Today I visited the Cabela’s superstore in Lacey, WA. If any of you have been to one of their “destination” stores you know they are very special. The primary purpose of my visit was to compare the Zeiss Victory FL 8x42 T* to the new Swarovski 8.5x42 EL Swarovision binoculars. Several years ago I purchased the Swarovski Habicht SL-BT 10x50 and Swarovski 8x32 SLC binoculars. A few months ago the Swarovski 8x32 SLC’s which I really liked were stolen so I wanted to find a replacement. The Swarovski 10x50’s are still pretty good bino’s but their close focus is ~25’! My late Father-in-Law had some older Zeiss 7x bino’s which were a joy to look through so I have an appreciation of fine glass.
After looking around the store and having an Elk burger in the café it was time to do some serious glassing. I told the sales associate that I wanted to compare the two bino’s side-by-side and he went about his business while I compared ~$5000 worth of binoculars. They only had the 10x versions in stock while I plan to buy the Zeiss 8x42 or the Swaro 8.5x42. No big deal at this level of optic. After a while it was clear I wasn’t there for a five minute look so he offered to go outside with me for some glassing. This was a very nice offer but not necessary because the store is so big I had my targets dialed in already.
Initially the Zeiss fell into my hand better but after a while I got used to the Swaro. The thumb indents on the bottom of the Swaro barrel could be larger in the style of my 10x50’s to allow for more variation in thumb placement. The Swaro didn’t fall to hand as well as I thought they would and I have slightly smaller than average hands. I call it even with a slight edge to the Zeiss on the ergonomic evaluation.
The glass on both bino’s is top notch and here is where the differences became noticeable. If you only looked through the Zeiss you would most likely be completely satisfied without question because they are top-notch bino’s. After ~30 minutes of glassing the difference between the two became apparent. The Zeiss has very obvious barrel distortion and the Swaro has NONE and I mean NONE, zip, zero, nada. I couldn’t see any color aberration or blur on the edges with either bino. Both of these are super high quality glass.
The view through the Swaro is more alive and has more of a 3-D look to it than the Zeiss. Maybe this is the Swarovision technology they market. Regardless, it works. I did pan both bino’s and if you have been reading any of the online reviews you know that the Swaro has an “unusual” look when panning. Again I thought “3-D”, “vivid”, and this must be Swarovision while doing this. I don’t think this will be a particularly distracting feature especially under field conditions. In fact after several hours behind the glass this will probably be a benefit because subjects “pop” so well.
I also thought it was easier, or less fatiguing to look through the Swaro which I attribute to the greater eye relief. The other item that reviewers are making a big deal about is the flat field of view of the Swaro. Yes I’d say there is a very slight advantage over the Zeiss in this regard. Again this is something that in order to determine you would need to own both bino’s and spend many hours glassing to determine the winner. At the very end I looked through the previous generation Swaro 8.5x42 EL and it was extremely obvious that the new generation is leaps and bounds better. In my opinion the current Zeiss is much better the old Swaro.
The Zeiss Victory 8x42 FL T* can be had from Hide sponsors for $1500 while the Swaro is $2339. Is the new Swaro really worth $839 more? Only you can answer that question. I tend to buy glass once, especially bino’s.
Swarovski EL 8.5x42 Swarovision
Zeiss Victory FL T* 8x42
Cameraland and SWFA carry both. Please support Hide sponsors.
