Experiences with Zeiss Victory SF binoculars?

[NateVA]

I recently bought a pair of Swarovski EL 10x50 binoculars for tripod use while hunting out west. I'm now about to get a pair of binoculars strictly for holding with my hands while hiking/hunting and possibly birdwatching out east. I was in a tossup between the Leica Noctivid 8x42 and Zeiss Victory SF 8x42. The prevailing sentiment is that the Zeiss is optically superior to the Leica in every way so I'm heavily leaning towards those. The Zeiss are also 8 ounces lighter than my current ones and (in my handling of them in a birdwatching store) they felt even lighter due to their balance point being closer to my eyes. Those are two big positives and the kicker is they have an enormous field of view of 444 feet at 1000 yards.

My main question is does anyone here have experience using Zeiss Victory SF binoculars and if so, what are your thoughts on them? Drawbacks of using them are welcome.

 

[wyliecoyote]

I've been hunting, bird watching, shooting, and everything else I do outdoors with a pair of Zeiss Victory SF 10x42 binos for the past year and I absolutely love them. They're the first pair of high dollar optics I ever bought and are probably right on par with your Swarovski EL 10x50s. You are correct about the balance point on the SFs being great. The weight does sit towards the back making them easy to hold for long glassing sessions and the field of view way out far is very wide indeed. Using the zoom knob is tactile and fast and the clarity is amazing from edge to edge. The only draw backs I've found are that the adjustable eye pieces (with/without eye glasses) are a little on the light side (made of plastic, don't hold their position all the time) and they are a rather long/large binocular. I carry them in the Badlands chest case model that's supposed to carry both a binocular on top and a rangefinder below and they take up every bit of that case (no room for a rangefinder).

From picking out hard to see grayish, brown coyotes in deep sage to spotting some oryx three miles away, they definitely are an awesome bino. I'll caveat that of course by saying they're the only high end binos I have any experience with. I chose them over the Swarovski EL because the temperature rating for the Zeiss SF went way down into the sub zero range where I like to hunt a lot. That has proven to be the case in the field too (-15 degree coyote hunt) as the Zeiss SF doesn't freeze up or get hard to focus like some binos do. Hope that helps out.

 

[NateVA]

I've been hunting, bird watching, shooting, and everything else I do outdoors with a pair of Zeiss Victory SF 10x42 binos for the past year and I absolutely love them. They're the first pair of high dollar optics I ever bought and are probably right on par with your Swarovski EL 10x50s. You are correct about the balance point on the SFs being great. The weight does sit towards the back making them easy to hold for long glassing sessions and the field of view way out far is very wide indeed. Using the zoom knob is tactile and fast and the clarity is amazing from edge to edge. The only draw backs I've found are that the adjustable eye pieces (with/without eye glasses) are a little on the light side (made of plastic, don't hold their position all the time) and they are a rather long/large binocular. I carry them in the Badlands chest case model that's supposed to carry both a binocular on top and a rangefinder below and they take up every bit of that case (no room for a rangefinder).

From picking out hard to see grayish, brown coyotes in deep sage to spotting some oryx three miles away, they definitely are an awesome bino. I'll caveat that of course by saying they're the only high end binos I have any experience with. I chose them over the Swarovski EL because the temperature rating for the Zeiss SF went way down into the sub zero range where I like to hunt a lot. That has proven to be the case in the field too (-15 degree coyote hunt) as the Zeiss SF doesn't freeze up or get hard to focus like some binos do. Hope that helps out.

I put my 20% down on them today and will pay off the rest on Sunday. I think they'll fit my needs perfectly from everything I've read. One thing that sold me on them when I handled them is the depth of focus and balance/weight of them. They should fit into the binocular harness I currently have for my 10x50 ELs. I'm looking forward to having a true handheld binocular that's good for extended glassing sessions without a tripod. Really been wanting some for my frequent hikes. The field of view should be nice too.