More questions....

I have done as much research as I can online and in person. Now I need your experience, knowledge, and opinions to help bring it together.

Does Swarovision really make that much of a difference? I can't find anybody with a non-Swarovision pair to try out. The reason I ask is I will end up paying nearly 1K more for it, as compared to non-SV pairs. I have yet to hear a bad thing about any Swaro product, so the non-SV can't be that bad, right?

I really wish they made an EL 8.5X50, but they don't. So, taking exit pupil into consideration, would you go 8X42 or 10X50? With that quality of glass, does it even matter? Does the crystal and Swarobright compensate enough to allow for the consumer to chose a lower exit pupil? The reason I ask is I currently use a pair of 8.5X50s and the brightness is amazing. I don't want to be disappointed whenever I am glassing up game as they bed in the wee hours.


Which would you pick/recommend to me? Keep in mind I hunt elk, sheep, lopes, and muleys primarily but also make the trip to Texas every year for exotics and whitetail. Mostly bowhunting, but toss in some rifle hunts as well. I also use my current binos weekly for birding, camping, hiking, and watching the sheep in the Las Vegas hills, these will probably see much more use.
8.5X42
8X42
10X42
10X50
EL or EL Range? The 30+ minimum distance to measure is a real bummer on the Range.

I am planning on demos or used, but Swarovski lacks the unconditional warranty other companies offer. Would you spend the significant coin for a new pair knowing you could save 1K+, especially for this kind of a purchase?

What do you have and what has your experience been?

Thanks guys!

To my eyes, yes the swarovision was a step up from the regular el's, but the older ones are still great binos....Swaro CS is tops so I wouldn't worry to much about that and save money by buying used. I'd get 10x42's, thats what I have and they are the great all-arounder for western hunting. You can find used swarovisions for a little less than $2000 and the older EL's for $1200...both money well spent.

May I ask what you want a 8x50? Any exit pupil over 5 can not be process by your eyes anyway...I think you can relax on that point. when talking about alpha glass. In other words, how much light do you need -) Or is it FOV?

I also think you need to separate Swarobright from Swarovision. Swarovision is "flattened" lens which is designed to give an "HD" affect along with a more stable image edge to edge. This has nothing to do with brightness. In fact, the SLC are tuned to be a touch brighter. The flattened lenses allow you to pick apart the shadows. To my eyes, i can see the smallest detail in shadows that I could not before with Leica.

Swarobright refers to the coatings and you can find non swarovision glass like the SLCs that has swarobright. This is where your light gathering comes in (glass excluded).

Having aid that, I own the swarovision Els and I will tell you, (without knowing what you have today) the 8.5x42 will be the best glass you have even owned and yes, they will be brighter than what you have now as well - is my guess

To my eyes (we are all diff) the swarovision is the best glass on the planet

I have always been relatively unimpressed by the Swarovision. Not because they are not terrific binoculars, they are, but they just don't do it for me. I find the SLC series better glass. However, there is one exception to everything and that exception is the 50 mm Swarovision, that is the class act of the Swarovski line.

Light gathering is a poor term. It suggests an active process, but is in fact a passive one. The light gathering ability is determined solely by the size of the objective, nothing else. A $20 cheap mart clam shell 50 mm glass has the exact same light gathering ability as a $2,000 50 mm alpha. Each objective is the same size and thus has the same light energy contact the surface. The difference comes with what happens between light hitting the objective and in hitting your eyes. There, not all else is by any means equal. Light transmission is a whole other ballgame.