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.
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.
Here are a few more images zoomed in a little more:
To be Continued…..