AllBinos.com

Cons: Narrow FOV, but read forwards

Pros: I sat and thought, what do I like so much about this new Habicht 7x42? ...Precisely these poor quality specifications and the simplicity of the mechanical and optical construction seem to reduce these binoculars to a kind of essence. These essences paradoxically attract me because, by antithesis, this seem to emphasize even more the clarity and fantastic transmission of these beautiful binoculars.

Summary: As I use this Habicht 7x42, I definitely realize the following aspect even better: I like its aparent visual field of view exactly as it is, small and narrow! It is a purely aesthetic pleasure! It\'s the binoculars with the biggest personality I\'ve met by far! It is a binocular that requires a lot of understanding to begin with, and it is very easy to abandon it because of the weak specifications. But after you use it without prejudgment related to AFOV, it turns into magic with time. This narrow AFOV, which everyone spits out (including me), is illuminated by an extraordinarily clear image that floats in a totally black space, creating a unique and powerful aesthetic impression. This aesthetic impression paradoxically, if the AFOV had been increased, would disappear! This paradoxically experience clearly confirmed to me, once again, that a pair of binoculars cannot be characterized only by some numbers (even carefully and objective placed in tables), but also through strongly subjective impressions, but honest! The complexity of reality, even of a simple pair of binoculars, cannot be reduced only to numbers, it also has other values that escape the measuring devices, but not to our perception!

Cons: Narrow FOV and narrow sweet spot. Very stiff focusing unit (even after 27 years!). Twist-up eyecups. Eye relief too short for eyeglass wearers.

Pros: Beautiful leather armouring. Extremely robust.

Summary: Did a good job for a quarter of a century, but nowadays really outdated for birdwatching (very narrow FOV/sweet spot and stiff focus wheel do not allow effective panning).

Cons: No objective caps The ocular cap is worthless: only fits when the interpupillary distance is about 65 mm. Flimsy bag supplied: I immediately bought a sturdy one for protection of the instrument.

Pros: Great optics. The small apparent field of view does not bother me: I am used to Kellner eyepieces. Stars are pinpoint sharp in the center of the image. Very good for astronomy. Transmission approx. 96%: very bright image. Color neutral. Great value for money. Maximum ipd is about 75.5 mm: much larger than specified, which is 72 mm.

Summary: I am very happy with this binocular. It is not cheap, it may not be fashionable, but the image quality and build quality are superb. A real gem.

Cons: Somewhat washed-out, neutral colours, and blueish tan on the image, very tipical to Swaro binos. Horribily small virtual FOV; the image given is far from eye and lot of black around it. Bad experience with repair/customer service (O.K., it was many years ago, probably improved a lot).

Pros: Crisp, clear image, very flat and screen-like all over the virtual FOV. Excellent build quality. Quite resistant to shock. Slim housing, very comfortable in hands, even with gloves. Quite nice weight, easy to bring during long birding trips. Simply but very usable eyecups with excellent rubber quality. Eye relief is 14,5 mm officially, but well enough to use it with eyeglasses.

Summary: The very small virtual FOV and high price were the two main reason to sell it. I liked the image quality but this small image given at the oculars diverted me from the model.

Cons: Brand specific accessories are high priced.

Pros: Has high color transmission when observing stars. Better than my Carl Zeiss Jena Jenoptem 10x50W pair. Light weight. Easy to focus. Good eye relief.

Summary: Yes, that price is correct. I tried to tell the lady at the flea market these were worth ten times that much but she wouldn't take any more for them. These are the vintage model, I would imagine the newer version is even better.