BPKHunter
Very Active Member
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- 1,783
I've been watching a pair of demo EL's at local Cabelas. Finally offered the guy that run's the dept an offer I couldn't refuse and to my surprise he accepted.
I took them home last night and did an eve twilight comparison to my current 8x30 slc's and 15x56 slc's. While I was suprised how well the little slc's compared when on a steady rest at 9pm, you could see a noticeable pop in the color, which is often what catches my eye when spotting game. The color brightness also helps when offhand glassing and your not so steady. There was suprisingly a noticeable mangification diff even though one was 8.0x and the other 8.5x. So it looks like my kids may inherit the smaller slc's, or I may have to sell them, depending on my wife's reaction to the CC statement. I certainly think for young guys who want quality but can't afford $2k, these smaller SLC's should be considered as they are bullet proof.
Comparing them to the 15x56's, I must say the big eye's showed me clearly their advantage. The clarity in the big glass is so good that I did'nt even see a clear advantage in twilight, because the clarity combined with the magnification overcame the extra "light" of the larger exit pupil.
There was a good 20 minutes of useable light on the EL's. Not sure if all of it was due to the almost 1mm in additional exit pupil size, or due in some part to the coatings. Again, the power of the 15x's did offset the brightness alowing me to glass later, but frankly when hunting these aren't often used the last and first 15 minutes, my carry bino's are.
Clearly these are apples and oranges in what they are intended to do. I will say if I was looking to get only one set of quality optics for the long term for big country glassing like Idaho, I would get 10x50's, like my good hunting buddy uses. I think they provide the best balance of large exit pupil for low light while being the upper limit on what you can glass with without a rest.
As a system, I am very happy with these 8.5x42 EL's as carry bino's and combined with the Big Eye's in the field, will make an amazing game finding tandem. Either way you can't go wrong with Swaro's.
I took them home last night and did an eve twilight comparison to my current 8x30 slc's and 15x56 slc's. While I was suprised how well the little slc's compared when on a steady rest at 9pm, you could see a noticeable pop in the color, which is often what catches my eye when spotting game. The color brightness also helps when offhand glassing and your not so steady. There was suprisingly a noticeable mangification diff even though one was 8.0x and the other 8.5x. So it looks like my kids may inherit the smaller slc's, or I may have to sell them, depending on my wife's reaction to the CC statement. I certainly think for young guys who want quality but can't afford $2k, these smaller SLC's should be considered as they are bullet proof.
Comparing them to the 15x56's, I must say the big eye's showed me clearly their advantage. The clarity in the big glass is so good that I did'nt even see a clear advantage in twilight, because the clarity combined with the magnification overcame the extra "light" of the larger exit pupil.
There was a good 20 minutes of useable light on the EL's. Not sure if all of it was due to the almost 1mm in additional exit pupil size, or due in some part to the coatings. Again, the power of the 15x's did offset the brightness alowing me to glass later, but frankly when hunting these aren't often used the last and first 15 minutes, my carry bino's are.
Clearly these are apples and oranges in what they are intended to do. I will say if I was looking to get only one set of quality optics for the long term for big country glassing like Idaho, I would get 10x50's, like my good hunting buddy uses. I think they provide the best balance of large exit pupil for low light while being the upper limit on what you can glass with without a rest.
As a system, I am very happy with these 8.5x42 EL's as carry bino's and combined with the Big Eye's in the field, will make an amazing game finding tandem. Either way you can't go wrong with Swaro's.
