A Work Commenced May 5 2024
Product: Opticron Verano BGA VHD 8 x 32
Country of Manufacture: Japan
Chassis Material: Rubber over Aluminium/ Polycarbonate
Eye Relief: 18mm
Exit Pupil: 4mm
Field of View: 131m@1000m(7.5 angular degrees)
Coatings: Fully Broadband Multicoated, Oasis Phase coatings on Schmidt-Pechan prisms.
ED Glass: Yes
Close Focus: 2m advertised, 2.23m measured
Dioptre Compensation: +\- 3.5
Waterproof: Yes
Nitrogen Purged: Yes
IPD Range: 56-75mm
Weight: 531g advertised, 554g measured
Tripod Mountable: Yes
Accessories: Padded soft case, rubber rain guard and tethered objective caps, padded neckstrap, instruction card with warranty.
Dimensions: 12.4 x 13cm
Warranty: 30 Years
Price(UK): £300-350
If you’ve been following my reviews or reading my new book, you’ll already know that I have cultivated a great admiration for the UK-founded company Opticron. Over the years, the company has brought an excellent selection of compact and full-size binoculars to the market that offer very good optical performance at prices that many consumers can afford. I’ve already highlighted their impressive range of Porro prism binoculars, as well as their most excellent flagship roof prism model, the Japanese-designed Aurora BGA VHD in 8 x 42, which delivers sensibly perfect images across a flat 8.1 degree field. In this review, I’ll be discussing another Japanese-made model from Opticron; the Verano BGA VHD 8 x 32, kindly lent to me by the very experienced binocular enthusiast. Gary Murphy, from Northern Ireland.
The name ‘Verano’ derives from the Spanish for ‘Summer,’ and as luck would have it, I received the package right at the end of another academic year, preparing my students for careers in maths and the physical sciences. And though summertime has not quite arrived yet, the longer hours of daylight proved ideal for testing this binocular.
First Impressions
The instrument arrived safely, well packaged, inside its original box. Tucked away inside the black soft carry case, I was immediately taken by the very small and chunky body of the Verano 8 x 32. It’s almost as wide as it’s long, at just 12.4 x 13cm making it almost as tiny as the Leica Ultravid HD Plus 8 x 32 (11.6 x 11.6cm), the most compact 8 x 32 I have personally experienced. Tipping the scales at just 554g, it’s almost as lightweight as the Leica glass too. The chassis is overlaid by a thick black rubber armouring which offers excellent grip. The large, central focus wheel rotates very smoothly and easily, taking two full turns clockwise from one end of its focus travel to the other. I detected no backlash in the focus mechanism in either direction of travel.
The objective lenses have very evenly applied antireflection coatings which exude a green colour in natural daylight but renders the lenses almost invisible when looking at them head-on. They’re also very decently recessed to protect them from peripheral light and the elements.
The eyepieces are decently large and easy to engage with, and comfortable to press one’s eyes against during prolonged periods of viewing. The right eye dioptre is adjusted using a subtly protruding lever which has an excellent amount of friction, ensuring that it won’t wander while in field use. The twist-up eyecups are rather large and provide 4 positions. I found my optimal setting by twisting the cups down a few millimetres from fully extended which set them in an intermediate position between two locked settings. It was a minor irritation finding and maintaining these settings, but after some practice it came as second nature to me.
Eye relief is generous. I was able to access almost the entire field with my spectacles on and while the cups were fully retracted.
I personally found no difficulty in handling the instrument stably, although those endowed with larger hands might find the little Verano a little cumbersome to use.
In summary, the Opticron Verano BGA VHD 8 x 32 is a joy to handle with a sensible, ‘no frills’ body design that the majority of people will find convenient to use. Good job Opticron!
Optics:
The Opticron Verano 8 x 32 displayed excellent control of internal reflections. I detected none of any significance. Nor was there any diffused light around an intensely bright light source. These results are as good as I’ve seen on any quality optic. Examination of the exit pupils showed great results too: nice dark regions surrounding the circular pupils. From these results I fully anticipated better than average control of glare and stray light. And, as I shall shortly divulge, that’s exactly what my field tests revealed too!
I took an instant liking to the images served up by this binocular: bright, very sharp within a generously wide sweet spot, very accurate colours and excellent correction of off-axis aberrations, particularly pincushion distortion. Glare suppression is also well above average on this unit. Qualitatively, I formed the opinion that the Verano images were very similar to the company’s more expensive Aurora model. Looking back on my notes of the latter showed it had an edge over the Verano in getting rid of that last residual of glare against the light, and had a wider, flatter field owing to its built-in field flattening optics. Indeed with its very conservative field size (7.5 degrees), the Verano can dispense of the need for field flattening optics as the view remains quite sharp even near the field stops. I was able to verify this under the stars when the bright stellar luminary, Vega, remained decently sharp even when placed at the edges of the field. I’m certainly confident that the Verano was indeed assembled on a genuine VHD platform like the Aurora, Opticron’s flagship offering.
Notes from the Field
8 x 30/2 is my favourite binocular format, with a strong preference for Porro prism models over their roof prism counterparts. So it took a little bit of getting used to using a compact roof like the Opticron Verano in the field again, learning how best to hold it in my hands, but practice makes perfect.
The Verano has a very smooth and responsive focus wheel but what I found quite remarkable was the amount of travel it exhibited beyond infinity – more than one full revolution(so more than half its focus travel in fact) – allowing users with severe myopia to engage with the instrument without wearing spectacles. Indeed given this fact, I was especially delighted to see that its close focus distance was a little over 2 metres. For the record, if this feature is not required the focuser could be recalibrated to accommodate much closer focusing distances.
Testing the Verano in a variety of lighting conditions, the quality views kept coming. Its excellent central sharpness allowed me to view small migrant birds such as Pied and Grey Wagtails, at long distance, foraging in sheep fields or combing the shores of my local river, respectively.
I conducted some visual comparisons of the Opticron Verano with my Zeiss Victory Pocket 8 x 25( a £650 retail value), sporting the same true field of view. The comparisons were very instructive. The Verano displayed very similar central sharpness to the Zeiss. In good light, I perceived the sweet spot in the latter to be slightly larger and had slightly better optical performance against the light but the differences were subtle at best. However, in dull evening light, the greater light gathering power of the Verano pulled it noticeably ahead of the Zeiss, giving it distinct advantages over the smaller instrument under these conditions. These observations served only to consolidate my opinion that the 30/32mm format is more versatile than smaller aperture glasses.
Conclusions & Recommendations
I thoroughly enjoyed test driving the Opticron Verano BGA VHD 8 x 32. I note that this high-quality instrument can be acquired new at values below £300 if you shop around. That represents excellent value for money. What’s more, with Opticron’s 30-year warranty on this product, you can be assured of receiving first class attention should you hit any snags with it. I note also that there are 42mm options from the same series should you prefer this larger format.
Highly Recommended!
My thanks to Gary Murphy for kindly lending me the binocular for field testing.
Read about many more binocular models, from the very large to the very small, in my new book: Choosing and Using Binoculars: A Guide for Stargazers, Birders and Outdoor Enthusiasts.