Re: Leica Geovid HD vs Leica Geovid
I have, if you used the non-HD's for a week in the field, then took a week off and then went and used the HD's for a week you'd never tell the difference. If you can swap back and forth between them right away in the same situation you can tell a difference easily. I'd be willing to bet that if you swapped off the in field every day (day 1 HD, day 2 non-HD) you wouldn't be able to tell either.
The rangefinder also works a bit better in full sun and in distance on the HD model but again it's not major.
That said they are not as good as ANY leica glass, no way they compare to the ultravid HD's optically, they are probably close to the ultravids. My geovid HD's are on par with my EL's in the center 50% of the field of view but the EL's were significantly better at the edges. The ultravid HD's I've compared my EL's to the ultravid HD's were optically better in the center 50% but the EL's again were slightly better at the edge.
Personally I think edge clarity is of little use to most in binoculars users unless you are using them tripod mounted. You naturally center the area of interest and even in general scanning the whole scene it's not a big deal because your focus is again toward the center of the image unless it's fixed in a tripod. If you are using them as a pair of bigeyes tripod mounted then it becomes a bigger issue.
That said, all of those upper end optics are amazing clarity and light gathering. I remember doing hours of comparisons between my EL's, geovid, geovid HD, Zeiss RF's etc. when I wanted rangefinding binoculars. There are minor differences but we get way too caught up in them. Pick up a $250 pair of binoculars and compare them sometime (which is still more than 90% of users spend on their binoculars) and you'll once again appreciate the whole spectrum of top optics and realize the minor nit picking is just not that important.
