I have been in the market for a new set of binoculars and a few weeks ago had the chance to look through a pair of Swarovski SV 10x42 EL. For any of you who are unfamiliar with the SV moniker don't feel bad, I was not as well, but SV stands for Swarovision and this is the name of Swarovski's field flattener lenses made with fluoride, this technology allows a very flat and sharp image across the entire FOV. Optical magnification designs tend to have a curve to the surface of the lens which can cause distortion at the edges but the Swarovski SV's binoculars are sharp edge to edge giving them a unique sight picture. I was so impressed with the Swarovski's that I decided to begin my search again for a better set of binos. My current set that I've had for a number of years now has been a set of Minox BL 10x44 HD's which I've always thought performed very well for the price ($500 - $700 class), but comparing them side by side with the Swarovski's (arguably the best binoculars available) they were no comparison - as it should be.
So I hit the internet hard and began looking at all kinds of reviews on good, or rather - great, binoculars. Did I want to spend $2600 on a pair of Swaro's or was there something else that even came close. Sure there are the Leica's and the Zeiss bino's which are a little cheaper than the Swaro's but not by much, but I came across several reviews on some birding forums that raved about another binocular manufacturer that they felt came very close to the quality of the top 3 (Swaro, Zeiss and Leica), that company is Maven based out of Lander, WY here in the states, but their optics are made in Japan and they offer a "direct to consumer" method of sales much to the chagrin of dealers and while I try my best to promote Hide dealers, I do like deals and the Maven's offer incredible pricing if the claims of how good their glass is holds up. I was already somewhat familiar with Maven but what really caught my attention was my recent search for high magnification bino's that could replace a spotter, this led me to the new Maven B.5 18x56 which uses fluorite in their lens design as well as having a "warmer" color cast compared to most Japanese optics which tend to have a cool/bluish color cast that my eyes do not like, reviews are coming in showing these B.5's as being very comparable to the much more expensive glass from the top 3, Vortex's new UHD line also has some impressive bino's but as far as I know the UHD's do not use fluorite in their lens design so the Maven B.5's may prove to have a bit better IQ - I'd love to get my hands on the 18x56 from both Maven and Vortex and do a more thorough comparison but that will have to wait for the time being.
Also unique with Maven is a "demo program" where they allow you to "try before you buy" which is really beneficial especially if you live out in the boonies where finding a shop with high end glass is near impossible. I knew I would get another chance to look through the Swaro's so I decided "why not" and ordered two binoculars from Maven's B.2 line which uses an Abbe-Koenig prism that makes the bino's a little longer and a little heavier than the Schmidt-Pechan design used in the Swaro's and other roof prism binos, but the Abbe-Koenig's are supposed to yield a bit more light transmission and IQ according to some. I also liked the fact that the B.2's offered a 45mm objective vs. the traditional 42mm objective of many hunting and birding binos, this allows for a bit larger exit pupil which helps in low light situations.
Opening the box from Maven yielded two binoculars with Maven straps attached - nothing more, nothing less, they were plain black and similar in color and design to many other binoculars you'll see in a big box store; however, Maven does have a "custom" program on their website where you can design your own binoculars in different color combinations. Thankfully Maven has the center screw that can be replaced with a tripod mount so I mounted them up right away to get a steady view off my back deck. Thankfully my deck is above most of the other houses behind me and I have an uncluttered view of Pikes Peak and the front range as well as some open space that is about 950 yards away, I can also see the details of the homes and trees in between.
Right away I could tell that both the 11x45 and 9x45 trumped my Minox BL's by a significant margin; however, I did notice some CA when looking at the mountain ridge and tree branches next to open sky; however, outside of the CA induced by those high contrast situations the IQ of the Maven's were impressive to say the least. After glassing for a little while I soon realized that my eyes much preferred the image from the 9x45's, not only that, but the 9x45's showed more depth forgiveness than the 11x45's - what does this mean, essentially I can set the 9x45's focus wheel at about 150 yards or so and still be able to get objects in the far FOV relatively in focus, could I tweak the focus wheel a bit to get an even better image, yes I could, but it wasn't necessary for most of my glassing which is very convenient especially when you're in the field hunting, you don't want to be fiddling so much with the focus wheel as you scan the hillsides.
Now it was time to compare the B.2's to the Swaro EL's, this would be the true test and this test would also come at sunset and into the fading light as we were testing some scopes for my ZCO, Kahles, Schmidt and Minox Ultra Short review. I handed both the 11x45 and 9x45 to @jwknutson17 and waited for his first thoughts and after glassing a bit with both, he came to the same conclusion as me, he felt the 9x45 had the better image between the two, that's not saying the 11x45 is bad, just that the 9x45 is better; should you have a need for higher than 9/10x I have no issue recommending the 11x45 understanding it is a bit more finicky to focus than the 9x45 and with a little bit less depth. Then we paired the 9x45 with the Swaro EL 10x42 and went back and forth in the fading light and even into the dark, what surprised both of us was how well the Maven B.2 9x45 held up IQ wise to the Swaro EL. If we're splitting hairs I felt the Swaro held a bit more edge detail especially into the low light, but whether it was the FOV or the larger exit pupil, the image from the 9x45 impressed every time we looked through it.
I'm sure if we had more time and had some resolution charts and the like we could probably pick apart some of the Maven's shortcomings especially in comparison to the Swaro. Hands down the Swaro has a better build quality, the Maven's seem a bit more "plasticky" to me and the eyecups could use a better mechanism for adjustment, but those are minor complaints for a bino that is almost 1/3 the price of the EL's. If you want the absolute best in IQ and especially if you want flat field technology then the Swaro EL is probably the best there is, but if you don't mind giving up a little and saving a lot, then I'd highly recommend you take a look at the Maven B.2 binoculars.
Here's the two Maven's, on the left is the 11x45, middle is the 9x45 and the right is the Minox BL 10x44 HD. Does it look like the 11x45 and 9x45 are the same size? Well that's not an optical illusion, they are the same size.
Some other manufacturer's should take a lesson in simplicity, the Maven's have very little text on their binos, in fact, it was difficult for me to tell the difference between the 11x45 and the 9x45 as the magnification identification is somewhat obscure.
The knurling and the tension on the B.2 focus wheel is superb, the same tension both ways, very easy to control and get good focus quickly.
My long distance IQ testing was done at Pikes Peak which is 18 miles away by line of sight. The Maven's did superbly in cutting through afternoon haze and mirage from rooftops along the way. I was able to see detail in the trees and rocks on the peak I could not see with my Minox BL's.
I like the color cast of the Maven's, most Japanese optics have a cool/bluish color cast which I do not like. The Maven's appear more neutral to warm to my eyes (as well as to my iPhone SE which is what I took this through the lens image from), do not use this image as an example of IQ, it is just to show the color cast or lack thereof, IQ and detail was impressive.
So you might ask, "so did you buy the Maven's" and the answer is "no, for now". I still have my eyes on the Maven B.5 18x56, but in the end I decided to go a completely different route and get a Zeiss Victory RF 10x42 which should be here later this week. The reason is that I really wanted an RF unit and bino in one, and having the ballistics was an added bonus with the Zeiss. I have never seen the Victory RF's before so I'm really hoping the glass is at least as good as the Maven's, but I would not hesitate at all to recommend the Maven B.2's for anyone looking to get top 3 quality in a $1k optic.
So I hit the internet hard and began looking at all kinds of reviews on good, or rather - great, binoculars. Did I want to spend $2600 on a pair of Swaro's or was there something else that even came close. Sure there are the Leica's and the Zeiss bino's which are a little cheaper than the Swaro's but not by much, but I came across several reviews on some birding forums that raved about another binocular manufacturer that they felt came very close to the quality of the top 3 (Swaro, Zeiss and Leica), that company is Maven based out of Lander, WY here in the states, but their optics are made in Japan and they offer a "direct to consumer" method of sales much to the chagrin of dealers and while I try my best to promote Hide dealers, I do like deals and the Maven's offer incredible pricing if the claims of how good their glass is holds up. I was already somewhat familiar with Maven but what really caught my attention was my recent search for high magnification bino's that could replace a spotter, this led me to the new Maven B.5 18x56 which uses fluorite in their lens design as well as having a "warmer" color cast compared to most Japanese optics which tend to have a cool/bluish color cast that my eyes do not like, reviews are coming in showing these B.5's as being very comparable to the much more expensive glass from the top 3, Vortex's new UHD line also has some impressive bino's but as far as I know the UHD's do not use fluorite in their lens design so the Maven B.5's may prove to have a bit better IQ - I'd love to get my hands on the 18x56 from both Maven and Vortex and do a more thorough comparison but that will have to wait for the time being.
Also unique with Maven is a "demo program" where they allow you to "try before you buy" which is really beneficial especially if you live out in the boonies where finding a shop with high end glass is near impossible. I knew I would get another chance to look through the Swaro's so I decided "why not" and ordered two binoculars from Maven's B.2 line which uses an Abbe-Koenig prism that makes the bino's a little longer and a little heavier than the Schmidt-Pechan design used in the Swaro's and other roof prism binos, but the Abbe-Koenig's are supposed to yield a bit more light transmission and IQ according to some. I also liked the fact that the B.2's offered a 45mm objective vs. the traditional 42mm objective of many hunting and birding binos, this allows for a bit larger exit pupil which helps in low light situations.
Opening the box from Maven yielded two binoculars with Maven straps attached - nothing more, nothing less, they were plain black and similar in color and design to many other binoculars you'll see in a big box store; however, Maven does have a "custom" program on their website where you can design your own binoculars in different color combinations. Thankfully Maven has the center screw that can be replaced with a tripod mount so I mounted them up right away to get a steady view off my back deck. Thankfully my deck is above most of the other houses behind me and I have an uncluttered view of Pikes Peak and the front range as well as some open space that is about 950 yards away, I can also see the details of the homes and trees in between.
Right away I could tell that both the 11x45 and 9x45 trumped my Minox BL's by a significant margin; however, I did notice some CA when looking at the mountain ridge and tree branches next to open sky; however, outside of the CA induced by those high contrast situations the IQ of the Maven's were impressive to say the least. After glassing for a little while I soon realized that my eyes much preferred the image from the 9x45's, not only that, but the 9x45's showed more depth forgiveness than the 11x45's - what does this mean, essentially I can set the 9x45's focus wheel at about 150 yards or so and still be able to get objects in the far FOV relatively in focus, could I tweak the focus wheel a bit to get an even better image, yes I could, but it wasn't necessary for most of my glassing which is very convenient especially when you're in the field hunting, you don't want to be fiddling so much with the focus wheel as you scan the hillsides.
Now it was time to compare the B.2's to the Swaro EL's, this would be the true test and this test would also come at sunset and into the fading light as we were testing some scopes for my ZCO, Kahles, Schmidt and Minox Ultra Short review. I handed both the 11x45 and 9x45 to @jwknutson17 and waited for his first thoughts and after glassing a bit with both, he came to the same conclusion as me, he felt the 9x45 had the better image between the two, that's not saying the 11x45 is bad, just that the 9x45 is better; should you have a need for higher than 9/10x I have no issue recommending the 11x45 understanding it is a bit more finicky to focus than the 9x45 and with a little bit less depth. Then we paired the 9x45 with the Swaro EL 10x42 and went back and forth in the fading light and even into the dark, what surprised both of us was how well the Maven B.2 9x45 held up IQ wise to the Swaro EL. If we're splitting hairs I felt the Swaro held a bit more edge detail especially into the low light, but whether it was the FOV or the larger exit pupil, the image from the 9x45 impressed every time we looked through it.
I'm sure if we had more time and had some resolution charts and the like we could probably pick apart some of the Maven's shortcomings especially in comparison to the Swaro. Hands down the Swaro has a better build quality, the Maven's seem a bit more "plasticky" to me and the eyecups could use a better mechanism for adjustment, but those are minor complaints for a bino that is almost 1/3 the price of the EL's. If you want the absolute best in IQ and especially if you want flat field technology then the Swaro EL is probably the best there is, but if you don't mind giving up a little and saving a lot, then I'd highly recommend you take a look at the Maven B.2 binoculars.
Here's the two Maven's, on the left is the 11x45, middle is the 9x45 and the right is the Minox BL 10x44 HD. Does it look like the 11x45 and 9x45 are the same size? Well that's not an optical illusion, they are the same size.
Some other manufacturer's should take a lesson in simplicity, the Maven's have very little text on their binos, in fact, it was difficult for me to tell the difference between the 11x45 and the 9x45 as the magnification identification is somewhat obscure.
The knurling and the tension on the B.2 focus wheel is superb, the same tension both ways, very easy to control and get good focus quickly.
My long distance IQ testing was done at Pikes Peak which is 18 miles away by line of sight. The Maven's did superbly in cutting through afternoon haze and mirage from rooftops along the way. I was able to see detail in the trees and rocks on the peak I could not see with my Minox BL's.
I like the color cast of the Maven's, most Japanese optics have a cool/bluish color cast which I do not like. The Maven's appear more neutral to warm to my eyes (as well as to my iPhone SE which is what I took this through the lens image from), do not use this image as an example of IQ, it is just to show the color cast or lack thereof, IQ and detail was impressive.
So you might ask, "so did you buy the Maven's" and the answer is "no, for now". I still have my eyes on the Maven B.5 18x56, but in the end I decided to go a completely different route and get a Zeiss Victory RF 10x42 which should be here later this week. The reason is that I really wanted an RF unit and bino in one, and having the ballistics was an added bonus with the Zeiss. I have never seen the Victory RF's before so I'm really hoping the glass is at least as good as the Maven's, but I would not hesitate at all to recommend the Maven B.2's for anyone looking to get top 3 quality in a $1k optic.
