I’ve had the pleasure of testing many binoculars from nearly every aperture class. People often ask me, which binocular has impressed me the most over the last couple of years. You may be surprised to hear that I have a new answer: the Svbony SA207 Pro 8 x 42. 

I took it on vacation at the end of May to the pretty town of Aberfeldy, about 90 minutes drive north of my home. Here we checked into the Moness Resort, set among the rolling hills of Perthshire. The weather was idyllic: clear blue skies and warm Spring sunshine allowing me to see just how good this new binocular could perform. 

Black Beauty

The SA207 Pro looks and feels like an alpha glass. It’s incredibly robust but so easy to use. Everything about this glass exudes quality: the handsome black rubber armouring, the superbly functioning focus wheel, which rotates with buttery smoothness, the continuously variable dioptre ring firmly keeping its position. That large eye box which makes the viewing experience supremely comfortable. Yes it’s a heavy glass but it balances perfectly well in my medium sized hands. Svbony has really stepped up to the mark with this new SA207 line.

The optics are incredibly sharp: beautiful, microcrystalline details coming through from every viewing portal. I would rate the optics higher than the widely lauded Sky Rover Banner Cloud series: and that’s saying a lot! The optical glass appears to be distinctly different from the Banner Clouds giving even less chromatic aberration off axis and a cooler colour tone. The resolving power of the SA207 Pro is just awe inspiring, especially at distance; every minute detail pops into clear view, allowing one to pick off hill walkers and ramblers miles away: every burn and crag standing out in glorious detail. 

Rising early in the morning before breakfast, I took off for a saunter with SA207 Pro along the river Tay which flows right through the Moness estate. I came to a spot on the river with thick wooded areas on either side: an ideal spot to track down Dipper birds. Settling myself against the trunk of a Beech tree, I was soon greeted by a family of Dipper birds bobbing up and down on the rocks in the middle of the fast-flowing river. I was genuinely surprised how close I could get to them: clearly they were unperturbed by my presence. I was rewarded with beautifully sharp views of their plumage: chocolate brown back and sides and snow white bellies and throat. Dippers are utterly charming creatures.

The Swallows have arrived back on our shores for another long summer season. Their screeches fill the air during the day but in the evening they calm down a bit, perching on the rooftops of our self catering chalet. I spotted one just a few metres away, allowing me to take close up pictures in good light. 

With an enormous, ultra-flat field of view – 9.1 degrees- exceeding top tier European brands like the Zeiss Victory SF and rivalling that of the much more expensive Swarovski NL Pure 8 x 42, watching fast moving birds like Swallows becomes especially easy to do. Back at home, I watch them feasting on insects hovering just over the water of Culcreuch Pond. Their manoeuvres are astounding. To think this evolved by blind forces of nature is downright blasphemy! One afternoon, I experienced a sight I had not seen before: a seagull hovering high over the pond suddenly bombdived and captured a small Roach before flying off to consume it! It sounds all the more crazy since that’s what seagulls ought to do. At last; I saw a gull…..a real gull!

Neat!

Where there’s Water there are Birds…..

The Moness Resort has a small pond frequented by lots of different species of birds: Mallard, Moorhens and other surprise visitors. Sitting on the bench overlooking the pond, I enjoyed using the SA207 Pro 8 x 42 to watch them soaking up the sunshine on its banks and then waddling back into the water for a cool dip.

I was also lucky enough to study both Grey and Pied Wagtails collecting debris to build their nests. While usually a bit more cautious, here they seemed totally unfazed by the presence of humans.

The aerial acrobatics of these small birds is amazing: one second they are walking about calmly, bobbing their long tails up and down as they move, and then suddenly taking to the air, leaping straight up from the ground and looping back down to terra firma catching insects hovering in the air above them.
In the evenings, we’d often be greeted by the arrival of small groups of Blackheaded Gulls, surveying the area for scraps of food.

Moon Watching

Our short stay at the Moness Resort also coincided with the presence of the First Quarter Moon culminating low in the south. At this time of year, strong twilight persists until midnight, so I had to stay up fairly late to get the best views. Nonetheless I was able to enjoy some beautiful views of our natural satellite with the SA207 Pro  8 x 42, following its changing phase into early Gibbous. The Moon appeared wonderfully sharp in this binocular but seemed rather small – an illusion created by the enormous field of the instrument. There was no colour fringing inside the SA207 Pro’s huge sweet spot. Only by placing the Moon very near the field stops could I make out any colour fringing: blue on one side, yellow on the other.

To be Continued……..

De Fideli.

A Work Commenced May 21 2026

Get $15 off the purchase price by using the code Neil 15 at the following link

Preamble

Product: Svbony SA207 Pro 8 x 42

Country of Origin: China

Chassis: Magnesium alloy overlaid by protective rubber

Exit Pupil: 5.25mm

Eyecups: Twist up, innovative step-less design

Eye Relief: 19.8mm

Field Flatteners: Yes

IPD Range: 56-74mm

ED Glass: Yes, APO designation

Coatings:FBMC, dielectric phase coatings, hydrophobic coatings on exterior lenses

Field of View: 159m@1000m(9.1 angular degrees)

Dioptre Compensation: +\-4

Close Focus: 1.51m measured

Light Transmission: 91%

Objective filter threads: Yes

Waterproof: Yes IPX7

Nitrogen Purged: Yes

Tripod Mountable: Yes

Weight: 944g

Accessories: Padded case with carry strap, neck strap, rain guard and objective covers, instruction manual

Warranty: 2 Years

Price(UK): £399.99

Without a shadow of a doubt, we are living in the golden age for purchasing high quality binoculars. For many decades, the finest optics were the purview of companies like Zeiss, Swarovski and Leica, who command very high prices for their optics, but in the last few years some serious challenges to the status quo have emerged. 

When I first set out surveying the binocular market, I discovered, quite by accident, a relatively new company, Svbony,  who were offering good quality binoculars at incredibly low prices. I speak of the SV202 series which is now enjoyed by thousands of binocular enthusiasts across the world. The SA205 series was a significant improvement over the SV202s, offering a much flatter field of view. Most recently, Svbony has launched their new flagship binocular series, the SA207 Pro, which promises top notch optical performance comparing very favourably with the highest quality wares offered by European manufacturers. In this review, I’ll be test driving the SA207 Pro 8 x 42.

First Impressions

The instrument arrived well packed with nothing out of place. I was first struck by the quality of the carry case for the SA207 Pro which is very nicely padded to protect the optics with its rich, beige colour. The instrument fits snugly inside and has plenty of room to accommodate  the neck strap. On the rear end of the case a separate zipped compartment allows you to carry a lens cloth and some lens wipes etc. 

Turning to the instrument itself, my first impressions went something along the lines of, “ this is one solidly built binocular,” its large frame and sleek black rubber armouring protecting the magnesium alloy chassis underneath. I love the splashes of orange complementing the black colour of the chassis.

My first surprise came when I went to twist up the eyecups. Unlike any other model I’ve tested, the SA207 Pro offers no fixed detents. You simply rotate the eyecups and watch them move upwards. That means that the user can set them to whatever distance from the eye lens that is most comfortable. They work incredibly well by the way, rigidly holding their positions no matter how much or how little they are twisted. This gives the user an extra degree of freedom in reaching the optimal eye relief for their physiology. 

The eyepieces are large and extremely comfortable to rest your eyes against, with the generously large exit pupil rendering it child’s play to correctly centre them on your target. The objective lenses are well recessed and the antireflection coatings generating tobacco coloured hues in broad daylight. The reader will also note that the objectives are threaded to accept a variety of astronomical filters. The interior was spotlessly clean, with no finger prints, dust or metal shavings I see all too often in other models.

Another useful upgrade featured on the SA207 Pro 8 x 42 are the hydrophobic coatings applied to the exterior lenses of the instrument. In my damp Scottish climate, this will help repel water droplets, condensation and dirt, making them easier to clean.

The dioptre compensation ring is located under the right ocular lens. It rotates smoothly but with a nice amount of inertia, enabling it to hold its position precisely in field use.

The textured metal focus wheel is superb – buttery smooth to rotate in both directions and with zero play.  It’s beautifully tuned too, allowing the user to quickly and accurately focus from just a few metres away to infinity and a little bit beyond. About one and a half revolutions of the wheel anticlockwise takes you from its closet focus to infinity. That said, I found myself using only about 5 per cent of the focus travel to glass nearly all the subjects I used to test this model. The main reason for this is the SA207 Pro’s incredible close focus, bringing objects as near as 1.5m into sharp focus!

While the accompanying neck strap is padded out enough to handle the substantial weight of this binocular (944g), I felt an instrument as sturdy as this would benefit from stronger support, if only for added peace of mind. I had one small niggle about the rain guard accompanying the SA207 Pro. It’s just too tight! Indeed, the rubber eyecups come off with the rain guard, which is not ideal! Thankfully, the rubber eye cups are designed to be pulled off to aid in cleaning the eyepiece lenses.

The SA207 Pro 8 x 42 handles superbly. It’s easy to hold in my medium sized hands. It has the look and feel of an instrument costing far more than its modest asking price suggests.

Optics

I began my optical testing by shining an intensely bright beam of light from across my living room to see how the binocular handled it. The result was very encouraging: a couple of very subdued internal reflections and a modest diffraction spike. When I turned the SA207 Pro on a less bright streetlight after dark the internal reflections had all but disappeared but the diffraction spike remained. 

Next I examined the light around the exit pupils. The results were excellent, as you can see below: perfectly round entrance pupils and no light leaks in their vicinity. This is good evidence that the SA207 Pro will deliver high contrast images even against the light. 

The view is excellent: tack sharp from centre to edge, bright, and vivid natural colours and lovely contrast. The big eye box makes getting a relaxed view easy to achieve. Comparing it to the view through my Leica Ultravid HD Plus 8 x 32,  I was delighted to see that the views were very comparable.

The biggest difference was the near elimination of any pin cushion distortion in the SA207 Pro that was all too obvious in the Leica glass, as well as the much larger field(40 per cent larger) of view presented by the Svbony. Leica has a reputation for delivering optics that suppress glare better than nearly all other brands and in these tests – glassing against the light – it did pull ahead, but not by much. Chromatic aberration was exceptionally well controlled in the SA207 Pro with only a trace seen right at the edge of the field. Indeed, I felt the Svbony glass showed less colour fringing than the Leica. Resolution at distance seemed to be a tad better in the SA207 Pro compared with the Leica too. Eye relief was also much better in the SA207 Pro 8 x 42 than in the Leica. Keeping the eyecups in their fully retracted position I could access nearly all the field of view with my regular (non progressive) glasses.

Testing the SA207 Pro 8 x 42 on the night sky, I centred the bright star, Arcturus, to see how the instrument would behave as I moved the star from the centre all the way to the field stops. The star remained tightly focused nearly all the way to the edges, with very mild coma and a trace of astigmatism showing up in the outermost 10 per cent of the field. This will make an excellent stargazing glass for cruising the summer Milky Way.
All in all, the SA207 Pro optics are indeed top notch, comparing favourably with instruments costing three or four times its retail price! 

Conclusions & Recommendations

To say that I’m impressed with the SA207 Pro  8 x 42 would be an understatement. It clearly performs well enough to place it in the top tier of contemporary mid-sized binoculars, yet is offered at an incredible price. It’s ideal for birding, casual stargazing, and landscape exploration. I’m very much hoping Svbony will bring other members of the SA207 family to market, including perhaps a 10 x 42, 8 x 32 or even a 10 x 50. Only time will tell!

Highly Recommended!

Dr Neil English is author of Choosing & Using Binoculars: a Guide for Stargazers, Birders and Outdoor Enthusiasts.


De Fideli.

A Work Commenced October 26 2025

Product: Svbony SA208 8 x 42 ED Imaging Binocular

Country of Manufacture: China

Exit Pupil: 5.25mm

Eye Relief: 17mm

Close Focus: 4m advertised, 3.65m measured

ED glass: Yes

Coatings: Fully Multicoated

Dioptre Compensation: +\-4

Field of View: 126m@1000m(7.2 angular degrees)

Sensor: 6 Megapixel CMOS

Wifi Range: 10m

Video Capability: 1080P

Battery Life: 4 Hours(4000mAh)

Image Stabilisation: No

Weight: 912g measured, 940g advertised

Accessories: Padded zip-closed case, charging cable, padded neck strap, rain guard and objective covers, tripod mounting bracket, 32GB SD card(pre-inserted)lens cleaning cloth, instruction manual

Price: £347.63

Over the last several years, I’ve been delighted to showcase some very impressive binoculars marketed by Svbony. Their SV 202ED and SA205 ED series offer great bang for buck to the modern consumer, empowering more people than ever before to enjoy the great outdoors. Likewise, Svbony’s extensive range of spotting scopes has delighted thousands of individuals with their high quality optics at prices that won’t break the bank.

But Svbony has not rested on its laurels, continuing to develop new, cutting-edge technologies that enrich the outdoor experience. In this review, I’ll be showcasing a new imaging binocular: the 8 x 42 SA208 ED boasting a 6 Megapixel imaging sensor capable of capturing photographs and video footage. 

Ergonomics

As usual, the SA208 arrived very well packed with a tastefully designed presentation box. The binocular was housed inside an excellent padded case with a zip lock that provides great protection of the optics and delicate electronics of the SA208 binocular. 

The instrument is quite bulky, tipping the scales at a shade over 900g. That’s good news as it’s light enough for the majority of users to transport over extended distances. 

The magnesium alloy chassis is encased in a textured, grey coloured rubber substrate offering exceptional grip. 

The central focuser is excellent: it rotates smoothly with a nice amount of inertia and no free play that I could detect. Just over one full turn anticlockwise takes you from closest focus to beyond infinity. 

The metal eyecups are covered in soft rubber and are of the twist-up variety. Four positions are available from fully extended to fully retracted. They are very firm, holding their position very well in field use.

The underside of the binocular houses the delicate electronics necessitating the extra bulk. Thankfully this does not unduly affect the handling of the SA208 as you can rest your thumbs on the underside while accessing the focus wheel with your index and ring fingers

The binocular has a LCD screen on the top of the instrument displaying important information including battery power status as well as Wifi connectivity.

The imaging sensor is mounted inside the ocular train of the right barrel. You can see it in the photo below, where it appears as a dark central spot. This reduces contrast in the right barrel owing to the central obstruction but you quickly become accustomed to it. 

Because the SA208 imaging binocular does not have in-built stabilisation, capturing sharp hand-held shots is somewhat of a challenge, necessitating a steady hand. Placing it on a tripod alleviates this problem though. Svbony supply a good quality mounting bracket that screws into the front of the binocular bridge but I resorted to mounting it using velcro, as shown below:

Optics: 

I shone a bright light from across my living room into the binocular to see how it would handle it. The image from the left barrel was clean and tidy with little or no internal reflections, with only a moderate diffraction spike. The view through right barrel produced a weird rainbow of colours, no doubt due to CMOS sensor placed in the optical train at the eyepiece end. This was an acceptable artefact given the nature of this binocular. 

Optically the SA208 is very good; sharp, high-contrast images, excellent colour correction and accurate colours. There is very mild pincushion distortion in the outer field of view and edge sharpness is quite good. All in all, using the SA208 as a regular binocular presents no problems whatsoever. 

Imaging Capabilities:
To engage with the imaging system the user must download the free Viipulse App to use on your smartphone. The SA208 is turned on using the large button on the far end of the bridge. Two beeps inform the user that the binocular is ready to connect to your smartphone. Once your phone is connected, the Vjipulse App is opened which enables you to connect to the camera. Using the central focus wheel, you focus on a target in the middle distance (about 100m is ideal). You can fine focus the image by increasing the magnification from 1x all the way to 10x. The images captured however are at 1x i.e. the binocular magnification of 8x.  Once the sharpest image is obtained on your smartphone, you individually adjust both the left and right eyepieces individually by rotating a metal ring under each eyepiece while leaving the central focus wheel fixed. Now you’re ready to image using the main focus wheel to adjust sharpness.

To avoid image shake, the SA208 can be set up as far as 10m away from your smartphone where you can use the latter to activate the imaging camera on the binocular. It’s easy and quick to use, maintaining a good connection over many minutes. Indeed the Viipulse App allows up to 3 smartphones to simultaneously view the images captured by the SA208 binocular!

Here’s a screenshot of the Viipulse App opened on my smartphone:

Here’s my first light image of a tree located about 40m in the distance:

The actual file size for this image was 2.5MB. Only a low resolution(150kB) image is posted here.

To get some images of birds at my garden birdfeeder. I set up the SA208 a few metres from the feeder and activated the Viipulse App from the comfort of my living room. It worked brilliantly!

Should you so wish, and in order to reduce vibrations, one can also choose to take images while at the binocular too, by enabling a 3-second delay before the shutter is opened.

The SA208 can also capture video footage in 1440p format. Battery life is good. I was able to shoot photos and capture video footage over several hours of field use before it required a recharging.

Here are a few more images zoomed in a little more:

In summary, the Svbony SA208 8 x 42 imaging binocular combines very good optics with novel imaging capabilities. Placed on a tripod, it delivers crisp photos and video footage that will appeal to many nature enthusiasts. For the money I think it offers excellent value for money.

Dr Neil English reviews hundreds of binocular models in every price category in his book, Choosing & Using Binocars

De Fideli.

A Work Commenced August 1 2025

Product: Svbony SV 202 ED 10 x 42 Mark II

Country of Manufacture: China

Chassis: Magnesium alloy housing overlaid with textured black rubber

Exit Pupil: 4.2mm

Field of View: 114m@ 1000m( 6.5 angular degrees)

Close Focus: 2.5m advertised, 2.02m measured

Light Transmission: 90% advertised

Coatings: Fully Multicoated, phase corrected prisms

ED Glass: Yes

Dioptre Compensation: +\-3

Waterproof: Yes, IPX7 rating

Nitrogen Filled: Yes

Tripod Mountable: Yes

Accessories: Padded case, Neoprene padded neck-strap, Rain guard, tethered objective lens caps, lens cleaning cloth, instruction manual

Weight: 694g advertised, 659g measured

Price(UK): £139.99

Preamble

About four years back, I alerted the community to an inexpensive series of binoculars – Svbony’s SV 202s – offering optical performance well above what I expected from their price class. Since then, thousands of units are now in the hands of an army of outdoor enthusiasts in Europe, the Far East, the Antipodean, and the United States . So when Svbony decided to give their SV 202 series a makeover, I was naturally curious to see what changes had occurred. I ordered up the 10 x 42 to put it through its paces, and the following is a summary of my findings.

A Great New Look

Although the neat package containing the instrument was the same as before, a cursory examination of the binocular showed some notable changes. For one thing, the rather tough armouring of the original SV202 had been replaced by a softer but thicker rubber substrate that offers a finer grip than the first generation models. In addition, the company’s name is now proudly displayed on the side of the binocular giving it a more classy look. 

The next thing I noticed was its very light weight for a binocular in this aperture class. While the original 10 x 42 tipped the scales at just under 700g, the new SV202 weighed in at just 659g, making it arguably one of the lightest 10 x42s I’ve personally encountered!

Another surprise hit me when I started moving the focus wheel; gone is the old metal focuser. Its replacement is covered with soft, indented rubber which is very smooth and responsive. My unit has zero free play or backlash: indeed it’s one of the best focusers I’ve seen in quite a while, certainly better than the original model. A little over two rotations anticlockwise takes you from closest focus to a little beyond infinity – good news for those who suffer from moderate myopia. 

The right eye dioptre compensation ring moves smoothly but holds its position rigidly. Nothing fancy here: but it certainly does the job!

The twist-up eyecups have three positions and lock in place firmly with a moderately loud ‘click.’ They are, in fact, just as solid as the original models though, and actually a bit better built than on their flagship binocular – the SA205. Eye relief is fairly generous: I was comfortably able to view the entire field wearing my eye glasses.

The next surprise came when I examined the coatings applied to both the objective and ocular lenses. Gone is the deep magenta bloom used on the earlier model SV202, replaced by more conventional tobacco coloured coatings that are noticeably less reflective than the original. 

Like the first-generation models, the objectives are deeply recessed to protect the lenses from the elements as well as stray light. 

In the hands the new SV202 ED binocular feels great: easy to grip and easy to wrap your hands round the barrels. And it’s very light weight- more like some heavier 32mm binos I’ve encountered – making it especially comfortable on long walks.

All in all, the ergonomic changes to the new SV202 ED were a very pleasant surprise and most certainly render the instrument more fun to use.

Optics

Examining the image of a bright beam of light from across my living room showed no significant diffraction spikes but did show a few annoying internal reflections. The same was true when I examined a bright street lamp after dark  in the distance. This is definitely an inferior result to my findings with the original SV202, which showed far less in the way of internal reflections.

 A clue to what was going on ‘underneath the bonnet’ as it were was revealed when I examined the exit pupils seen against a bright indoor lamp. As the images below show, there are significant light leaks immediately in the vicinity of the pupils which were responsible for the only negative finding I picked up in my daylight glassing tests. 

The view through the SV202 10 x 42 ED is very good; bright, sharp, high contrast, with neutral but saturated colours. Suppression of chromatic aberration is also excellent. Indeed I was expecting significantly more given that this is a 10x instrument. Glassing through layers of leaves against a bright overcast sky showed up just a trace of lateral colour in the outer 15 per cent of the field. There is some moderate pincushion distortion though, which does help somewhat with comfortable panning. Glassing against the light or placing the sun at an oblique angle to my line of sight did throw up a bit of lens flare but that is probably the only personal issue I had with this unit. Edge of field sharpness was also very good: only a small amount of field curvature softens the image just inside the field stops. 

Overall , the  Mark II SV202  10 x 42 ED is very impressive when you consider the very reasonable price tag this instrument comes with.

Notes from the Field

I afforded the most comfortable and immersive views by extending the eyecups into the first locking position, as seen in the photographs. Close focus was found to be just over 2m, a significant improvement over the 2.5m advertised. The excellent focus wheel makes finding the sharpest possible view quick and  easy. Conducting most of my daytime glassing using 8 x binoculars, shifting back to 10x shows a noticeably shallower depth of field, as you’d expect. 

10 x 42 binos are very popular with hunters who need that extra bit of reach or those general observers who enjoy seeing fine details. I did find the instrument a little tricky to hold steady on the afternoon of August 4, when Storm Floris swept its way northeastward across the country, bringing with it inland gusts up to 60mph. A weightier instrument would definitely fare better under these conditions. 

Turning the instrument on the August night sky generated impressive views of the starry heavens. The first quarter Moon was tack sharp and without colour fringing inside its generous sweet spot but a very modest amount of lateral colour creeps in: blue on one side of the field and yellowish-green on the other. I did pick up a few internal reflections though as reported earlier.

Star clusters look great in the Mark II 10 x 42ED and goes considerably deeper than any 8 x glass. Collimation is good. I enjoyed observing the Alpha Persei Cluster, the Double Cluster, the Andromeda Galaxy and its fainter satellites, M33 in Triangulum, and the Coathanger asterism in Vulpecula. Lying back in my zero gravity chair I enjoyed tracking down other smaller clusters, panning the Milky Way through Cygnus and Cassiopeia. Because field curvature is so mild, even stars at the edges of the field remain quite well focused – an impressive result for a binocular without field flatteners. 

Conclusions & Recommendations

In many ways, the Mark II Svbony SV202 10 x 42 ED is an improvement over the original model, with better ergonomics, a wider field of view, less colour fringing, and lower weight. At its current retail price you’d be very hard pushed to get an instrument this good at twice the price. It remains a solid performer and one of the best bangs for buck on the market today.

Be sure to check it out!

Dr Neil English explores the fascinating world of binoculars in his detailed book, Choosing & Using Binoculars: A Guide for Stargazers, Birders and Outdoor Enthusiasts

De Fideli.

A Work Commenced October 23 2024

Product: Leica Ultravid HD 8 x 42

Country of Manufacture: Portugal

Chassis: Magnesium alloy overlaid by protective rubber

Exit Pupil: 5.25

Eye Relief: 15.5mm

Field of View: 130m@1000m(7.4 degrees)

Dioptre Compensation: +\-4

Coatings: Fully broadband multicoated, AquaDura Hydrophobic coatings on ocular and objective lenses

ED glass: Yes, Schott Fluorite

Field Flatteners: No

Waterproof: Yes

Nitrogen Purged: Yes

Close Focus: 3m advertised, 2.9m measured

Tripod Mountable: Yes

Dimensions:12.1 x 14.2cm

Weight: 790g advertised, 792g measured 

Accessories: Soft padded carry case, objective covers, ocular rain guard, padded neck strap, instruction manual, test certificate & warranty card

Warranty: 10 Years

Price: £1000 (bought used), £1799 new

The Leica Ultravid series of high performance binoculars were introduced in December 2003, followed in 2006 by their so-called HD series incorporating Schott Fluoride glass in their objectives. Finally in 2016, Leica brought the latest incarnation of the Ultravid to market with their HD Plus line of binoculars which offered slightly better coatings to improve light transmission. Long sought after by binocular enthusiasts for their elegant design and uncompromising optical performance, they’ve remained a favourite among birders and other outdoor enthusiasts. 

That said, in the past few years new and highly advanced binoculars promising equal or better optical performance at a fraction of the retail price of the Ultravids have now come to the fore. I was keen to see how these expensive Leica binoculars stacked up against one of these products in particular: the Sky Rover Banner Cloud (SRBC)APO 8 x 42. The results were very enlightening to say the least!

Having related highly accurate data concerning the SRBC APO 8 x 42 and 10 x 50 models – now corroborated by dozens of user testimonials – these instruments have been almost universally lauded for their sensational optical performance at an amazing price, I was keen to see how they would perform against a known quantity in the high-end binocular market, so I bought in a used Ultravid HD 8 x 42, which has essentially the same optical and mechanical features of the newer HD Plus model. 

Having previously shown the SRBC 8 x 42 to be optically superior to both the Zeiss Conquest HD (see post #1069) and the Zeiss SFL binocular, I knew going in that the Ultravid HD would be facing a formidable challenge. 

A Brief Look Around the Leica Ultravid HD

For many, the Leica Ultravid represents the pinnacle of optical and mechanical refinement. With a magnesium alloy chassis, a titanium alloy focus wheel, overlaid by a sexy black vulcanised rubber armouring, you can see why these instruments were drooled over by many on binocular porn sites like Birdforum. 

The underside reveals thumb indents- a feature designed to baby the user into positioning their thumbs while looking through the instrument. Thankfully this feature has largely fallen out of fashion. I personally dislike them and find it patronising that a company as big as Leica would presume to know anything about how I like to handle binoculars.

The twist up eyecups are excellent: some of the best in the industry. They offer plenty of eye relief and can be unscrewed to assist cleaning the ocular lenses. 

The objective lenses have excellent multilayer coatings that maximise light transmission (of the order of 90 per cent) and the outer lenses of both the objectives and eyepieces are treated with the company’s patented AquaDura film designed to prevent the build up of water droplets while glassing in adverse weather conditions. 

The focus wheel is large and centrally placed, with a built-in dioptre adjustment accessed by pulling out the top part of the objective. Once you’re done with that adjustment, you simply pop the focuser back down to lock it in place. 

But while many of these features first found on European- made binoculars were considered state of the art only a few years ago, cutting-edge Chinese-made binoculars like the SRBCs now share many of these features, and then some. It has comparable or slightly higher light transmission, excellent hydrophobic coatings on its outer lenses and twist-up eyecups of comparable quality. They can also be unscrewed for cleaning.  

Thankfully though, the SRBC dispensed with a locking dioptre. Instead it is smooth and continuous, avoiding the common problem of shifting out of place as it is slotted into position. 
Examining the exit pupils of the Leica Ultravid HD showed excellent results as you can see below. The pupils are perfectly round and have very dark surroundings indicative of excellent stray light control

That said, the same is true for the SRBC binoculars as my review link above shows.

Comparative Testing

High-end, full-size binoculars like the Ultravid HD series are necessarily chunky. They just have many optical components that make them so. Recent efforts by Zeiss to cut the weight down by mounting thinner lenses etc invariably result in compromises, as I was to discover field testing their SFL range. Accordingly, the 8 x 42 Ultravid HD weighs 792g while the SRBC 8 x 42 tips the scales at 883g, so not much difference there.

The differences did begin to show however, once I began to handle both instruments. 

For one thing, I was shocked to discover that the vulcanised rubber armouring on the Leica Ultravid had come loose on the underside of the binocular, manifesting a crunching sound as I pressed my thumbs on the belly of the instrument. Worse still, I was sorely disappointed with the focus wheel on this unit. It was sluggish, with uneven kinematics, and to top it all off, displayed an alarming level of free play. Granted this was an older binocular but Leica has supposedly prided itself in creating products with great longevity. Indeed, this was one of the more desperate manoeuvres by the bino porn stars, who, having conceded the optical excellence of the SRBC (more on this shortly), began looking for other ways to diss them. Well, based on my experience with this Leica Ultravid HD, it’s clearly in need of a service. So much for longevity eh?

The Leica Ultravid HD has a short and stocky frame compared with the SRBC 8 x 42. I found it harder to hold it steady, as the large bridge makes it more difficult to wrap one’s hands around compared with the longer barrels and shorter bridge found on the SRBC. Moreover, the silky smooth focuser and lack of free play on the latter renders it much more responsive to making quick focus adjustments. Overall, I much preferred the ergonomics on the Sky Rover. 

The SRBC hydrophobic coating proved the equal of the Leica(Aqua Dura) in being able to disperse a thick layer of condensation applied to the 42mm objectives. Both instruments dispersed this condensation with equal speed.

Unquestionably, the Leica Ultravid HD has very fine optics, but I judged the SRBC to be superior overall. Shining an intensely bright beam of white light from across my living room showed up excellent results with both instruments. I would give the SRBC the nod though in having slightly less internal reflections (read very minimal).

Glassing rocks and the grain on the trunks of trees in the middle distance showed their sharpness to be identical in the centre.  The Ultravid HD might have had slightly more ‘sparkle’ and slightly more saturated colours but the differences were very subtle to say the least. Glare suppression was very good in the Leica but it was inferior to the SRBC, as evidenced by glassing some shaded vegetation immediately below a bright afternoon Sun.

Off axis aberrations were better controlled in the SRBC too, especially pincushion distortion, which was much more pronounced in the Ultravid HD. Chromatic aberration was excellently controlled in the centre field of both instruments, but was a little bit more pronounced in the Ultravid HD near the field stops. This appears to be a recurring issue with all Leica binoculars, including their flagship Noctivid model. 

Close focus was considerably better in the SRBC (2.09m)than in the Leica, which came in very near 3m in comparison. With a field of view of 9.1 degrees, the SRBC serves up a portal 50 percent larger than the Leica Ultravid HD and it really shows! To my eyes, the SRBC view was just far more compelling, with excellent edge-to-edge sharpness. In contrast, the image looked noticeably softer at the edges of the Ultravid HD. Image brightness appeared the same in both instruments after sunset, and far into the dusky twilight.

Left disappointed, I contacted the seller of the Leica requesting a refund, explaining the deficiencies of its ergonomics, and advising that it be sent in for a service. After resisting for a while, the seller eventually agreed to refund me the money. 

In summary, these comparative tests left me in no doubt that the SRBC is a better, more technologically advanced binocular than the Leica Ultravid HD. Indeed, another report issued by a chap in South Korea revealed the 10 x 42 SRBC was also superior to Leica’s flagship Noctivid 10 x 42 as well. 

De Fideli.

A Work Commenced June 13 2024

Product: Svbony Svbony SA 205 8 x 42

Country of Manufacture: China

Chassis: Textured rubber armoured Magnesium alloy

Exit Pupil: 5.25mm

Field of View: 134.6m@1000m(7.7angular degrees)

Eye Relief: 20mm

Dioptre Compensation: +/- 5

Close Focus: 2m advertised, 1.34m measured

Coatings: Fully broadband multicoated, dielectric and phase coatings on BAK4 roof prisms

ED Glass: Yes

Field Flattening Optics: Yes

Tripod Mountable: Yes

Waterproof: Yes IP67 rating (1m for 3 min)

Nitrogen Purged: Yes

Weight: 690g advertised, 704g measured

Dimensions: 13.5 x 12.5 cm

Accessories: Padded soft case, logoed neoprene neck strap, ocular and objective covers, microfibre lens cleaning cloth, instruction manual

Warranty: 1 year

Price((UK): £199.00

If you’ve been following my work over the years you’ll no doubt have observed my enthusiasm for Svbony sports optics. Their SV 202 series of binoculars have made a loud splash among consumers looking for a great introduction to the world of modern binoculars at very modest retail prices. Their spotting scopes have also garnered a solid reputation among birders and other naturalists. My recent review of the 20x-60x 85 SA405 ED was a thoroughly delightful experience. But Svbony have not rested on their laurels. They continue to innovate and have now launched their new flagship binoculars in 8 x and 10 x 42: enter the SA 205, which offers an increased level of performance thanks to their advanced optical design. Just like the popular SV 202 series with their magnesium alloy chassis, high-reflectivity dielectric coatings, phase correction coatings and ED glass, the SA 205 features field flattening optics in a completely redesigned platform, with some new ergonomic features that will appeal to a broad church of outdoor enthusiasts. Let’s take a closer look at the 8 x 42 model, which I’ve been field testing over the last few weeks.

 Ergonomics

The instrument arrived very well packed in a very small and tidy box. My first thought when I held the binocular in my hands was : “wow this is a very small binocular,” at least an inch shorter than the SV 202 8 x 42( see below):

Remarkably, the SA 205 8 x 42 tips the scales at just 704g, less than the SV 202. This has got to be the lightest flat field binocular with these specifications on the market.

The matt black rubber armouring is tough and tactile. The sides are ribbed for extra grip.

The antireflection coatings applied to the lenses in the SA 205 are completely different to the SV 202. Gone are those deep purple blooms seen on the SV 202s which are now replaced by more subdued greenish  coatings  as seen in broad daylight. 

The twist-up eyecups are decent, having a few intermediate positions. I actually preferred those found on the SV 202 series though, as they seem to be a bit firmer and click into place more resolutely. Eye relief is excellent however. I was able to easily see the entire field wearing eyeglasses. 

The ocular lenses are large and easy to centre one’s eyes in.

The right eye dioptre on the SA 205  8 x 42 is a real treat. Instead of just rotating smoothly, it has click stops that are very easy to adjust and keep the user’s preferred position firmly. I consider this nothing short of a brilliant piece of mechanical engineering. Kudos Svbony!

The metal focus wheel is deeply knurled and is easy to engage with. It rotates very smoothly with no free play in either direction. 1.5 revolutions anticlockwise brings you from one end of its focus travel to the other. It’s highly responsive, requiring only a light touch to dial up the best views.

Overall, I’m delighted with the ergonomics of the SA 205 8 x 42. Simple and understated, it’s wonderfully compact and easy to handle, especially when you consider all of the optical goodies packed inside it. 
Optics

As I began my investigation into the SV 202 series, I was struck by how clean the images were when pointed at an intensely bright white light source. In particular, they showed very little internal reflections and no annoying diffraction spikes. I’m pleased to report that the same tests carried out on this SA 205 unit were, if anything, even better. There was no internal reflections – even very slight ones – of any description – and no diffraction spikes. 

Examining the exit pupils while looking at a bright daylight sky also showed excellent dark hinterlands around them as the photo below shows. These are great results for any binocular. And the good results kept on coming. 

The view through the SA 205 8 x 42 is excellent: it’s razor sharp across the entire field. Off-axis aberrations such as pincushion distortion are very mild. Field curvature is essentially absent. Contrast is excellent, with a very neutral colour tone. Colour correction is also markedly improved over the SV 202 series. The centre of the field is essentially devoid of secondary spectrum. Only when high-contrast targets are moved significantly off axis could I see some slight lateral colour fringing creeping in. Glare suppression is exemplary: right up there, in fact, with the very best binoculars I’ve tested. Glassing strongly backlit scenes with the SA 205 stubbornly refuses to throw up glare. In addition, I could detect no glare when aiming the instrument at a bright sky after sunset. 

Notes from the Field

The SA 205 presents one of the most relaxed views I’ve witnessed in a flat field binocular. I encountered no blackouts or rolling ball effect while panning. Close focus was yet another surprise: I measured it at just 1.34m or 4.75 feet! This is another exceptional result: great news for those who like studying insects, flowers and other targets close at hand.

I checked the flatness of the field by monitoring the profile of the bright star Vega high up in twilit Summer skies. It remained very tightly focused all the way to the field stops.

I got the distinct impression the SA 205 8 x 42 was delivering a slightly lower magnification than advertised. I made a rough measurement of the size of the exit pupil; about 5.8mm which would yield a working power of 7.2x rather than 8x, and explaining, to some degree, why the view feels so relaxed.

The focus wheel is much more sensitive than that found on the SV 202 series. Slow and careful micro-focusing will reward the viewer with the very best images. This may not be to everyone’s liking though. Personally I would have preferred it to be a bit slower, but like everything else in life, practice makes perfect.

Conclusions & Recommendations

Test driving the SA 205 8 x 42 was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. It is small and lightweight, yet is tough and durable. It has many endearing characteristics, such as excellent edge-to-edge sharpness thanks to the addition of field flattening optics, exceptional close focus, a brilliant click-stop dioptre system and wonderful glare suppression.

Smaller 8 x or 10 x 32mm SA 205 models would be a great addition to this exciting new series from Svbony. They would undoubtedly prove very popular among birders in particular.

The arrival of this new high-performance binocular represents still more compelling evidence that Chinese-manufactured optics are now rapidly approaching those produced by European manufacturers. Even seasoned binocular users will be hard pressed to see any shortcomings in the images delivered by this high-tech instrument. That these are being offered at such modest retail prices is very good news for the outdoor enthusiast. The days of splashing out large sums of money for excellent optical performance are now well and truly behind us. And that’s a good thing!

Viva La Revolution!

Dr Neil English delights in presenting exceptional binocular bargains to his readers. Read about many more binocular reviews in his new book, Choosing & Using Binoculars: A Guide for Stargazers, Birders and Outdoor Enthusiasts.

De Fideli.

A Work Commenced April 11 2024

Preamble

Product: Sky Rover Banner Cloud APO 8 x 42

Country of Manufacture: China

Chassis: Magnesium alloy overlaid by protective rubber

Exit Pupil: 5.4mm

Eye Relief: 18mm

Field of View: 159m@1000m(9.1 angular degrees)

Dioptre Compensation: +\-4

Coatings: Fully broadband multicoated, Phase corrected Schmidt Pechan prisms, hydrophobic coatings on ocular and objective lenses

ED glass: Yes(2 elements)

Field Flatteners: Yes

Waterproof: Yes, 1m/30 mins

Nitrogen Purged: Yes

Close Focus: 2m advertised, 2.09m measured

Light Transmission: 90-92%

Tripod Mountable: Yes

Dimensions:15.6 x 12.3cm

Weight: 860g advertised, 883g measured without rain guard & objective covers on.

Accessories: Soft padded carry case, objective covers, ocular rain guard, padded neck strap, microfibre cloth, instruction manual

Warranty: 3 Years( to be possibly negotiated)

Price: £419.00(minus 19%import tax)

Over the last few years I’ve had the immense good pleasure to buy in and test some remarkable binoculars. I’ve been especially interested in bringing the greatest bang for buck instruments to the community and have identified a number of excellent Chinese-made instruments that have inched ever closer to the kind of quality images garnered by long-established European brands. In this capacity, some have come frighteningly close to the very best in their aperture class. That being said, I now have the opportunity of presenting an instrument that, I believe, completes that evolutionary journey: enter the SkyRover Banner Cloud series of high-performance roof prism binoculars which are every bit as good as the current crop of so-called ‘alpha’ binoculars made by Zeiss, Swarovski and Leica, but without their enormous price tags. Currently the Banner Clouds are offered in two configurations: 42 and 50mm. I test drove the popular 8 x 42 model, the subject of this present review.

The United Optics SkyRover Banner Cloud Apo binoculars are manufactured in Kunming, China, and are packed full of high-end features. Let’s take a look around the instrument. First off, the binocular has a fair heft to it, tipping the scales at 913g with its objective covers on. But that’s just the kind of heft you see with all the alpha 8 x 42s in current production. Maybe it’s just psychological, but it seems right that top performing roofs ought to have this kind of gravitas. 

The magnesium alloy chassis is covered in a fairly smooth- textured green rubber armouring. It’s perfectly fine but I’d have preferred to see a more rough textured substrate like that exhibited by my Swarovski Habicht 8 x 30 W. 

The metal focus wheel is well engineered. Two fingers wide, it is gloriously twirly: moving with absolutely no bumps or free play. The wheel rotates through 1.5 revolutions anti-clockwise from closest focus to infinity. 

The rubber-clad metal eyecups are of the twist-up variety and provide five positions from fully retracted to fully extended. Eye relief is generous. I was able to view practically the entire field with my spectacles on with the eyecups fully pushed down. The ocular lenses are positively enormous(27mm in diameter), making eye placement very easy. One very neat feature of the Banner Cloud eyecups is that they can be screwed off to better access the ocular lenses for cleaning. It also raises the possibility that should one malfunction, a replacement could be shipped out if need be. With only a few exceptions, these kinds of features are almost invariably found on only the best European made instruments.

The dioptre compensation mechanism is traditional, located under the right ocular lens. To keep costs down, SkyRover avoided the design of a lockable dioptre mechanism: an eminently sensible move as these really are a solution waiting for a problem. Then slap on another $500 for the “convenience.”Totally unnecessary and not conducive to sharing! The ring rotates with a fair amount of inertia, stable enough to hold its position well during field use. The objective lenses are quite deeply recessed and are further protected by snugly fitting rubber covers that clip into the base of the instrument. They can easily be removed however, if they’re not to your liking.

Both the objective and ocular lenses are treated with the company’s proprietary hydrophobic coatings, which I tested against a suitable control (Nikon EII 10 x 35). I can report that they work very well indeed, removing condensation rapidly and in real time.

The supplied neoprene neck strap is wide and padded, offering  very decent support for this hefty instrument. I also liked the quality of the rubber rain guard which fits over the eyecups snugly. I also really like the padded case with its pretty red logo. Where have I seen that before? Hmm. It locks securely and is a perfect match for the size of the instrument even with the neck strap remaining attached. A very nice touch!

All in all, the instrument handles superbly, feeling very solid and secure in my medium sized hands. 

Cold Weather Testing

One of the concerns some folk have levelled against the Banner Cloud binoculars is that they won’t cope in extreme temperatures unlike the top European brands which are typically reliable between say -25C to about + 60C. Less reliable models struggle particularly at very low temperatures when the focus wheel stiffens up or stops moving altogether. After performing some star tests on the SkyRover over a couple of hours at +4C, the focus wheel remained just as buttery smooth to turn under these conditions as it did at room temperature. This is unusual, as I invariably notice some tightening up of the focus wheel on many other instruments under these conditions. Immediately after this I brought the instrument inside and placed it in my freezer( yes, you read that right) at -20C where it remained for a further hour. I’m delighted to report that even after this ultra-low temperature plunge, the Banner Cloud 8 x 42 focus wheel was still turning smoothly with no apparent loss of functionality! Very impressive! The outer lenses fogged up as expected as it struggled to warm up to room temperature but it remained bone dry in its interior. I’m therefore confident that these instruments will cope admirably in whatever conditions nature throws at them.

Dr Merlitz provided some useful information in his preamble linked to above. It was indeed designed to operate at -20C all the way to +55C thus covering most any realistic environmental situation. Neat huh?

How did they pull that off? A little research quickly revealed a new generation of cryogenic greases that have been especially designed for use in ultra-low temperatures. Perhaps the focus wheels on the Banner Clouds are lubricated with some such grease? I can only guess!

Optical Tests

My first test involved the examination of the image the instrument through up when pointed at an intensely bright white light source. The results were excellent. I detected no internal reflections or diffused light around the source. I did pick up a very small and faint diffraction spike however, but deemed it largely non-injurious. 

Next I photographed the view around the exit pupils of the instrument. As you can see below, the result was very good indeed. 

The instrument arrived on a dull, overcast day and I took myself off around Culcreuch Castle Estate for some preliminary testing. One often hears that it takes many weeks to garner an accurate assessment of an instrument’s optical and mechanical quality. While there is some truth in this, the reality is that once you’re used to looking through first-rate optical instruments one can easily come to firm conclusions after just a few minutes of use. In this capacity, I was immediately taken by the superb performance of the Banner Cloud 8 x 42: the view is outstanding in many ways: razor sharp from edge to edge, wonderful contrast, and vibrant true-to-life colours. The field flatteners all but eliminates field curvature and pincushion distortion is refreshingly mild, only becoming slightly apparent in the outer 20 per cent of its enormous field. The instrument instantly reminded me of the Swarovski 8.5 x 42 EL only with a much larger field of view. During brighter spells, I could see that it performs admirably against the light. Glare suppression is well above average in this unit.

I spent a few days comparing the view in the Banner Cloud with my reference binocular, the venerable Swarovski Habicht 8 x 30W: an instrument of unimpeachable optical quality. I call it ‘reality through the looking glass.’ This instrument has a flat transmission curve across the visible spectrum, delivering 96 per cent of the light it gathers to my eyes.  As a result its colour tone is absolutely neutral. Compared with the Habicht, the Banner Cloud delivers slightly warmer colours, with a slight bias towards the red and orange region of the visible spectrum. Placing the instruments on my tripods and carefully comparing the views, I judged the central sharpness of the Banner Cloud to be every bit as good as the Habicht. Indeed I came away with the distinct impression that the Banner Cloud was revealing slightly finer details at distance, an impression I attribute to its larger objectives. 

Chromatic aberration is very well corrected in the Banner Cloud. I detected none in most lighting situations. Only in the most critical conditions, like looking through several layers of tree branches against a uniformly grey sky, did I detect traces of lateral colour in the outer 10 per cent of the field. More on this a little later. 

Stray light is much better controlled in the Banner Cloud Apo 8 x 42 too. While observing the bright star. Vega,  rising in the northeast with a bright sodium street lamp just outside the field of view, the difference between the Habicht and the Banner Cloud was like night and day. The Habicht all too easily showed its weakness in manifesting off-axis glare, with the bigger Banner Cloud stubbornly refusing to reveal any in the same test.

Notes from the Field

Close focus was measured to be just over 2m, in accordance with the published specifications. Although 1.5 revolutions of the focus wheel takes you from one end of its focus travel to the other, focusing anywhere from about 10m to infinity only requires about a quarter of a turn of the wheel. There is quite a generous focus travel beyond infinity however: good news if you suffer from severe myopia. 

The instrument excels in all terrains, whether it be wide open hills, valleys, observing out at sea and forest exploration. The Banner Cloud 8 x 42 Apo also impressed me with its very decent stereopsis when viewing complex targets in the middle distance. 

I found the best eyecup positions to be two clicks down from fully extended. This allowed me to better engage with the entire field, as well as clearly accessing the field stops. The eyecups hold their positions very well. I experienced little in the way of blackouts and only very occasionally a ‘rolling ball effect’ whilst panning the edge of a forest at distance.

The enormous field of view (9.1 degrees) and its excellent sharpness from edge to edge made it a particular joy to watch a group of newly arrived Swallows feasting on the insects hovering just above or on the surface of the water at my local pond.  Tracking their complex aerial displays becomes a lot easier when this size of field is open to you. 

Another highlight was observing the playful antics of the newly arrived lambs in the fields round my home. The gorgeous micro-crystalline details served up by the Banner Cloud made picking off small birds like the Pied Wagtail in the distance very easy to do. Focusing is crisp and unambiguous, with none of the focus chasing you see all too often on lesser instruments: a sure testament to the optical excellence of this test unit. 

Turning to the night sky I was fortunate enough to observe a glorious crescent Moon riding in the western sky after dark on the evening of April 12. A wealth of high resolution details of the battered southern highlands was a joy to behold, as was the wonderful earthshine from its dark face as best presented during March and April. I detected no chromatic aberration within the central 60 per cent of the field but began to notice a sliver of yellow on the lunar edge when moved towards the field stops. Tests like this on brighter light sources fool the eye a lot less. Drop off in illumination is very mild in the outer ten per cent of the field.

I enjoyed a few hours observing the showpieces of the Spring sky. For this kind of work it pays to mount the instrument on a sturdy monopod such as the excellent Oberwerk Series 2000 withs its nicely engineered trigger release ball head.  Auriga now sinking into the western sky revealed the ghostly wisps of its three Messier open clusters peppering its mid-section, the generous binocular field easily framing all three members with lots of room to spare. Praesepe and the celebrated  Beehive Cluster were spell binding, as was the sprawling Coma Cluster further off to its east. 

Star images remain nice pin points across the entire field. Indeed this binocular will delight stargazers who enjoy flat fields to monitor the heavens.

Conclusions & Recommendations

This is a very exciting development for sure! While the West is busy going woke and de-industrialising, China is powering ahead, offering ever more sophisticated technologies for the consumer market. This new series of binoculars by Sky Rover represents the most highly advanced binocular that competes favourably with European brands costing several times their modest price tags. Those wanting a little more power would do well to consider the 10 x 42 with its class-leading 7.8 degree field. As the acknowledged expert, Holger Merlitz, astutely announced in his assessment of the larger 12 x 50 model(see the preamble link above) and subsequently the 10 x 50 model also, these really do perform at a phenomenal level. But long-term success will require maintaining good quality control and the offering of a decent warranty period. I also believe there will be a vibrant market for smaller 8x and 10 x 32 models if they can successfully scale down the technology. All in all, this is very encouraging news for consumers who want new levels of sophistication for their hard-earned cash, and will surely help to break the ugly, pretentious, elitist “pay to play” cycle all too often seen on our vulgar forums. 

Very highly favoured!

Explore many more binocular models across all genres in my new (non pretentious)book, Choosing & Using Binoculars: A Guide for Stargazers, Birders and Outdoor Enthusiasts.

De Fideli.

A Work Commenced August 21 2023

Product: Oberwerk Sport ED 8 x 42

Country of Manufacture: China

Exit Pupil: 5.25mm

Chassis: Rubber Armoured Magnesium Alloy

Field of View: 142m@1000m(8.1 angular degrees)

Close Focus: 2m advertised, 2.36m measured

Eye Relief: 15mm(Useable)

IPD Range: 57-74mm

Coatings: Full Broadband Multicoated, Dielectric coatings on BaK4 prisms

ED Glass: Yes FK-61

Waterproof: Yes

Nitrogen Purged: Yes

Dimensions: L/W: 14/12.5cm

Weight: 671g advertised, 728g measured

Warranty: 2 years

Price: $329.95

In previous reviews I expressed my great admiration for the new Oberwerk SE Porro prism binoculars, which offer exceptional optical performance for their modest price tags. These experiences got me very intrigued about the company’s Sport ED roof prism binoculars, offered in the popular formats of 8 x 42 and 10 x 42. Could these deliver the ‘Wow Factor’ I had experienced while using the SE Porros?

Admittedly, this was going to be a tall order to pull off, especially in light of the many similarly priced models now available to the consumer offering many of the same features, at least on paper. Moreover, my love of high-quality Porro prism binoculars had somewhat dampened my enthusiasm for roof prism binoculars in general. But after putting the 8 x 42 Sport ED model through its paces in a variety of favourable and adverse lighting conditions, I think the answer is a confident Yes!

Ergonomic Features

I contacted Oberwerk owner, Kevin Busarow, who agreed to send me a unit for review. The instrument arrived well packed and double-boxed together with its standard accessories. My first impressions were certainly very favourable. While I’m not a fan of garish colours, I have to make an exception for this binocular. This is one handsome instrument, with its very fetching dark green rubber armouring and black, twist-up eyecups complemented by the cherry apple red anodized aluminium focus wheel and right eye dioptre ring.

The textured rubber armouring is exceptionally grippy without being overly thick, keeping its overall weight down. Even in wet weather, your fingers will not slip up. The focus wheel is truly excellent. The deeply knurled edges make it exceptionally easy to turn with one finger, rotating smoothly in both directions with zero free play. Indeed, this is probably the very best focus wheel I’ve personally encountered in a roof prism binocular! 1.75 turns anticlockwise takes you from closest focus to beyond infinity.

Ditto for the right eye dioptre ring. It’s very hard to rotate but you get there in the end. Once set it will stay in place!

The rubber-clad metal eye cups have two intermediate positions between fully retracted and fully extended. Moreover, after clicking into place, they hold their positions very firmly indeed. And there’s plenty of eye relief for the bespectacled among us too. I was easily able to engage with the entire field while wearing ordinary eyeglasses.

The objective lenses are unusually well recessed(~12mm)  from the end of the barrels, helping to protect the coatings from the vagaries of the weather as well as acting as a protective barrier against stray light. The large(23mm) eye lenses make centring your eyes child’s play.

Being very compact at just 14.5cm long and 11cm wide, the Oberwerk Sport ED 8 x 42 feels great in my medium sized hands. My right-hand fingers comfortably fall on the bridge and can wrap around the right barrel, while my left index finger naturally rests on the large focus wheel rendering an exceptionally secure handling experience. All-in-all I would rate the ergonomic features of the Oberwerk Sport ED as superb; easily as good as anything I’ve seen from the top European manufacturers.   

Optical Assessment

I began my optical testing by looking for internal reflections and diffused light around an intensely bright light source. Setting my iPhone torch to its brightest output, and examining the image from across a room, I got an excellent result. I detected only a couple of very feeble reflections, no diffused light around the light source and no diffraction spikes. The same was true when I turned the binocular on a bright sodium streetlamp after dark.

Next, I photographed the images of the exit pupils. As you can see below, the results are very good; perfectly circular with plenty of darkness immediately around them. There is some light leakage set well away from the pupils but even with fully dilated eye pupils, you’re unlikely to be affected by it.

Now for the juicy bits. When I first set the Sport ED 8 x 42 to my eyes, I assumed the optimal position of the eye cups was in their fully extended position, as they usually are. But that yielded a slight tunnelling effect which prevented me from viewing the field stops clearly, but I quickly found my ideal setting by retracting the eyecups one notch down.

How are the views? In a word; excellent! But to elaborate, the Sport ED served up tack sharp images from centre to edge. Indeed, testing the binocular alongside my Svbony SV 202 8 x 42 ED ‘control’ I was able to resolve finer grain detail on the wooden beams on a climbing frame located about 80 metres in the distance. This instrument has a remarkably large sweet spot, and while the field of view is already generously large(8.1 degrees), it feels even more expansive by virtue of the sharp field edges. This is a remarkable result given that the instrument does not employ field flattening optics! Pin cushion distortion is also very well controlled in this instrument being noticeably milder than that observed in the Svbony control instrument. Colours are bright and true to life with a slightly warm tone which I very much enjoyed.  

Glare control is decent in the Oberwerk Sport ED 8 x 42. Only in the more severe lighting situations did I detect some. Colour correction is also WAY above average, even for its ‘ED’ billing. Indeed, after conducting many hours of testing on a variety of high-contrast targets, I could only detect the merest trace of off-axis chromatic aberration, and only at the extreme edges of the field of view. Those who find colour fringing annoying will find the Oberwerk Sport ED to be a refreshing break from the norm!

Notes from the Field

One of the first tests I performed was to check collimation under the stars. This is easily done by turning the right eye dioptre so that it defocuses a bright star in the right barrel while the left barrel keeps the star tightly focused. The focused star stayed in the centre of the defocused anulus, not only in the centre of the field, but also when the star was moved around the field, checking as I did for possible detachment. The star remained centrally placed, irrespective of where the anulus was positioned inside the field. This confirmed that the instrument was very accurately collimated.

Excellent collimation also explains why I’ve been able to enjoy prolonged panning activities with this binocular, its soft eyecups being very comfortable to place your eyes against. The view is very immersive, almost as if you’re sitting in the image. Contrast and resolution are excellent, especially over longer distances. For example, I could easily pick off the variegated colours of a Goldfinch in flight over 150 metres away. The Sport ED 8x 42 has that crystal clear clarity reminiscent of high-end European binoculars like the Zeiss Conquest HD but with a significantly larger field of view.

Just a half a turn of the ultra-smooth focus wheel covers the vast majority of targets from about 8 metres out to infinity.  Closest focus was measured at 2.36m, a little longer than advertised but plenty close enough for viewing insects or other targets at proximity.

The excellent sharpness of the image was abundantly in evidence when I turned the Oberwerk Sport ED 8 x 42 on the stars. Aiming the binocular on the Alpha Persei star cluster, I immediately noticed the very fine pinpoints of starlight served up by the instrument. The stars making up this celebrated cluster were incredibly fine, with the subtle colour differences among its members easily discernible. The fineness of the stellar images were unquestionably better than any roof prism binocular I’ve tested in this price class.

My subjective impressions of a large sweet spot were also confirmed under the stars. In a sense, the eye can deceive during daylight hours. The ‘trickery’ of visual accommodation and all that….. Centring Altair and moving it across the field, I noted that the image of the star stayed tight and pinpointed most of the way to the field stop. To my eye, it only showed noticeably bloating in the outer 15 per cent of the field, where slight refocusing restored the image to a tight pinpoint of white light. Conventional wisdom has it that field flattening optics are necessary for observing pristine star fields right out to the edges but the very mild field curvature in the Sport ED show that excellent results can be achieved without such optics.

Conclusions & Recommendations

Test driving the Oberwerk Sport ED 8 x 42 has been nothing short of a revelation. Just when you thought you’ve seen it all, along comes an instrument like this that upsets the apple cart. Oberwerk has really hit the ground running with the Sport ED roof prism binoculars, as the many other reviews also attest. This is a seriously good piece of kit. For a very reasonable price you get an extremely well-made instrument that functions beautifully in field use. It has superb resolution, contrast, ergonomics, and engineering, and in my opinion, there’s nothing to touch it in this price class with a fit and finish more reminiscent of a £1k instrument. But that seems to be the siren call of Oberwerk in general. Not only has it made its name in high quality large aperture binoculars, the company’s new lines of compact binoculars are also making heads turn. And that’s great news for the consumer and the hobby in general.

Dr Neil English explores the fascinating world of binoculars in his up-and-coming book, Choosing and Using Binoculars: A Guide for Stargazers, Birders and Outdoor Enthusiasts due out in late 2023/early 2024.

De Fideli.

History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

A Work Commenced 18/6/23

Preamble 

“What on earth were these instruments designed for? “

That was the question I posed to myself as I first brought this old classic Japanese-made Asahi Pentax 8 x 40 wide field binocular to my eyes for the first time. The view had a very sharp central image and a huge 9.5-degree field of view for an 8x glass, but the image was tinged in a weird greenish cast. A quick google search brought up a few possibilities but the most common answer was that the special coatings applied to the ocular lenses acted like polaroid sunglasses cutting down on glare, especially on sunny days. But if that were so, what was the green tint all about? I mean, I’ve never had sunglasses that imparted a greenish tint to everything!?

I picked the instrument up from a chap on fleabay back in early March for £65 plus £6 shipping, so £71 all in. The condition of the instrument looked immaculate, especially for a 1970s vintage glass. The original leather carry case is beautifully made with a rose-coloured lining.  When I received the instrument, I was amazed how pristine it was; really like brand new. This must have been stored somewhere warm and dry for decades Indeed, the only reason I could think of to explain its tip-top condition was that it was hardly used at all!

The build quality of this Asahi Pentax is very impressive. Good big prisms, with a nicely tensioned central focus wheel moving very smoothly after all these years. The objectives looked singly coated with the standard bluish glint of magnesium fluoride anti-reflection coating. The right eye dioptre moved very smoothly but with great resistance to accidental displacement, with an easy-to-read +/- scale. The eyecups are made from hard plastic and so can’t be adjusted to improve eye relief for the bespectacled, but I suppose some resourceful person could shim them down to access more of the field.

The instrument is extremely chunky, tipping the scales at 979g without a neck strap. I guess this was one of the instruments that helped stereotype the classic Porro as being big and bulky, although that’s not really true today I’m glad to say. I measured close focus at 6 yards – again stereotypical of glasses from this era but also no longer necessarily true today either. Using it for a few minutes,you really do come away with the impression that this was a quality instrument, especially when it saw first light all those decades ago. Based on the stampings on the front cap, this was manufactured by Zuiho Kogaku Seiki Co, Tokyo.

The eyepieces are coated with a substance that reflects golden light to the eye. It’s not gold however, in case you’re wondering. The wavelength of the reflected light (~600nm) only depends on the refractive index of the coating and its thickness. I’ve heard of some folk who have removed these coatings using acetone and a bit of elbow grease with varying degrees of success. Some reported that the colour cast of the resulting images are more natural but also that it exposed more internal reflections and glare in the images they served up.

The strong colour shift renders the Asahi Pentax almost useless for birding excursions. Accurate identification relies on the binocular delivering colours that are faithful to the natural image. It’s not especially good at cutting down on glare either. Turning the binocular on some strongly backlit scenes showed up significant glare in this instrument, as it also did when I turned it on a sodium streetlamp after dark. But what’s remarkable about this instrument is the expansive field of view with very good sharpness across most of the field. As an astronomical instrument, it also does quite well but the low light transmission and colour shift renders the images a bit dimmer than a modern instrument having superior coatings.

A well-corrected 9.5 degree field is very impressive for an 8x instrument though.  It’s actually larger than my Nikon EII 8 x 30(~9 degrees) and my Nikon Action 7 x 35 ( 9.3 degrees). But when I began to study a variety of older Porro prism binoculars, especially in the 7 x 35 format, I was shocked by what I discovered. Paul Wehr, a keen binocular collector based in New York was kind enough to share some images of his extensive collection of classic Japanese-made 7 x 35s with me. It turns out that 9 or even 10-degree fields were rather on the small side. Take a look at some of the models in his collection.

Here are a couple of vintage Bushnell 7x 35 Rangemasters sporting 10 degree fields:

But they come significantly wider again. Take a look at this Swift Holiday Mark II with an 11 degree field:

Or how about this Sans & Streiffe 7 x 35 model with a whopping 13 degree true field!

My conversations with Paul made it obvious that he’s very impressed with these classic widefield binoculars. I would be too! Ultra wide fields like this are not unique to Porro prism models either. Take the Leica Amplivid 6 x 24, for example, sporting a 12 degree field.

Back to the Future

My personal ‘discovery’ of the existence of these ultrawide compact binocular models from yesteryear raises interesting questions in my mind. In 2023, leading binocular manufacturers like Swarovski and Zeiss wax lyrical about their wide-angle flagship models, like the NL Pure range and Victory SFs, sporting fields of the order of 9 degrees. Owners rave about their huge fields seemingly unaware that much bigger fields were available to binocular enthusiasts a half century ago.

There’s an important lesson to be learned here. Resurrecting these classic Porro prism designs with enormous fields could be done at much lower costs than those commanded by today’s top wide-angle roofs. Can you imagine what could be achieved by applying state-of -the-art multilayer coatings to the optical surfaces of such designs? Adding a field flattening lens would also make them very sharp nearly to the edge. Re-designing the eyepieces with greater eye relief wouldn’t go amiss either. Adding seals would render them water proof and purging them with dry nitrogen gas would keep them from fogging up in cold /humid weather.

Some of these sentiments are echoed in Holger Merlitz’s excellent article linked to in the preamble above. In particular, he makes the point that by incorporating modern, wide-angle eyepiece designs into these classic models, they would deliver wider and better corrected fields of view.

Just imagine what could be achieved!

It would surely usher in a revolution in binocular technology, and open the hobby up to more people if they’re offered at a significantly lower cost than the current top tier roof models now on the market.

We can only dream!

Thanks for reading!

Neil English’s new book: Choosing & Using Binoculars: A Guide for Stargazers, Birders and Outdoor Enthusiasts, will be published in late 2023 by Springer Nature.

I would like to sincerely thank Paul Wehr for sharing images of his classic wide-angle models, as well as his enthusiastic conversations about their potential.

De Fideli.