Pentax DCF 8x32 ED or other small binos?

[ego235]

I am very close to buying a nice pair of smaller binoculars. These will be used for general all purpose viewing. Actually more for travel and vacations. I recently got my parents a pair of decent $150 Pentax DCF LV 9x28 binos so they could ditch their 40 year old porros. I felt they were very nice, 13 oz. a little high in chromatic abberation though especially for high contrast nature backgrounds. I also felt they're a tad bit dark during dawn and dusk. I'm sure they're not going to complain as they worlds better than the previous pair.

So for myself I'd like to get something a bit higher end. My budget is no more than $1k so stuff like Ultravids and Swaro ELs are out. I was looking at Pentax DCF 8x32x ED or maybe even 10x43 but I think those are too big for pockets. Anybody use them and can recommend or argue against them?

Any other brands in this range and size I should consider?

 

[turbo54]

Re: Pentax DCF 8x32 ED or other small binos?

Bump.

I'm in the market for a compact pair as well. Have my eye on the Nikon 7x15, that weigh 4oz. They're $300.

Anyone able to speak up about mini binos? 99% of my use will be during the day, so I don't mind trading dawn/dusk performance for size/weight/compactness.

 

[Black Majik]

Re: Pentax DCF 8x32 ED or other small binos?

The Pentax EDs are awesome, you really chose well. It is a good 95% of the alpha class glass in view. Excellent brightness, resolution, very little to no chromatic abberation and pretty good color contrast although the view is a bit on the warm side.

Another to consider is the Vortex Razor, which had very similar performance to the Pentax ED. I don't know what the current Razor is (Razor HD?) but the regular razor model performed almost identical to the Pentax ED.

Lastly, although Chinese made, give the Zen Ray ED 2 a try. It should perform glass wise above the two mentioned and rival many of the Alpha class glass. Durability is suppose to be fine and is sub $500 if I remember correctly.

 

[lennyo3034]

Re: Pentax DCF 8x32 ED or other small binos?

Pentax's customer service has been a huge disappointment. I sent a scope in 3 months ago and have heard nothing back.

 

[ego235]

Re: Pentax DCF 8x32 ED or other small binos?

Ouch thats not good. I found a new pair for $610 shipped. For that price it is hard to say no. Was talking to someone on perhaps buying their Nikon LX Premiers which are supposedly in the same class but they wanted too much.

Man, this will be my third Pentax product this year.

 

[Eric B.]

Re: Pentax DCF 8x32 ED or other small binos?

I have had a pair of regular Pentax DCF 8X 42 mm binos for five years and they are EXCELLENT. Couldn't really see a difference when I used Swarovski 8 X ED glass binos when birding. It would likely take specialized equipment to show the difference.

So the newer DCF ED binos should be every bit as good as Swarovski binos in performance.

 

[Outdoorsman9]

Re: Pentax DCF 8x32 ED or other small binos?

Check out some Viper HD's... Love my 8x42's and they will kick the shit out of anything under $900

 

[ggmanning]

Re: Pentax DCF 8x32 ED or other small binos?

Keep an eye on the SWFA sample list or Adorama camera used lists, too. If a pair of Leica BN 8x32's show up they are very good and will be about $7-900.

 

[ego235]

Re: Pentax DCF 8x32 ED or other small binos?

O wow, so this old thread got a response

So I ended up buying them but they were out of stock at SWFA, I used price match to get them for right around $600.

A month later (about a week ago) I received them. They looked great, and were much more clear than the previous pair I purchased for my parents Pentax 9x28mm DCF LV.

Unfortunately as you see in my original post, I wanted them for the purpose of being a casual travel binocular. Even the 8x32 were too big and too heavy to serve that purpose. It was a good experience trying them out but at the end of the day sadly I will revert a pair of smaller than 32mm objectives lenses. Leaning towards 28mm or 25mm so they can fit in my pockets. I ended up returning them a few days later. SWFA was good as usual with their customer service.