The leaves and prices are falling this autumn!
You can find our colorful selection of special offers here in the shop. Get them now!
The offer is valid from September 23rd to November 28th, 2024 and only while supplies last!
The leaves and prices are falling this autumn!
You can find our colorful selection of special offers here in the shop. Get them now!
The offer is valid from September 23rd to November 28th, 2024 and only while supplies last!
And once again, we have a new brand name that was missing in our already wide range of products: the still very young brand Hawke Optics. Founded by Paul Walker in the 1980s, this brand has become part of the Deben Group Inc. Ltd., which sells even more well known brand products for outdoor use and marksmen, in addition to binocular-related products.
This English enterprise produces binoculars, spotting scopes, range finders, rifle scopes as well as matching accessories in the medium to low price range. The rifle scopes, in particular, have already proved themselves with their excellent price/performance ratio in some tests conducted by leading hunting magazines. Now we would like to introduce some product series in more detail.
Binoculars:
The Sapphire ED and Frontier ED-Series is a persuasive product with its high-quality multilayer coating, phase corrected roof prism and ED-lenses and thus a maximum in transmission, image sharpness and clarity.
In addition, the Sapphire-Series offers you a dielectric coating on the roof prism for even more brightness and the models from 32 mm and up are delivered in a sturdy hard shell case made of real leather.
The Endurance-Series comes with a special easy to grip rubber armouring, the pattern of which reminds you of the fish skin patter of a rifle stock. The Nature-Trek and Vantage-Series mainly appeals to price conscious customers, who would want good quality, on a small budget.
The Frontier and Endurance-Series are spotting scopes with a zoom eyepiece. Many of these models are also equipped with high-quality ED-glass lenses. With the large focus ring or the dual focus, you can quickly change the magnification, but also focus on details in a bird’s feathers. The numerous Digiscoping adapters allow you to digitally capture and share your observations.
The Professional Rangefinder is available in 3 variantions: They differ in their maximum measurable distance of 400, 600 or 900 meters. All models come with a 6-fold magnification and the possibility to measure the angle or the height of an object with an accuracy of +/- 1m, besides the horizontal distance
Every year the most important tradeshow for ambitious bird watchers (twitchers) and nature photographers takes place in Egleton, Rutland in England: the Birdfair. This tradeshow may just be the biggest end-customer fair for followers of this hobby in Europe. More and more manufacturers use this platform to present their new products.
Here some of the highlights of this year’s fair:
ZEISS featured the new Conquest Gavia spotting scope. A completely new development with an oblique viewing position and a new wide angle eyepiece. The premium manufacturer from Wetzlar now also uses the large focus ring, as some competitors also do. At the same time ZEISS presented a range of useful accessories, for example, a new Carbon tripod set or a photo adapter for cameras with filter threads in various diameters, which are clamped by the eyepiece. And due to their cooperation with the company ExoLens, ZEISS now, for the first time, has a Smartphone digiscoping solution. It consists of a adapter ring and the so-called ExoLens Bracket (holder for the smartphone). These brackets are available for the Apple iPhone 6/6s and the Samsung Galaxy S6/S6 edge. ZEISS presented even more adapter rings, so that the ExoLens Bracket can also be used on the currently available binocular models from ZEISS.
Apart from that, ZEISS had a revised version of the Victory SF on display for examination. Here the colour of the rubber armouring was changed to black, following public requests. And also the eyepiece caps now have an additional locked position. This allows an even more individual adjustment for eye relief. The focus mechanics have also been slightly improved.
The other major manufacturer from Wetzlar, LEICA, already announced a few weeks ago, that they would present some new products during the fair. The new Leica top model of the type 42 binoculars is available under the name Noctivid. This name is derived from the Latin “Noctis”, meaning Night, and surely reminds friends of Leica photography of the fast Noctilux lenses. However, with a transmission of approx. 92% (acc. to the manufacturer), it is still no night vision equipment, but for the needs of ornithologists it is surely more than adequate.
For most nature observers it may be more important that Leica can now also compete against major competitors in the close-range area. With a close range distance of only 1.9 meters you can watch butterflies, dragonflies, spiders and other insects. Furthermore, the new Noctivid now comes with an open bridge structure, which considerably improves handling, especially when holding the binocular with one hand. Apart from that, Leica currently offers a complete combination consisting of spotting scope, camera and all necessary adapters. Optionally with angled or straight view, 82 or 65 mm lens diameter.
For twitchers no longer an insider tip: The company KOWA has expanded its Genesis model range. Besides the previous type 44 and 33, they now also offer pocket binoculars with a 22-millimetre lens diameter. This “hand full of binoculars” is available with 8-fold and 10-fold magnification. Due to the Prominar XD lenses, it can easily compete with the top-level binoculars from ZEISS, Leica or Swarovski. Unfortunately “high performance optics” cost a lot of money, the prices recommended by the manufacturers are therefore comparable with the prices of top models from Europe.
Nikon also presented new products: the new Monarch ED spotting scopes and the new Monarch HG binoculars. Both the scopes as well as the binoculars were equipped with a “Field Flattener Lens”, which reduces the field curvature and thus increases the marginal sharpness. Unfortunately Nikon only offers digiscoping solutions for their in-house system camera Nikon 1 and the compact cameras with small zoom range, which are becoming increasingly rare.
Last but not least, the new Legend E-, L- and M-Series from Bushnell are now available. These binoculars rather appeal to the ambitious novice of this hobby, who is looking for a very good pair of mid-range binoculars and for whom a ZEISS Conquest HD, Swarovski SLC or Leica Trinovid HD is simply too expensive. At this point we can offer you the predecessor Bushnell Legend Ultra HD in 10×42.