Hello David:Enjoyable video. I love testing out all kinds of binos in all genres. It’s a labour of love for me and, I suspect, for you also! Keep up the good work! Best wishes, Neil
Not sure you can go wrong for $48. I should pick up a Kowa YF 8x30, they're almost twice as expensive in the UK compared to Japan so they will have to wait to be added on a JP order i think. I just got myself the Maven C.2 7x28 and its been going everywhere with me.
Hey i like your reviews , i did get this bino for my little guy because its not bad for the money but also because when he uses it as a bat or train , warranty will get me a new one. i did the same for my daughter she is older , viper in the end i dont think any of the vortex line are that great .
Thank you for writing and sharing your family with us. Trains indeed. When I was young enough to "play" with my dad's Bell & Howell 8x40, I used it as a space ship. Now, for Vortex, .....since I became familiar with the line I have developed the view that Vortex is the Taurus of binoculars. I don't mean that as an insult. It's just that I have generally been able to find other makes at the same price points that are superior. Actually, my two favorite Vortex binos lay at opposite ends of the spectrum. I respect the Razor UHD and this little Bantam. Your thoughts?
@@davidlytle3974 i do think the bantam for the price is great , but as for the razor uhd for the money they are heavy and optically there is better , even the vipers my daughter has i would like to have gotten her some thing better , but that warranty for now is best for her until she gets a job and learns abut money , i have been using bino's all most every day now for 15 years and started at the 400$ price point and thought they were good but as i learned more i moved up and have been lucky to have used Swarovski EL line for the last 10 years and now use the NL and when i look at others i can now see the difference and cant go back lol there maybe others at a lower price point that are just as good but i did not want to spend time finding them , your reviews are help people with that and is great hope more find your channel .
Hi Wrighty, good to hear from you. I just ordered a Kowa 8x30 but received a second 6x30 instead. I'm trying. Anyway, I think that it would be cool if you made a video review of your Maven and sent me a link. I'd watch.
I've just tested my Kowa 6x30 and my close focus is around 2.6 meters , I actually measured with the tape measure, iI can't understand where Kowa got the 5 meters from
@davidlytle3974 love em, slight blackouts as i dont wear glasses when I try to bury my eyes into the cups but not much an issue I hold them slightly away, decent optics and high quality padded strap for the price, faults- probably just the joined eye piece caps fit loose, whereas the objective lense caps are nice and tight
Well, I measured off the short focus on mine, twice. It came to 3.65 meters. I suppose that there is some variation between builds and Kowa offers 4 meters as an average. What do you think?
@davidlytle3974 I've just remeasured mine to be sure against your pair and still the same around 2.16-17 meters , some variations going on here between our pairs, ,but no complaints about my close focus lol , but I think kowa has underestimated its own close focus figures with 5 meters by a lot which could dent some of its sales if people looking for a shorter close focus that kowa has printed , their loss
they both have too much eye relief for many non glass users. Eye point is user dependent but there are some tendency of the bino. amount of ER mm stated is not all. smaller AFOV are more easier to make long ER but also easier to have more blackout to non glass wearers. and also, If eyesup is not long enough for it's eyerelif, also can lead to blackouts. vantam and yf is both have all that issue. small afov, eyecup bit short to fit it's long ER. vantam is worse. and of course, 8x30 yf is much easier to see with naked eyes. because of less ER and much larger AFOV 6x30 has bit longer eyecup then 8x30 but not enough. they both have enough ER to use with glasses. 6x30 is much longer that even can be seen with I leave one eyecup click behind. so. ease of view to glass wearers will be better in 6x30 but in overall, more variety of people will found 8x30 much comfortable. Longer ER doesn't always mean better ease of view many people didn't even heard about it. The blackout issue is not only with cheap binoculars. Zeiss conquest 8x42 is notorious for it that Zeiss even sell extending eyecup for conquest. 8x42 conq is known to have worst eyepoint between 32~42 conq mainly because it have significantly smaller afov. Even Leica noctivid 8x42 has blackout issue to some. not as much as vantam, yf 6x30, conquest 8x42 but significantly more then Swaro NL 8x42. because it have more ER and smaller AFOV. so, therea are some binocular that eye glass weares like but non glass wearers dislike and can also have opposite situation. rubber flip eyecup such as nikon E2, Steiner nighthunter, ior valdada and some bino with less - average eyerelif such as kowa genesis, fujinon hc, leica ultravid tends / said to be more comfortable to non eyeglass wearers.
I find your point an interesting one. Being dependent on glasses, I am biased towards longish eye relief. I suppose that I could start exploring the blackout tendencies of the binoculars I review by removing my glasses, extending the eyecups and seeing if I have trouble with blackouts. I will start tomorrow with both the yf and the Bantam. It would be a travesty if either binocular, designed with kids in mind, fails by design to accommodate young eyes without glasses. Thank you for your contribution.
Well, thank goodness. Neither binocular gave me any blackouts at any stage. If I tried to climb into the eyecups, cramming my cheeks into them, only then would I get any beginnings of darkening along the edge of the field. Nothing approaching normal use could force a blackout issue with these binoculars. Of course, this is what little old me got with my adult facial features. But, kids' eye sockets are probably shallower yet so I think the kiddies are likely safe from this particular problem. I do promise to be less self centered in the future and consider the possible weakness of narrow field binoculars for those who don't need greater eye relief as I do. Thank you again for your contribution.
Kudos on the review! Really helpful in deciding which piece one should get. And thank you for taking suggestions from the community
Hello David:Enjoyable video. I love testing out all kinds of binos in all genres. It’s a labour of love for me and, I suspect, for you also!
Keep up the good work!
Best wishes,
Neil
Thank you so much Neil for your words of encouragement. You suspect correctly - I'm having a blast learning and sharing. Discovery is fun, isn't it?
Not sure you can go wrong for $48. I should pick up a Kowa YF 8x30, they're almost twice as expensive in the UK compared to Japan so they will have to wait to be added on a JP order i think.
I just got myself the Maven C.2 7x28 and its been going everywhere with me.
Hey i like your reviews , i did get this bino for my little guy because its not bad for the money but also because when he uses it as a bat or train , warranty will get me a new one. i did the same for my daughter she is older , viper in the end i dont think any of the vortex line are that great .
Thank you for writing and sharing your family with us. Trains indeed. When I was young enough to "play" with my dad's Bell & Howell 8x40, I used it as a space ship.
Now, for Vortex, .....since I became familiar with the line I have developed the view that Vortex is the Taurus of binoculars. I don't mean that as an insult. It's just that I have generally been able to find other makes at the same price points that are superior.
Actually, my two favorite Vortex binos lay at opposite ends of the spectrum. I respect the Razor UHD and this little Bantam. Your thoughts?
@@davidlytle3974 i do think the bantam for the price is great , but as for the razor uhd for the money they are heavy and optically there is better , even the vipers my daughter has i would like to have gotten her some thing better , but that warranty for now is best for her until she gets a job and learns abut money , i have been using bino's all most every day now for 15 years and started at the 400$ price point and thought they were good but as i learned more i moved up and have been lucky to have used Swarovski EL line for the last 10 years and now use the NL and when i look at others i can now see the difference and cant go back lol there maybe others at a lower price point that are just as good but i did not want to spend time finding them , your reviews are help people with that and is great hope more find your channel .
Hi Wrighty, good to hear from you.
I just ordered a Kowa 8x30 but received a second 6x30 instead. I'm trying.
Anyway, I think that it would be cool if you made a video review of your Maven and sent me a link. I'd watch.
I've just tested my Kowa 6x30 and my close focus is around 2.6 meters , I actually measured with the tape measure, iI can't understand where Kowa got the 5 meters from
Thank you for being thorough and cluing us in. Now I'll be checking for myself rather than quoting Kowa.
How do you rate your YF?
@davidlytle3974 love em, slight blackouts as i dont wear glasses when I try to bury my eyes into the cups but not much an issue I hold them slightly away, decent optics and high quality padded strap for the price, faults- probably just the joined eye piece caps fit loose, whereas the objective lense caps are nice and tight
Well, I measured off the short focus on mine, twice. It came to 3.65 meters. I suppose that there is some variation between builds and Kowa offers 4 meters as an average. What do you think?
@davidlytle3974 I've just remeasured mine to be sure against your pair and still the same around 2.16-17 meters , some variations going on here between our pairs, ,but no complaints about my close focus lol , but I think kowa has underestimated its own close focus figures with 5 meters by a lot which could dent some of its sales if people looking for a shorter close focus that kowa has printed , their loss
I agree. They're being too conservative.
they both have too much eye relief for many non glass users.
Eye point is user dependent but there are some tendency of the bino.
amount of ER mm stated is not all. smaller AFOV are more easier to make long ER but also easier to have more blackout to non glass wearers.
and also, If eyesup is not long enough for it's eyerelif, also can lead to blackouts.
vantam and yf is both have all that issue. small afov, eyecup bit short to fit it's long ER.
vantam is worse.
and of course, 8x30 yf is much easier to see with naked eyes. because of less ER and much larger AFOV
6x30 has bit longer eyecup then 8x30 but not enough.
they both have enough ER to use with glasses. 6x30 is much longer that even can be seen with I leave one eyecup click behind.
so. ease of view to glass wearers will be better in 6x30 but in overall, more variety of people will found 8x30 much comfortable.
Longer ER doesn't always mean better ease of view
many people didn't even heard about it.
The blackout issue is not only with cheap binoculars. Zeiss conquest 8x42 is notorious for it that Zeiss even sell extending eyecup for conquest.
8x42 conq is known to have worst eyepoint between 32~42 conq mainly because it have significantly smaller afov.
Even Leica noctivid 8x42 has blackout issue to some. not as much as vantam, yf 6x30, conquest 8x42 but significantly more then Swaro NL 8x42. because it have more ER and smaller AFOV.
so, therea are some binocular that eye glass weares like but non glass wearers dislike and can also have opposite situation.
rubber flip eyecup such as nikon E2, Steiner nighthunter, ior valdada and some bino with less - average eyerelif such as kowa genesis, fujinon hc, leica ultravid tends / said to be more comfortable to non eyeglass wearers.
I find your point an interesting one. Being dependent on glasses, I am biased towards longish eye relief. I suppose that I could start exploring the blackout tendencies of the binoculars I review by removing my glasses, extending the eyecups and seeing if I have trouble with blackouts.
I will start tomorrow with both the yf and the Bantam. It would be a travesty if either binocular, designed with kids in mind, fails by design to accommodate young eyes without glasses.
Thank you for your contribution.
Well, thank goodness. Neither binocular gave me any blackouts at any stage. If I tried to climb into the eyecups, cramming my cheeks into them, only then would I get any beginnings of darkening along the edge of the field. Nothing approaching normal use could force a blackout issue with these binoculars.
Of course, this is what little old me got with my adult facial features. But, kids' eye sockets are probably shallower yet so I think the kiddies are likely safe from this particular problem.
I do promise to be less self centered in the future and consider the possible weakness of narrow field binoculars for those who don't need greater eye relief as I do.
Thank you again for your contribution.
Actually, shallower wouldn't be better. Maybe the kids aren't so safe.