Zeiss has updated its Conquest binoculars, replacing the HD series with the new HDX range which brings improvements in weight, design and ergonomics that are all beneficial.
This 10×42 set is just one of seven different models in the HDX line-up. The smallest HDX binos have 32mm objectives lenses and so are lighter and more compact if easy portability is your priority.
One of these has 8x magnification and gives the widest field of view of the whole range: 420m at 1000m distance. That’s a lot of ground way out there but it also makes a big difference at close ranges, when it’ll avoid the excessively tunnelled vision of narrow-view optics. There’s also a 10×32.
The biggest HDXs have 56mm objective lenses. To my mind all the 56mm models are a bit big for carting around when you’re hunting, but they do have their advantages.
The 8×56 provides the largest exit pupil of the Conquest range, along with a very good 375m wide field of view at 1000m. It’d be the pick for low-light use.
The 10×56 will give the best low-light performance among the higher magnification binoculars.
The 15×56 is obviously the pick if you need the extra magnification, and it comes with a tripod adapter because Zeiss expects you’ll probably use it mounted. Makes sense.
Between the 32s and 56s, you’ve got a couple of 42mm binoculars, in 8x and 10x. They are the sweet spot in the middle and the 10×42 set we’re reviewing here is the Goldilocks option: just right.
The 10x42s benefits from the greatest weight reduction compared with the equivalent Conquest HD binoculars, shedding 80 grams to just 715g. To put that in context, it’s less than 100g heavier than the 32mm sets and more than half a kilo lighter than the 56mm pairs.
Most 10×42 binoculars are heavier, and the ones that are lighter are generally either more expensive or more plasticky. I’ve got a set of lighter plasticky binoculars and the quality and robustness isn’t in the same league as these, and I don’t expect them to last nearly as long as the Zeiss HDXs.
The HDX 10x42s are also pretty compact in this class — much smaller than a lot of same-spec binoculars out there. That makes them more pleasant to have on your chest when you’re walking around with a rifle.
And while they don’t look particularly striking with their plain shape, they are very ergonomic and sit beautifully in your hands. I had two other sets of 10x42s to compare them with, one bigger, the other lighter, and for whatever reason, the Zeiss set didn’t shake nearly as much as the others.
It’s the little things like that which define the best binoculars.
The body is a magnesium alloy, which not only lightens them but brings more consistency as heat rises or falls; magnesium is more stable so you get less movement of the internal optics.
Inside, the 32mm and 42mm HDXs use Zeiss’s T* lens coating, aspherical lenses, compact Schmidt-Pechan roof prisms and what the company calls FieldFlattener technology. It all creates a very nice, contrasty and colour-saturated view that does its best to bring out details and help you spot animals.
It is as effective at long distances as it is at picking up detail in thick forest.
It is a superior view but not vastly so, especially in broad daylight where it is hard to distinguish between good and excellent optics. However, as light drops the difference stands out a little more again.
You notice the superiority of the HDXs in the design and construction even more than in the optical quality.
Zeiss has done things like make the focus adjuster on the right eyepiece lockable, so that once you’ve matched the focus left and right to suit your eyes, you don’t have to worry about it being mucked up accidentally. Definitely a good thing.
Other new features include the SFL-type rubber lens caps, improved eye cups (and they are good), a tripod-mounting thread in the bridge, and a new surface coating that’s grippy and gives the impression of being long lasting.
The weight in the focus wheel’s movement, the precise notches in the eye cups’ movement, even the logical curve built into the neck strap all combine to reinforce the quality.
You get what you pay for with these new Zeiss binoculars. They cost around $2000 — not cheap but far from expensive in the wonderful world of quality optics — and for that you get a great view, a weight saving, top ergonomics and a beautifully made set of hunting binos.
SPECIFICATIONS
- Manufacturer: Zeiss, Germany (made in Japan)
- Type: Schmidt-Pechan roof prism binoculars
- Body: Magnesium
- Objective lens: 42mm
- Magnification: 10x
- Light transmission: 90%
- Exit pupil: 4.2mm
- Field of view: 115m at 1000m
- Length: 150mm
- Weight: 715g
- RRP: $2049
- Distributor: OSA Australia
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