Nikon’s 12x50 SEs were my favourite
all-round Astronomy binocular. Let’s see if Swarovski 12x50 ELs improve on the
high-standard of the SEs and offer an alternative now the Nikons have been
discontinued.
Swarovski EL 12x50 Review
Some years
ago, I wrote an open letter to the alpha binocular makers, challenging them to
combine the best binocular technology with the optical qualities astronomers
take for granted, to deliver a high power, large-objective binocular with the
following characteristics:
1) No visible in-focus
chromatic aberration.
2) A wide apparent
field.
3) A field which is
sharp, flat, bright and coma-free to the edge.
4) Eye relief of at
least 16 mm.
5) Minimal blackouts
(spherical aberration of the exit pupil in technical terms).
6) A focuser as
smooth, fast and accurate as Nikon’s HG range.
7) All the usual
features, such as waterproofing, twist-up eyecups, etc.
My
frustration derived from the fact that a typical high-end binocular contains
more lenses than say a Tele Vue NP-101 telescope with an Ethos eyepiece, that
delivers all those things in spades. Yet
no high-end roofs of the time met all of these criteria. Really only
Nikon’s SE porro-prism binoculars were ticking most of the boxes (though not
really the wide field).
Then
Swarovski brought out the game-changing SWAROVISIONTM ELs. When I tested them I found that
they came closer to my ideal than any other binoculars; but with 42mm lenses
that didn’t really help astronomers.
So now that
50mm aperture versions of the SWAROVISIONTM EL are available, an ideal size for
hand-held astronomy, the big question is whether here finally is a binocular
that meets all my open-letter criteria? Or has Swarovski diluted the original SWAROVISIONTM achievement in scaling it up?
At A Glance
|
Magnification |
12x |
|
Objective
Size |
50mm |
|
Eye Relief |
19mm |
|
Actual
Field of View |
5.7° |
|
Apparent
field of view |
63° |
|
Close
focus |
2.8m |
|
Transmissivity |
90% |
|
Length |
174mm |
|
Weight |
998g |
Data from http://www.swarovskioptik.com
What’s in the Box?
The contents of the big white box: 12x50 ELs, strap, lens
covers, case, case strap, cleaning kit, snapshot-adapter.
Design and Build
These 50mm
ELs inevitably share a lot in common with their smaller and longer-established
42mm siblings, but some changes have been made and not just larger, more flared
barrels.
Swarovski’s
12x50 ELs aren’t that much bigger than the 10x42s.
Body
Having opened that elegant packaging and grasped the
binoculars for the first time (still cold from their journey), the first thing
that stuck me was how small they are. In fact, for a moment I thought they’d
sent me a pair 10x42 ELs by mistake!
Slim and
easy to hold: the 12x50 ELs don’t feel like a big binocular in the hand.
The 12x50 ELs do seem very compact and one way in which
Swarovski has achieved this is by moving the objectives close to the barrel
ends. This has some disadvantages: it makes the objectives easier to damage in
the field and could make them more susceptible to veiling flare and reflections.
Swarovski
claim use of magnesium alloys in the body and as you would expect the ELs are
sealed against water to 4m.
Focuser
The focuser is fast, taking just over a turn from close focus
to infinity. Precision is perfect with no play. The action is smooth but
suffers from the occasional ‘stiction’ that afflicts most greaseless focusers.
Dioptre adjustment is effected by pulling the focuser knob to
reveal a scale. Turning the focuser now adjusts the dioptre. It’s similar to
the old Zeiss Victory FLs’, but lighter yet more positive with a click-stop
mechanism. The scale is numbered in half-dioptres too and appears accurate, so
if you know your prescription you can just dial in the difference.
Pull the
focuser to reveal a click-stop dioptre adjust.
Optics – Prisms
The EL range all employ conventional Schmidt-Pechan roof
prisms, complete with SWAROBRIGHTTM dielectric mirror coatings and of
course phase coating too. But it’s interesting to note that claimed light transmission
is 90%. That’s 5% less than the latest Zeiss HTs and 3% less than Swarovski’s
own new SLC 56 models. Why? Because both the Zeiss and SLCs use Abbe- König
prisms that employ total internal reflection to bend the light (as do
porro-prisms), rather than roof prisms with lossy mirrors.
Optics - Objectives
The ELs are packed with optical technology and have no less
than 12 lenses per side (even Leica’s most complex Ultravids have “just” 11),
which may explain why they feel heavy for their size (Swarovski’s cut-away view
show them fairly packed with glass).
SWAROVISIONTM has four main elements:
·
Special
coatings for high transmission and tuned colour rendition.
·
HD
Lenses to minimise chromatic aberration.
·
High
eye relief so you can see the whole field wearing glasses.
·
A
field flattener, so the field of view is sharp to the edge.
Swarovski use their premium SWAROTOPTM coatings on the EL’s lenses.
The coatings also include the new SWAROCLEANTM technology that rivals Zeiss’
“Lotutec” to repel water and dirt.
One of the most important components of SWAROVISIONTM is the use of HD lenses to rival
Zeiss and Leica. HD lenses contain high-fluoride glasses to reduce chromatic
aberration (false colour fringes) the way an apochromatic telescope does. In
the ELs, the lenses appear to be a complex four or five element design.
Another cornerstone of SWAROVISIONTM is the field flattener technology
that has caused some controversy about “rolling ball” effect when panning.
Field flatteners are not new: Nikon’s HGs, Prostars and SEs have had them for
decades, as have Fujinon’s FMT line. But the ELs are still among the few
“Alpha” birding binos to have them.
There is an article on the web by physicist and optics expert
Holger Merlitz that explains in detail why a flat field leads to the rolling
ball effect when panning. Here suffice to say that some have found the very
flat field of the new ELs makes them nauseous when panning. Astronomers – like
me - generally like flat fields, though, because it gives a better view of star
fields and big DSOs.
Premium
coatings are part of the SWAROVISIONTM
concept.
Objectives
compared: Leica Ultravid HD 12x50s, Swarovski 12x50 ELs: Leica’s lenses are
more deeply recessed, the armour thinner.
Optics - Eyepieces
The eye lenses are very large on the EL50s, just as they are
on the 42mm version – about the largest I’ve seen on binoculars. They are about
25mm diameter, deeply concave and remind me of the eye lens on a premium astro’
eyepiece.
Apparent field of view in the 12x50s is slightly larger even
than the 42mm ELs’ at 63° (5.7° actual field width). That’s an impressive
achievement because in general larger lenses mean longer focal length and hence
a smaller field; Swarovski must have tweaked the design to use a shorter focal
length objective. That means a risk of higher chromatic aberration, but they’ve
avoided it as we will see.
Long eye relief for spectacle wearers (like me) is another
part of SWAROVISIONTM.
The 12x50 ELs claim 19mm, compared to 20mm for the EL 42s. Eye relief is a
bugbear of mine, because you need plenty of it to make binos comfortable to use
with glasses. Nikon has always been a favourite manufacturer because they
realised the need for good ER long ago, whilst the “Alpha makers” are only just
starting to catch up.
In the case of the 12x50 ELs,
Swarovski’s claimed 19mm is absolutely spot-on, but only if you measure from
the edge of the lens; from the rim of the eye-cup in its lowest set position,
eye relief will be more like 16mm, which is how it feels.
Does this matter? It does. You see, my Zeiss 7x42 FLs
actually have more eye relief than the EL 12x50s - about 17-18mm measured from
the eye cup. But that’s not the way it reads in the sales literature.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it
again here: we need a standard for ER measurement, because at the moment apples
are being compared to oranges. If you buy the ELs expecting the kind of
super-generous ER of a Nikon SE or HG, you’re going to be disappointed.
Twist-up eye cups are top-quality Swarovski and Swarovski
will likely replace them for free.
Accessories
The 12x50 ELs come with the usual Swarovski accessories:
Stay-on rubber objective caps, hinged eyepiece cap, strap, snapshot adapter and
case.
The case is different from (better) than the 10x42s’. It is
made from stiff cordura, is semi-rigid and has two compartments for
accessories, whilst being felt lined to protect the binoculars. At last a case
that’s fit for an Alpha bino’!
The snapshot adapter clips around an extended eye cup and
then clamps a compact camera lens when you twist it: good in theory, the clamp
mechanism’s aperture was too small for my daughter’s camera (a Sony) and too
large for my wife’s (a Canon). By the time you read this, Swarovski’s phone
adapter may have replaced the snapshot adapter.
Snapshot
adapter in place, clipped around an extended eye cup.
In Use – Daytime
Ergonomics
The ELs feel good in the hand and the focuser falls naturally
under your forefinger. As I said at the start, these seem like quite a compact
binocular and they are easy and intuitive to hold and move about, though a
touch heavy. The double barrel design pioneered by the old ELs is gradually
taking over and it’s not hard to see why.
I am struck by just how snappy perfect focus is: among the
very best I have tested. That accurate focuser, combined with wide, deep field,
makes watching birds on the wing easy - surprisingly so for a high-powered
binocular. For a greaseless design the
focuser is very good and slightly better than my (older) 10x42 Swarovision ELs
were: smooth, fast and fluid. Focus from 2m to infinity is one and a half
turns.
In my view, dioptre adjustment is the best and easiest ever –
delivered by a combination of absolute focus snap with a very precise
micro-click-stop mechanism.
I’ve said the real-world eye relief, measured from the rubber
eyecup, is more like 16mm than 19mm, but it is indeed sufficient to see the
whole field with my glasses on, but only just. The eye cups are the best around
though: smooth and easy rotating with a solid feel and 3-positions.
Handling is really easy, belying their high-power. Grip is
comfortable and helps control the high-power shakes. For the first time, here
is a 12x binocular I would take nature viewing or casual birding, because it’s
easy and comfortable to use. I’ve become quite a convert to the double-barrel
design and the tapered shape of the 12x50s mean they are more comfortable to
hold than either the 10x42 ELs or the 15x56 SLCs.
Unlike so many larger-aperture binoculars, Swarovski have
worked hard to make the 50mm ELs compact. Not only do they feel quite small in
the hand, they don’t look ludicrous hanging ‘round your neck (unlike the 15x56
SLCs, for example).
The size and
weight of the ELs isn’t overwhelming, even for small hands and the tapered
shape makes them easy to hold steady.
The 12x50
ELs look quite elegant when carried (unlike some 50mm binoculars I can think
of).
The View
Most high-powered binoculars have a disappointing view in
full daylight: often a bit dim and narrow, not as sharp and natural and easy as
lower-powered models with a bit more chromatic aberration to spoil things. Not
the 12x50 ELs.
The view through these is just spectacularly good: like a
premium 7x or 8x binocular, but with more reach. For the first time, here is
that ‘picture window’ view you get with a Zeiss FL or Nikon HG, but at high
power. You only realise it’s a 12x magnification when you take your eyes away
and everything recedes into the far distance. The field of view is so wide and
flat that you don’t feel constricted the way you often do with high powers.
What’s more the 12x50 ELs don’t restrict the view to a shallow focal plane the
way some 12x binoculars do: credit the excellent depth of field and quick
focuser. Overall, the view is quite
simply the best and most comfortable I have experienced in a high-power
binocular.
A neutral colour balance, achieved with custom-tuned coatings
is a Swarovision boast; it works: colour rendition it completely neutral,
apparently identical to the naked eye.
Performance at close range is excellent, so you could use the
12x50 ELs as a long-distance microscope: I really enjoy detailed views of a
pair of Blue Tits foraging for berries in the hedge across my garden, with
every nuance of plumage picked out. I had fun using them to looking at a
painting across my study and pretending I’m in it – close focus works that
well.
Overall, the daytime view is a most
impressive achievement for such a relatively high magnification.
Flat field?
The much-discussed ‘rolling ball’ effect due to the flat
field is noticeable when panning, making the ELs slightly less comfortable than
the Zeiss 7x42 FLs, but I certainly don’t find panning uncomfortable, let alone nauseating. Interestingly, careful
inspection of the field reveals that it isn’t completely flat: it curves off a
little towards the edge so that perfect focus does shift slightly across the field
of view. I suspect that this is no accident. With these latest ELs I think Swarovski have listened to their critics
and dialled in a touch of field curvature to make panning more comfortable.
However, I also noticed that when using the Zeiss straight after
the ELs, their field curvature was really obvious. So, by the standards of
other binoculars, the ELs still have a very flat field. If you get perfect
focus in the centre, you’ll still ID a bird at the field edge. For me Swarovski have achieved an excellent
compromise between flatness and panning comfort.
Chromatic Aberration
Chromatic aberration is exceptionally well-controlled. What
tiny amount remains is mostly from the eyepieces or prisms and increases off
axis: focusing through high-contrast objects produces virtually no colour
fringing. Overall the level of CA is equal to (or perhaps a touch less) than
the Zeiss 7x42 FL – impressive. Watching a Jackdaw wheeling and diving, mobbing
a crow against a blue sky is no problem and tree branches silhouetted against a
clear dusk sky show a wonderful crispness. In the morning, I can watch a flock
of pigeons roosting on high branches, lit by the low sun, with their plumage
absolutely clear and defined.
These HD lenses make a real difference because objects silhouetted
against the sky no longer have their contrast and detail ruined by false
colour.
In Use - Dusk
Dusk performance is simply excellent: I can see into the
copse opposite my house, even when the tree-shaded darkness there is blackly
opaque to the naked eye. There is a modest degree of ‘white out’ – light from the sky reflecting
in the optics - when using the ELs in deep dusk with a bright clear sky, but it
is restricted to the lower part of the field and isn’t a problem.
The large lenses, fine coatings and wide field all contribute
to a very considerable ‘image intensifier’ effect at twilight. Even with your
pupils dilated to use the whole exit pupil of the binoculars, the ELs remain
sharp with snappy focusing.
Thankfully, the ELs do not suffer from
blackouts/kidney-beaning (spherical aberration of the exit pupil). Moving your
eyes about has no effect on the view, another bonus for comfort and ease of
use. This is especially noticeable at dusk or at night, when it’s not so easy
to tell if your eyes are perfectly placed. The Nikon SEs often left me puzzled
looking at a black night sky devoid of stars … until I realised I’d just hit an
eyepiece blackout spot.
In Use – The Night Sky
Testing the
12x50 ELs on a frosty November night.
I consider 12x50 to be an ideal size for general astronomy,
so I’ll give a detailed account of the EL’s performance on the night sky. Skip
the detail if it doesn’t interest you.
The Moon
The 12x50 ELs show the Moon just as it is with nothing added
or taken away – a cold solid ball of luminous whites and greys. Contrast is
excellent and resolution very high. On a gibbous Moon, it’s easy to pick out
strange Reiner Gamma in Oceanus Procellarum, the Rupes Altai and Cyrillus
embedded in the terminator. The ELs show real Lunar detail and your own shakes
are the limiting factor.
Roughly how
you might see the Moon through the EL 12x50s: still small at this
magnification, but crisp and contrasty and full of detail.
I notice how crisp the focus is and how much faster and more
precise it feels, even than my Zeiss 7x42 FLs.
Make no mistake, the view of the Moon with the ELs is about
the best I have seen with binoculars – very much the ‘two small APO refractors’
ideal that so very few binoculars achieve.
However there is the first hint of a problem. The bright Moon
in field produces no ghosting or reflections, but while viewing Jupiter a few
degrees away, there is a sudden bright ghost of Moonlight reflected in the
optics. I can reproduce this problem at will with a streetlamp.
Overall I notice that at night,
working around the Moon or bright lights, the 12x50 ELs produce a few more
reflections and ghosts than the class leaders in this area. My guess is that to keep length
down they have moved the objectives close to the barrel ends and paid a price
in resistance to veiling flare as the result.
Venus
In a twilit sky Venus showed a tiny, brilliant crescent that
was absolutely crisp like it is through my Swarovski 15x56 binoculars, but
without the chromatic aberration. In near darkness, Venus’ brightness did
overwhelm the prisms to produce just a little flare, but even so the phase
could still be seen and this is typical of even the best prismatic optics, my
15x56 Swaros included.
Jupiter
Like Venus, Jupiter shows up as a perfect disk with no spikes or flare
and its Galilean moons are clearly visible, even when close to
the planet. But (unlike the 15x56s), these didn’t
show a hint of the equatorial belts.
Deep Sky
On an evening in late November with dark, transparent skies I
was able to find a whole host of DSOs quickly and easily with the ELs. A
Messier Marathon would be fun with these. Stars become mildly comatic after
~80% of the field width, but this is barely noticeable and the impression is of
a wide, sharp flat field full of pin-point stars.
The field is wide enough to fit in the whole Hyades or (just)
both Orion’s belt and sword.
Globular clusters M92 and M13 in Hercules were easy to find
and satisfyingly bright, as were M15 and M2; only smaller, fainter M69 near
Lyra was a tougher challenge.
In terms of galaxies, M31 showed its bright core and extended
nebulosity, the fainter companion and the dark lane cut-off; the relatively
high magnification and wide field seem to suit it particularly well. M33 was
bright and easy to find too. Bodes Nebula (M81 and M82) looked very good
through the ELs, with M81 clearly extended and fuzzy, M82 denser, more compact
and linear.
Finding the Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula was a bit harder
than with the 15x56 SLCs, as was the Ring Nebula (M57), but I could clearly
pick both out from the starry background after a search.
Open clusters look really good through the ELs due to the
flat field and pin-point stars. Both the Pleiades and the double cluster looked
as good as I have seen them with hand-helds. Sweeping the Milky Way is
satisfying with the ELs and stellar colours are vivid due to the pin-point
stars those sharp optics yield.
Clusters M36 and M38 in Auriga were clearly resolved into
masses of stars and showed their characteristic shapes. The EL 12x50s seem to
sit at a nexus of aperture and magnification, combined with superb optics, that
works well for clusters and extended DSOs. The double cluster with its arc of
stars stretching north towards more clusters in Cassiopeia, was especially
beautiful – better than in most other binoculars, again due to that combination
of field, aperture and power.
Comet Lovejoy was easy to find and quite spectacular in the
morning sky before dawn, even in strong Moonlight, with a clear tail, extended
nebulosity and bright nucleus. With all the fuss about Ison, people have
neglected this bright comet that can be seen high in a dark sky.
In general, the 12x50 ELs compared well with the 15x56 SLCs
for astronomy. The smaller, lighter ELs are much easier to hold and use and
give better views of extended objects and star fields, but they don’t give quite such a good view of smaller DSOs or of
planets, just due to the lower magnification and smaller objectives.
Aperture and magnification win on small DSOs. But whereas the 15x56 are a
specialist observation binocular, the 12x50 ELs work well for everything else
as well.
Overall, I rate the 12x50 ELs top of
the pile as a general purpose hand-held astronomy binocular.
The Swarovision EL 12x50 vs Nikon SE
12x50
Up to now
the Nikon 12x50s have been my favourite high-power binoculars; not any more.
The Nikon 12x50 SE is my current reference standard for
hand-held astronomy binoculars. When I tested the Leica Ultravid HD 12x50 a few
years back I found it wasn’t really better than the Nikons overall, despite
being heavier and (much) more expensive. So how do these new Swarovski 12x50s
fare against the Nikons?
A summary of the differences between these two fine
binoculars:
·
The
Nikons are 10% lighter at 900g, compared with 998g for the ELs.
·
The
new ELs actually have a several mm less
eye relief than the Nikons, but less blackouts to compensate. I would prefer
the Swarovski compromise: just enough ER, but with excellent twist action cups
and no blackouts, in comparison to the generous ER, fold-down cups and
sensitivity to eye position of the Nikon SEs.
·
The
ELs have a significantly wider field at 5.7°vs 5° for the 12x50 SEs: an
impressive achievement, given the flat field and good eye relief. This helps
make them a more general-purpose binocular.
·
The
ELs’ field is even flatter than the Nikons’.
·
The
ELs have a slightly cooler colour balance that is even noticeable if you
project the exit pupil onto white paper.
·
The
ELs have slightly less chromatic aberration.
·
Both
show a bit more ghosting and reflections than the class leaders, but the Nikons
show some minor ghosting with a bright Moon in
field, whereas the ELs do not.
·
Depth
of field is very similar in both.
·
The
ELs focus closer.
·
The
ELs are fully waterproof, the Nikons are not.
·
The
Swarovskis cost about three times as much as the Nikons.
Summary
The 12x50 ELs are not perfect, but they come close. Almost
everything about them is class-leading and my only small gripe would be that
their flare resistance at night, whilst good, is not the best.
In every other way, these are a superb binocular and
sufficiently better than my previous reference standard to make them a
worthwhile upgrade if you can afford them.
For me perhaps the best thing about the 12x50 ELs is that
they don’t feel like a high-power
binocular at all. The view is so wide and bright and deep that they do
everything well, an unusual virtue in a 12x binocular. Take them birding or
nature viewing during the day; hunt for owls or deer in the woods at dusk;
check-up on that brilliant star you’ve been glimpsing through the branches (you
confirm it’s Venus by checking the phase); then use them for spotting Messier
objects after dark, followed by a quick survey of the terminator’s highlights
when the Moon rises. Given the price of premium binoculars, it makes a lot of
sense to have a single pair that works for everything.
However, if you can manage the
weight, bulk and high magnification, tight eye relief and daytime CA, the
15x56s SLCs do perform at a higher level for astronomy, especially if you enjoy
hunting down smaller DSOs.
Finally, the 12x50 ELs tick most of the boxes as far as my
‘open letter’ criteria are concerned:
· Virtually no chromatic aberration.
· A wide apparent field (63°, not the
70° I asked for, but we’re getting there!)
· Super-sharp, flare-free optics, flat
to the edge.
· Real-world eye relief of about 16mm.
· A smooth, fast focuser.
· All the usual features like twist-up
eye cups and full waterproofing.
The Swarovision 12x50 ELs are very highly recommended. They
are the best high-power binoculars I have tested to date and the only
high-power binocular I would happily use day-to-day because the view is so wide
and bright and they are so easy to handle. The question of whether they are
worth 3x the price of Nikon’s 12x50 SEs, which are perhaps 85% as good, is less
relevant now the Nikons have been discontinued.
Updated by Roger Vine 2018
Buy Swarovski 12x50 EL from Wex here:
