited by Klamath - April/08/2009 at 17:32

Just received my promasters. They are unbelivable crisp and bright. I am very much a novice but I did not notice unfavorable edge distortion. There is a little bit there (very little) but I tend to focus my eyes at the center. The build and quality appear solid. The hinges are heavy duty and the focus wheel is pretty smooth. Compared to my 15yr old bushnell powerview 10x50 porros this is a tremendous step up. I went with promaster because of there no fault warrant. Seems similar to Vortex's warranty but with a $25 fee. Also because my major use is hunting I preferred the repellamax coatings. As klamath indicates the promaster and the zen are very close optically. With all the favorable reviews here and on the sites mostly about the zens I figured I cant go wrong. Can't wait to go to the hunting camp and compare them to some Nikon, Kahles and Steiners.

Glad to hear you are happy with them. All three pairs are significantly more alike than not but there are subtle differences with each that will influence any individual buyers decision.