Zeiss Victory PRF 8x26 rangefinder

[n8ess]

Has anyone used a Zeiss Victory PRF 8x26 rangefinder? Are they ok for general spotting as well as range finding? I know it wont replace my bins but I thought it may be a lightweight alternative when out and about.

 

Cheers

 

Neil

[sir-slots-alot]

Has anyone used a Zeiss Victory PRF 8x26 rangefinder? Are they ok for general spotting as well as range finding? I know it wont replace my bins but I thought it may be a lightweight alternative when out and about.

 

Cheers

 

Neil

 

 

Hi - both my shooting mate and I use these.

 

They are great for general spotting aswell as range finding. I often just take the range finder

 

They wont replace a good set of bins - but are good enough to use when you want to travel light.

 

 

ATB

Alan

[22/250 foxer]

alan is mr ziess. he has got enough of the stuff ! lol

[Shaunos]

bought a PRF about 3 weeks ago, like previously said great for spotting as well as range finding. Easily focusable and the Ballistic Program could be useful too.

[Guest richness]

Here is a review i did on the airgunbbs mate

 

My needs have changed since my last rangefinder monocular purchase. I now need it to be able to ping rabbit-sized targets well past 600y, hand-held. I need the optics to be good enough and the eyepiece comfortable enough to enable me to scan for targets when my binos aren’t to hand.

I need the lenses to be fogproof or it’ll fog up every time I get in and out of the vehicle in the winter.

My excellent Elite 1500 had served me very well for some time:

Nice clear glass and excellent eyepiece. Fogproof coatings. Comfortable chunky grip.

Pings 400y rabbits through a windscreen easily. If held nice and steady will range a long way. It does the sloping field test out to about 500y. Brilliant and very highly recommended.

The problem is that i now need to be able to shoot rabbits at much further range.

This "how far will it go" thing needs clearing up for the purposes of this review. Where i need a RF to work is not on a 1000y signpost but on a sloping field. The lay of the land means that a say, 700y hedgeline that runs away towards the horizon slopes gently away and may have low contrast, no reflectivity (if there are no trees etc) and this is way way more challenging to ping than the aforementioned white vertical sign. The field may have targets that are 700, 720, 745...all seemingly very close to each other but the RF must be able to separate them or I WILL miss and there are a LOAD of clicks between 700 and 750..... So that is what i call the sloping field test...

 

My need for a RF that would go much further than is normally needed seemed to leave me these choices: Leica1200, Zeiss 8x26 Victory PRF or Swaro 8x30

 

The Leica is a vertically-held unit and smaller, which I don’t find so comfortable. And I hate the tiny eyepiece. For me, it means I can’t hold it up comfortably and scan for decent lengths of time. Great brightness of image, though. It is not possible to swap between Y and M on the fly. It has lovely small and precise aiming point. Unfortunately, this disappears at the moment of ranging ,just when you need to hold it still - I find this off-putting. The 900 goes about as far as the Elite 1500 IME, but the 1200 is more powerful and will do the ranges i need no probs. It is an excellent RF.

 

The Swaro is very very expensive and apparently has quite a large reticle/aiming point and I fear that it wouldn’t be precise enough to pinpoint a 700y rabbit on a sloping hill. Just a shade above or below could total +/_ 40y and that would mean a miss. Too much money anyway. I bet it's lovely though. Perhaps you could use the bottom of the ret and get nice accuracy..dunno. It works on the Zeiss and the Elite though.

 

The Zeiss looked to be the same shape (horizontal-hold) as my trusty Elite 1500, have anti-fog and anti-scratch coatings off the Victory range, a self-adjusting brightness control, a lovely big and binocular-like eyepiece… and the price is very good for the quality.

I bought this for sub £500 and find the 8x mag very useful and image very sharp. It isn't as good as my Minox HG binos (which are swaro SLC standard and 3out of 3 people rated them as optically as bright and sharp as the ELs) but way brighter than many cheaper binos and scopes. You're talking about nice glass. Think Conquest riflescope.

My experience with LRFs when it comes to brightness and resolution:

Leupold RX: 3

Elite 1500: 7.5

Nikon Monarch 8

Leica 9

Zeiss 9

 

The Zeiss is powerful and fast. It pings building and such out to 1500y straight away but what is more impressive is the speed and ease with which it ranges things on sloping surfaces with little “reflection” at long ranges, as described above. As long as you remember that the real aim point is the bottom of the circle, you can range on rabbit-size targets at 1000y just in a couple of seconds….It, like the Elite 1500 and the Swaro, has a large ret.

 

Unlike the Elite 1500, the Zeiss doesn’t have a brush mode but i tested it and it can tell a telegraph pole at 750y reliably (as opposed to the field behind it). Contrast of LED just right - it auto-adjusts perfectly. There is a useful trajectory system if you want it and i could imagine it being very handy for say foxes out to 450y with a 243...but long-range varminters will have their own drop charts so will turn this feature off as I have done.

The aiming ret stays on when ranging and it is easy to do the "sloping field" out to about 900y hand-held, instantly and with no fuss.

1000y+ easily on hedges etc. that are fairly solid

1500y roadsigns.

 

Therefore it perfectly fulfils my needs as described above.

 

The case is much better than the Leica. It has a 2yr warranty.

 

That's about it really. If you want a 500y RF then the Elite 1500 is magic. The leupold Rx is rubbish by comparison. The monarch 800 is pretty good if you like the small vertical-hold style (like the leica) It has a nice ret and works well.

For extreme long range, i certainly know that the leica 1200 will do the job but I much prefer the Zeiss and chose that. I'd be interested to see the swaro but haven't yet.

 

HTH Richard Utting

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<witty comment here>

[n8ess]

Great write up there Richard,

 

I have invested in the Zeiss and I cannot fault it, to be honest most of the time I use it more than my bins.

 

Cheers

 

Neil

[Big Al]

Has anyone got any up to date thoughts on this rangefinder, Im considering one.

 

Any further info greatly recieved.

[Scotch_egg]

I use one. I often take it out without my binos and use for spotting.

 

as for accuracy it stood up to vectronix and swarovski last weekend.

[Akeld]

I use one, I've even spotted stuff I missed with my binos (in their defence they are Japanese lens), Al, whereabouts in Northumberland are you, you can have a look and ping a few things through mine.

[Big Al]

Kind offer Aked, thanks. PM sent.

[gaz6br]

I've used one good bits of kit for the money

 

Gaz