Zeiss’ 8x32 Conquest HDs are the
smallest and cheapest model of the range, competing on price with much less
prestigious brands. But are they any good?
Zeiss 8x32 Conquest HD
Review
I’ve liked all the models I’ve reviewed in Zeiss’ Conquest HD
range so far, which is pretty much all of them except for the 10x32 and 8x32.
But the 8x32 model at least has big boots to fill: the old Zeiss 8x32 Victory
FL was a Scope Views best buy for years and something of an all-time favourite
of mine (I’ve actually owned two pairs).
Coincidentally or not, the 8X32 Conquest HDs have identical
optical spec’s to their more upmarket predecessor,
despite being just half the list price. On the face of it progress, then – same
bino’ half the money. Or is it? Let’s investigate ...
At A Glance
|
Magnification |
8x |
|
Objective Size |
32mm |
|
Eye Relief |
15-16mm measured |
|
Actual Field of View |
8.1° (140m/1000m) |
|
Apparent field of view |
64° |
|
Close focus |
~1.5m measured |
|
Transmissivity |
90% |
|
Length |
132mm |
|
Weight |
625g measured |
Data from Me.
What’s in the Box?
The Conquest range
all share the same the glossy, fold-out presentation box with an arty wildlife
photo. No cut-price packaging here.
Design and Build
The
Conquest HDs are Zeiss’ largest range of binoculars in terms of the magnifications
and apertures on offer: equivalent of Leica’s Trinovid HDs and Swarovski’s
rather more expensive SLC HDs, but with more variety than either - all the way
from 15x56s to these compact 8x32s.
All the
Conquest models seem to share a similar style and approach, with rugged
made-in-Germany build (some of the ad’s show a bruised and muddied pair that’s
just been run over by a truck to prove it) and wide fields for their class.
Both the
32mm and 42mm Conquest HD models are fairly standard roof prism binoculars,
with nothin’ fancy – no special prisms like the
HTs, no innovative optical and mechanical design like the SFs. And whilst the
56mm models are large for their spec, these are a normal compact size.
The
Conquest HDs certainly seem like ‘proper’ Zeiss, but whether ‘Made in Germany’
means fabricated or merely assembled, I don’t know. In either case, Zeiss are
likely to support them for service and repair in a way only the European brands
do in my experience.
Body
Zeiss’
32mm Conquest HDs share a look and feel with the other members of the range, a
more conventional design than the premium SF models: an armoured hinge and the
focuser at the back, rather than the double-link open bridge and huge
central focuser on the SFs.
Like the
SFs, the Conquests lack thumb cut-outs. But here there isn’t the innovative
rear-biased handling to compensate by taking weight off your wrists.
Whilst the
8x32 Victory FLs share optical spec’s with these
Conquests, the cheaper binoculars are a bit heavier and longer: 132mm vs 115mm
and 625g vs 550g.
Some of
the difference in weight may come down to the composite body of the FLs, but
partly it’s probably due to the Conquests’ thick two-texture anthracite-black
armour. That armour looks similar to the SFs’, but it’s not the same: unlike
the SFs’, it smells rubbery, has very obvious seams and is the very worst for
attracting prints and fluff. The SFs’ armour looks like Leica’s; the Conquests’ reminds me of sticky rock-boot rubber. Irrelevant
to you, but the Conquests are a nightmare to photograph for me, because I can
never get all the dust and prints off that black rubber!
To me the
look and feel of the whole binocular isn’t as refined as Swarovski’s or (esp.)
Leica’s, with a rugged utilitarianism that’s typical Zeiss and attractive in
its own way.
It perhaps
goes without saying that these are fully waterproof. Independent tests have
found Zeiss to be tops on ruggedness and the Conquests look it, but I’m not
about to repeat the mud test, let alone the truck, to confirm it.
Focuser
The very latest stop-of-the-range models from Zeiss and
Swarovski have super-smooth and fluid focusers, but these Conquests are like
their previous top models. The focuser is reasonably smooth, free of backlash
or vagueness, but feels a bit stiffer and drier than the best. The focuser
turns on an inner axle, which may or may not be greaseless (I found a trace of
grease on an earlier pair of 10x42s).
Close focus is an amazing (esp. for this price point) 1.5m.
From there to infinity takes just less than a turn: that’s fast!
Optics - Prisms
These 42mm Conquests
have modern-standard Schmidt-Pechan (a.k.a. Roof) prisms, not the
high-transmission Abbe-König prisms found in Zeiss’ HT range and in the 56mm
Conquests. Still, transmission is claimed at 90% - up there with most modern
roofs and the same as the 32mm SFs.
Optics - Objectives
These appear to be a modern-typical three element triplet
with a focusing lens behind. The ‘HD’ label indicates at least one element of
high-fluoride glass to curb false colour and increase resolution and definition
in high-contrast situations.
Coatings are pink and ‘T*’ but noticeably more reflective
than the very dark T* version applied to the premium SFs.
Baffling looks top-class, with a ridged lens ring and
focusing carriage and a single knife-edge baffle too.
Optics - Eyepieces
The Conquest range share eyepieces of similar appearance,
with large (24mm here), quite flat and deeply recessed eye lenses. I presume
they’re some kind of modified Erfle, likely with five
elements. The eye lens coatings are completely different from the SFs’, which
have much pinker hued coatings to match the objectives.
I measured eye relief from the tall rim of the eye cup at an
excellent (for an 8x32) 15-16mm. That’s just enough to see the whole field with
specs at this field width and is about the same as I measured for Zeiss’
previous top-line 8x32s - the Victory FLs. With a shallower cup profile, it
could be even more generous. What’s more, these avoid the SFs’ blackouts. Good
eye relief is quite hard to achieve in an 8x32, so full marks to Zeiss for
managing it in a mid-price model and with no downsides.
The eye cups themselves are not one of the Conquests’ finer
features, though – there’s only one click-out position and the action is stiff
and rough.
Zeiss’ 32mm SFs
(top) have completely different coatings from the Conquests.
Accessories
The
Conquests get Zeiss’ usual neoprene strap, which fits standard lugs. Even the
high-end SFs get the same (no equivalent of Swarovski’s Field Pro at Zeiss).
But simple does mean light weight and cheap to replace.
The case
is much the same as Zeiss used to ship with their FL models and is similar to
the 32mm SFs’ (but not the 42mm SFs, which get a fancier design). It’s
plain black Cordura, but likely to be rugged and protective.
The eye
cap is soft rubber, easy to push on and it stays there, but threading the strap
is a pain. The end caps are moulded in one and hang off a pair of lanyards for
attachment to the strap lugs.
In Use – Daytime
Ergonomics and Handling
These are
a fairly generic binocular and so handling is fine, if basic. By that I mean
that there are no thumb cutouts or
double-bridge; no specially sculpted barrels to help with a snug fit, no
SF-style ErgoBalanceTM concept.
The barrels of the 42mm models felt quite chunky to my smallish hands, but
these 32mm Conquests are just right.
Similarly,
the focuser wheel and dioptre adjust are standard fare (no fancy
integrated-bridge design here) but work just fine. The dioptre ring is smooth
and accurate and together with the snappy focus, it makes finding your best
setting easy.
The fast focus and excellent snap make viewing birds in
flight a huge pleasure with these smallest Conquests. I didn’t notice any
stiffening of the focus action in sub-zero temperatures and icy winds (of which
there were a lot during my review).
Eyepiece
comfort is outstanding, with plenty of eye relief, and no significant blackouts
noticeable with specs on or off. The eye cups are comfy if you view without
specs, even if their action is stiff and unrefined.
The only
less perfect point about the Conquests’ handling is their weight, which is
about 75g up on the old 8x32 Victory FLs: they may share the FL 8x32’s optical
specs, but the Conquests feel like a bigger, heavier binocular. It’s the only
real area in which they lag the older but more premium Victory FLs.
The
Conquests look quite plain and lack the panache of Leica’s Trinovids (to me
anyway, you might disagree), but are small and unobtrusive to wear.
The View
The finish and mechanicals of the Conquest range is in the
‘just good enough’ category. It’s the view and optical finesse you’re paying
for. And of all the many models in the range perhaps that’s most true of these
8x32s. No coincidence, because lower powers and smaller apertures tend to have
lower aberrations for a given optical design.
I don’t have a pair to hand for direct comparison, but I
suspect the view is as good as Zeiss’ old top-line 8x32 Victory FLs’. I did
compare it with the latest 8x32 SF and found it nearly as good in most ways,
bar field width and off-axis sharpness.
So the view here is really excellent:
pin-sharp and with the snappy focus that’s a sure sign of good optical quality.
It’s a typically Zeiss view too – noticeably brighter and cooler in tone than a
typical mid-range Leica or Swarovski.
High resolution is a defining characteristic of this view. I
can easily ID small birds in the top branches of a tree 100m away – telling
Goldfinch from Dunnock, Robin from Great Tit, with plumage colouration picked
out in even silhouette.
Flat field?
The
field isn’t perfectly flat, though in use you likely won’t notice. Off-axis
blurring only really kicks in for the last 20% of field width, from where the
numbers on a metre ruler blur into unreadability. A lot of that blur is just
field curvature – you can focus it away, after which the ruler is sharp to the
field stop.
Enough
with the viewing rulers, what does that mean in practice? The very edge of the
field is completely usable, you could likely ID a bird there even without
re-focusing. That mild field curvature, along with a trace of pin-cushion
distortion, makes panning completely comfortable – no nauseating ‘rolling ball’
effect with these, at least for me.
Chromatic Aberration
You
might suppose that these smallest, lowest powered Conquests would have the
lowest levels of chromatic aberration and they do. Focusing through or panning
around silhouetted branches produces no purple and green, no flashes of colour
that shouldn’t be there. Viewing birds in high-contrast situations never
produces a wash of purple that destroys resolution and contrast. Compared with
Zeiss’ top-line SFs, you might find a trace of false colour of you really go
looking for it, but not otherwise.
You
might think this pickiness over chromatic aberrations over the top, but it
isn’t: watching crows and seagulls soaring and squabbling, every feather is
perfect and untainted by the fringe of false colour so many bino’s create.
Make no
mistake, these have lower false colour levels than most ‘HD’ binoculars.
In Use – Dusk
Dusk performance of a modern, high-transmission 8x32 is
better than most would give it credit for. The shadows in the understory of the
copse opposite knit into darkness more readily than for a pair of 10x42s, but
otherwise Conquest 8x32s work well into dusk. I didn’t notice more than a
fleeting touch of veiling flare under a bright dusk sky.
In Use – Observing the Night Sky
Stars distort from about 50% field width, but it’s almost all
curvature with just a trace of astigmatism until the very edge – most of it can
be focused away. My usual test of putting the belt and sword of Orion in the
same field distorts the outer stars Mintaka and Nair al Saif
just a bit.
Stray light and ghost suppression is very good. A brilliant
but distant security light generated no ghosts, just the faintest trace of four
long prism spikes (but very faint indeed). Viewing around a bright streetlamp
was untroubled by significant flare.
The Moon
You wouldn’t choose
8x for the Moon, but the Conquests gave me an excellent view of it - a hard
white and grey marble with bright highlands, brilliant rays, dark maria; and
with no significant ghosting, flare or false colour.
Mars
The only
bright planet around showed no nasty spikes or flare.
Deep Sky
Despite
their modest aperture, the smallest Conquest HDs do deep sky well and I enjoyed
an extended observing session with them. The key is their 8° field: it opens up such large sections of sky
you can just pan from constellation to constellation finding things. And I
found a lot.
Panning
up through the Milky Way from a low Deneb, a distinct patch of misty nebulosity
is the North American Nebula. Further up, I find an open cluster - M39, nicely
resolved, that leads on to many more clusters with only NGC numbers: most are
just misty patches, but finding so many of them embedded in rich star fields is
a great result for such small bino’s.
The
obvious stuff looked good too. The Pleaides were nice and sparkly. The Double
Cluster and nearby Stock 2 resolved plenty of stars and in a rich and wide
field, though with a narrow band of minor blurring around the edge. Orion’s
sword region looks really good, with a surprising amount of glowing nebulosity
from the Great Nebula itself. Meanwhile, the belt was thick with stars – more
so than I expected.
The
clusters in Auriga – M35, M36 and M38 all started to resolve with direct
vision, once my eyes had adapted. Only M37 remained star-mist. The Beehive open
cluster was dimmer than I’m used to, but showed all the major stars in their
distinctive pattern and I easily found a much smaller cluster nearby, M67.
I was
surprised to be able to find the Crab Nebula with averted vision and one
smaller galaxy, M51 in Ursa Major, too.
No magic
here of course, these are still 8x32s. Panning either side of orange star
Mirach in Andromeda, I easily found M31, but it did look a little dim. On the
other side of Mirach, M33 was easy to find too, but again a little dim.
Another
thing smaller apertures don’t do so well is star
colours. The Garnet Star, a rich amber even in 7x50s, looks pale gold; ditto La
Superba, really an even deeper orange-red, but here just silver with a hint of
gold.
Surprisingly,
the 8x32 Conquest HDs proved one of my all-time favourite sub-42mm bino’s for
astronomy. Fine, bright optics, comfy eyepieces and that huge field combine to
make them really enjoyable.
Zeiss 8x32 Victory
SF vs Zeiss 8x32 Conquest HD
These 8x32
Conquest HDs are an excellent binocular by any standards. Meanwhile, the
range-topping 8x32 SFs are almost three times the street price. So what extra do the SFs give you for your money?
·
The SFs are larger but lighter
·
The SFs’ long barrels and rearward
balance makes for a comfier hold
·
The SFs have nicer armour – less
rubbery and fluff attracting
·
Centre field view is very similar
·
The SFs may have
slightly higher resolution centre field, but not by much
·
The SFs have a wider, better
corrected field
·
SFs’ brightness seems only a
touch better, if at all
·
The SFs appear to have much
better coatings, especially on the internal elements
·
The SFs have a little more eye
relief, but worse blackouts
·
The SFs focuser feels much nicer,
even though the Conquests is good by general standards
·
Zeiss quote identical 90%
transmission and indeed brightness seems about the same
·
False colour levels are very low
in both, with perhaps a minute advantage to the SFs
All those
little refinements do sum up to make the SFs a significantly nicer binocular
... but three times nicer? Go ahead and treat yourself to the SFs, knowing
these Conquests were all you really needed.
Summary
At the start I asked if these are
any good. They are, and then some.
I like the Conquest range in
general, but these may just be the best of the lot. They have a wonderfully
bright, vivid and sharp view with almost no false colour. Apparent field is
down on the 10x model, but on the upside is superb comfort with sufficient eye
relief for once in a compact bino’. Off-axis blurring is never a problem and
the field edge is usable, but there’s enough curvature for comfortable panning.
So, in terms of the view, these are
a near ideal small birding bino’ and the focuser helps too – fast and accurate
for following birds in flight, if not the very most fluid. It just doesn’t seem
like a mid-range view.
All this daytime excellence
translates well to astronomy as well. For sweeping starry dark skies searching
for clusters, looks at the Moon, or the odd brighter DSO they work really well,
surprisingly so for such a small aperture, proof of really excellent optical
quality. But what about build quality?
In terms of their physical build,
the Conquests aren’t as perfect. The armour is rubbery, markable and fluff
attracting. The eye cups are stiff and rough. Finish is tough but utilitarian.
The lens coatings boast T*, but it’s not the same T* as the SFs’. None of this
really detracts from using them, though. The only real downside is that their
size and weight is a bit up on the most compact 8x32s. Still, I’m tempted to
buy a pair as a rough and tumble travel bino’.
For a travel or lightweight birding binocular these 8x32mm
Conquests are a Best Buy: you’re mostly paying for the really top-notch optics
and view, but they’re rugged too, if a bit basic in places. They just work
outstandingly well for birding, nature viewing or a spot of casual astronomy.
Buy Zeiss 8x32 Conquest HDs from Wex here:
