Optics Review

Zeiss Victory Compact Binocular Review

Zeiss Victory Compact Binoculars

Zeiss Victory Compact BinocularsGreetings. I wanted to talk about the Zeiss Victory compact binocular today. The Victory series is of course Zeiss’ flagship line. The compact family sports two sizes: the 8×20 and 10×25.

The fully coated optics realistically boasts maximum brightness in minimum dimensions. The view is tremendous with crisp sharpness that fits in any pocket. What I really like about these compacts over their little sister line, Zeiss Conquest,  is the single hinge design.

It’s asymmetrical design took a few minutes to get over, but it really does makes sense and allows one barrel to fold under the other and therefore compresses the unit to it’s minimum. The single hinge (to me) is better because there is only one axis to adjust the interpupilary distance…with the Conquest’s dual hinge the barrels can float around and be off-set from each other.

In my experience, you need a binocular be set up and working in a matter of seconds with minimum adjustments. Mother Nature is not going to sit around wait for me to catch up. I think that a single hinge accomplishes this best. Now I know there are a lot of fine qualities to the Conquest compact and that it has a huge following of satisfied customers, but this is a review of the Zeiss Victory and I’m allowed to be a little biased.

It’s always give and take with binoculars and if I have to give up the benefits of a full size bino then it better take me to multiple places and work perfectly. When I look at buying a compact binocular it has to fit into several environments. I think that the Zeiss Victory compact family does this very well.

The Victory compact is a very versatile binocular that can go from the ball game, to nature hike, and opera in one weekend. The simple black housing is stylish enough for the theater and sporty enough to cover all other occasions. It’s truly compact and of course nitorgen purged to protect the internal components from oxidation as well as prevent internal fogging.

Compacts are probably the hardest working binoculars out there since they need to perform well with minimum housing, that’s why it’s especially important to choose a well-established authority in optics (like Zeiss) when purchasing one.

As far as the sizes go, if you are either a birder or theater goer, you should consider the 8×20 for the larger field of view. If you are a traveler and want that extra magnification of vistas and far off animals, I’d choose the 10×25’s. Zeiss has designed them to have the same exit pupil so they will work the same in low light. Just make sure that you purchase them from an authorized Zeiss dealer in order to get their USA lifetime warranty.

About author View all posts

Staff

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *