Vixen New Foresta HR 8x42 WP
As the name itself indicates, the new series is supposed to supersede the old Foresta binoculars. The change is serious because the old binoculars were classic Porro instruments. Now Vixed follows a trend very popular recently, launching only roof prism devices and, accordingly, its new binoculars have prisms changed into roof prism designs. Fortunately the parameters of the new models didn’t suffer as a result of that operation because their fields of view are supposed to remain the same as in the old instruments.
All New Foresta binoculars are waterproof and nitrogen-filled. All air-to-glass surfaces are covered by antireflection coatings. Roof prisms made of BaK-4 glass are phase-correction coated and covered by a layer with high reflection coefficient. Each New Foresta pair of binoculars comes with a 5-year guarantee period.
| Magnification | Lens diameter | Angular field of view | Prisms | Eye relief | Weight | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 42 | 130/1000(7.4o) | BaK-4/roof | 18 mm | 655 g | 799 PLN |
| Real front lens diameter |
Left: 42+/-
0.05 mm Right: 42.03+/- 0.05 mm |
8 / 8.0 pkt | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real magnification | 8.03+/- 0.05x | 3/3.0 | ||||
| Transmission | 87.3+/- 1.5% | 15/25.0 | ||||
| Chromatic aberration | Not very high in the centre, medium on the edge. | 5.5/10.0 | ||||
| Astigmatism | Moderate. | 6.5/10.0 | ||||
| Distortion | The distance of the first curved line from the field centre compared to the field of vision radius: 58% +/- 4% | 6.5/10.0 | ||||
| Coma | Appears in the distance of 75-80% from the field centre and is on the borderline between medium and high values on the edge. | 7.5/10.0 | ||||
| Blurring at the edge of the FOV | The blur occurs in the distance of 76% +/- 3% from the field of vision centre. | 4.5/10.0 | ||||
| Darkening at the edge the FOV | Noticeable but still slight. | 3.9/5.0 | ||||
| Whiteness of the image | Very good. Slight surplus of red light. | 4.4/5.0 | ||||
| Collimation | Perfect. | 5/5.0 | ||||
| Internal reflections |
|
3.8/5.0 | ||||
| Housing | Interesting and not very big for the 42 mm class. Comfortable to hold and to look through. Good quality rubber padding, perhaps a bit too slippery. Rubberized eyecups with four detention stops. The rubber next to objectives comes off very slightly. | 7.8/8.0 | ||||
| Focusing | Very big, ribbed and comfortable central wheel which moves smoothly and is well-damped (its full turn – 440 degrees). Individual focusing through the click-stop system on the central wheel. Nothing moves outside. | 4.8/5.0 | ||||
| Tripod | There is an exit but far from the centre of mass. | 2.5/3.0 | ||||
| Interpupilary distance | from 57.1 to 77.7mm | 5/6.0 | ||||
| Closest focusing distance | 2.6 m | 1.5/2.0 | ||||
| Eyepieces FOV | Apparent field of view of 57.8 deg (according to simple formula) and 53.6 deg (according t tangent formula). | 9/20.0 | ||||
| Field of view | Measured by us amounted to 7.20 ± 0.04 degrees and it was a bit narrower than the field stated in the specifications. A typical field for this class of equipment. | 4.5/8.0 | ||||
| Quality of the interior of the barrels | Black and matt inner tubes. The bottom is gray but quite shiny. Some specks of dust on the prisms. | 3.8/5.0 | ||||
| Vignetting |
The left pupil very significantly truncated. The lost of over 8% of light on the pupil itself is a huge blunder. |
3/8.0 | ||||
| Prisms quality | Good quality BaK-4. | 8/8.0 | ||||
| Antireflection coatings | Greenish everywhere. Medium intensity. | 4.5/5.0 | ||||
| Warranty [years] | 5 | 3.5/6.0 | ||||
| Final result | 69.2% | 131.5 / 190 pkt | ||||
| Econo result | 0pkt. |
Summary
Pros:
- solid device closed in a handy and not very heavy casing,
- good transmission,
- moderate astigmatism,
- good distortion correction,
- slight coma,
- very good colour rendering,
- low brightness loss on the edge of the field of view,
- wide maximum IPD,
- good quality of prisms and coatings.
Cons:
- ignificantly truncated left pupil,
- image on the edge of the field should have been sharper.
 |
The Vixen New Foresta HR 8x32 WP was one of the dark horses of our 8x32 binoculars’ test. Small, handy, with good optical properties and an affordable price. We look for such unique devices in our tests that’s why we were so curious about the performance of the Vixen New Foresta HR 8x42 WP.
Looking at the list of pros and cons and its final score, very similar to that of its smaller brother, you might say we weren’t disappointed. The 8x42 model is as recommendable as the 8x32 instrument, tested by us before.
Like previously we can praise the transmission graph, which looks really well for a pair of moderately priced roof prism binoculars.
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A lot of light gets to your eyes and the image is free of any colour hue. It is a pity, though, that the excellent coatings performance is eliminated partially by very truncated exit pupils. The left pupil is so deformed that we lose over 8% of light there. It is the biggest and the only serious flaw of the tested binoculars.
 Vixen New Foresta HR 8x42 WP, Opticron Countryman 8x42 BGA T and Delta Optical Forest II 8x42 |
One big blunder and a slip-up (connected with the image resolution on the edge of the field) versus a quite long list of advantages – it is still a good result for a lightweight, handy roof prism instrument with a price tag of less than 250 Euro. You can say that the New Foresta series is on a winning streak in our tests as, after a good result of the 8x32 model, the 8x42 device performs equally well.
