hawke nature-trek binoculars

[rhhudson]

Just testing the water,

 

any one had any dealings with these? The reveiws seem very good, and priced at £129.99 8x42 they seem cheap, they claim to have fully coated lenses to help with light transition, waterproof, bak4 prism and to top it off lifetime warranty,

 

i know they will not have the quality of the top line zeiss etc but i dont need that, just for a quick glance around spotting varmints.

 

or am i being lured in to a false sence of security and there rubbish?

 

Budget wise i didnt want to go past the £150 mark so anything else better suited?

 

any views greatly appreciated

[VarmLR]

I checked out a range of binos recently and can say, hand on heart, that the ONLY sub £200 bins I'd touch with a very long barge-pole were made by Vanguard. The rest were not really fit for purpose, especially when the light started dropping. Buy once, buy right is the motto and unlike riflescopes, you don't have to pay a fortune for an excellent pair of bins for spotting duties. Look towards double your budget and the performance currently on offer is way better (due to lens coating improvements etc) than it was a few years back. I'd personally avoid Hawke...none of their bins, up to and including the Frontier models were a patch on equivalent priced alternatives from Minox or Steiner. I'd personally recommend one of the latter two for the £250-ish budget. They're very good indeed. Avoid cheaper Steiner Safaris. Look to the Skyhawke models. Minox BV 8 x 44; Vanguard Endeavour 8 x 42 ( or 10 x 42) or Steiner Skyhawke 3.0 8 x 42 are three of the best lower priced mid range bins currently out their imho. Don't buy mail order unless you've first gone to check a pair out as it's not just the quality/reviews etc, it's how they handle for you that also matters.

[Crafty Fox]

I cant comment on the Hawke's but for around your budget i would take a look at the Vortex Diamondbacks they have just bought out a newer model this year but if you hunt around you can find the old Diamondbacks at a good price, i have not compared the two side by side but i have a pair of the older version (2014) and find them very good for the money i was so impressed with them i recently bought a smaller pair of the same model, i have heard good things about Minox Bino's in that price range as well but again i have not looked through any so cant make a comparison.

[Strangely Brown]

As a retailer of binoculars for 42 years (and no, I only do buisness at the shop!) what most of you do not realise is that the optics trade is very incestious and different brands come out of the same factory!

Value for money has to be Hawke at the moment with the nature trek, although take a much closer look at the Hawke Endurance ED. You will find a more neutral colour and better edge definition for a typical increase of about £40 over the Nature Trek. TheEndurance ED used a low dispersion glass which if you like is the next quality up.

 

As an aside I have a pair of 8x32 Bresser's for Service Rifle at Bisley which are the same glass as the Hawke Nature Trek, Opticron (forget which range) Barr & Stroud, Avalon,........and many more.

Does the brand you buy have a good reputation for after sales service?? Check that one out, and if pushed whe worst after sales service I have seen in recent years goes to Leica!

The best would be Swarovski.

[VarmLR]

As a retailer of binoculars for 42 years (and no, I only do buisness at the shop!) what most of you do not realise is that the optics trade is very incestious and different brands come out of the same factory!

Value for money has to be Hawke at the moment with the nature trek, although take a much closer look at the Hawke Endurance ED. You will find a more neutral colour and better edge definition for a typical increase of about £40 over the Nature Trek. TheEndurance ED used a low dispersion glass which if you like is the next quality up.

 

As an aside I have a pair of 8x32 Bresser's for Service Rifle at Bisley which are the same glass as the Hawke Nature Trek, Opticron (forget which range) Barr & Stroud, Avalon,........and many more.

Does the brand you buy have a good reputation for after sales service?? Check that one out, and if pushed whe worst after sales service I have seen in recent years goes to Leica!

The best would be Swarovski.

 

I compared the Hawke ED and Frontier models with the Minox BV models. The Minox were better and pretty sure they're not made in the same factory. The Steiners were MUCH better and I know they're not made in the same factory

 

I do own a Hawke Endurance ED spotting scope and have to admit that it is very good indeed, and bettered equivalent priced scopes from Opticron and Nikon which is why I bought it. However, the Bins simply were not as good as the two other brands mentioned, imho anyway.

[Strangely Brown]

The Minox are good, although you have to do a comparision based on price to what the OP has said he has looked at. From memory we sold over 150 pairs of Minox when we last kept them, I think my only gripe at the time was that they were leaning rather heavily on their German name (Although the Minox camera was originally made in Latvia!) and the glasses we had then were very much of far eastern origin.

 

I missed a visit to the Steiner factory a few years ago and would have loved to have gone, my colleagues only remember the free Bier.

Whilst Steiner do produce a fabulous product they have been guilty of producing some absolute shite for the "leisure" market. A few years ago a company better known for marketing such top end brands such as Bronica and Hoya filters were given the Steiner binocular agency and offered us a 6 month sale or return. The Steiner compact range would not have been out of place in Poundland!

 

On a last note; I had a factory visit to the Swarovski factory about 17 years ago, with half an hour to spare I wandered round the back of the factory only to come across their cardboard waste and there was a pile of cartons with the Name Hoya Japan on!

I'm led to believe they make other products in the factory which do not carry the Swarovski name.

[Crafty Fox]

The Minox are good, although you have to do a comparision based on price to what the OP has said he has looked at. From memory we sold over 150 pairs of Minox when we last kept them, I think my only gripe at the time was that they were leaning rather heavily on their German name (Although the Minox camera was originally made in Latvia!) and the glasses we had then were very much of far eastern origin.

 

I missed a visit to the Steiner factory a few years ago and would have loved to have gone, my colleagues only remember the free Bier.

Whilst Steiner do produce a fabulous product they have been guilty of producing some absolute shite for the "leisure" market. A few years ago a company better known for marketing such top end brands such as Bronica and Hoya filters were given the Steiner binocular agency and offered us a 6 month sale or return. The Steiner compact range would not have been out of place in Poundland!

 

On a last note; I had a factory visit to the Swarovski factory about 17 years ago, with half an hour to spare I wandered round the back of the factory only to come across their cardboard waste and there was a pile of cartons with the Name Hoya Japan on!

I'm led to believe they make other products in the factory which do not carry the Swarovski name.

 

Leica have used Hoya glass in their some of Binoculars in the past so it seems reasonable to assume that Swarovski have done too. ???

[Strangely Brown]

 

Leica have used Hoya glass in their some of Binoculars in the past so it seems reasonable to assume that Swarovski have done too. ???

 

My contact at Swarovski was adamant that they use German Shott glass in all Swarovski named products, however It was indicated to me that the product Swarovski were making with Hoya glass was a rifle scope for a supplier to the trade.

 

I also understand that the British Army L12A1 7x42 Avimo binoculars, circa 1979? Were assembled in Taunton using imported Hoya optics.

[maximus otter]

 

...Swarovski ... use German Schott glass

 

I have been Googling to try and find the price I once saw quoted for top-quality optical glass, e.g the Schott used in Swarovski. I am sure that it was in the thousands of US dollars per pound.

 

Can anyone give me the correct figure?

 

maximus otter

[VarmLR]

The Minox are good, although you have to do a comparision based on price to what the OP has said he has looked at. From memory we sold over 150 pairs of Minox when we last kept them, I think my only gripe at the time was that they were leaning rather heavily on their German name (Although the Minox camera was originally made in Latvia!) and the glasses we had then were very much of far eastern origin.

 

I missed a visit to the Steiner factory a few years ago and would have loved to have gone, my colleagues only remember the free Bier.

Whilst Steiner do produce a fabulous product they have been guilty of producing some absolute shite for the "leisure" market. A few years ago a company better known for marketing such top end brands such as Bronica and Hoya filters were given the Steiner binocular agency and offered us a 6 month sale or return. The Steiner compact range would not have been out of place in Poundland!

 

On a last note; I had a factory visit to the Swarovski factory about 17 years ago, with half an hour to spare I wandered round the back of the factory only to come across their cardboard waste and there was a pile of cartons with the Name Hoya Japan on!

I'm led to believe they make other products in the factory which do not carry the Swarovski name.

 

Absolutely agree with that. It does seem a little strange that a company that produce such fabulous mid priced bins also produce some of the worst entry level ones! The safaris I looked at (very briefly) would have been put back on the shelf if I'd picked them up in pound land! Mind you, the same could be said for many of the compact range on a low budget (best avoided). The more compact the binocular, the better the glass really has to be.

 

Fair point on budget, but I guess the point is that for relatively little more (and £250 isn't a lot to pay for quality), you get up another rung on the optical quality ladder, so it is worth reconsidering budget rather than buying something you'd probably want to move on in disappointment after a few years. Minox and Steiner have both got some fabulous bins around that budget which completely outclass anything available at £150. There are also some other brands that cost twice as much but are not as good. In between those budgets (ie £150 and £250) the Vanguards sit very pretty at the minute and I can't really think of any other brand that betters them at that level.

[Strangely Brown]

and to top it off lifetime warranty,

 

 

This is a mistake in the brochure, or possibly not a mistake depending on who you listen to at Deben!

I believe the paper work in the box says 5 years for Nature Treks and 10 years for Endurance PC's.

 

And apologies rhhudson if I have taken your original post a little off topic!

 

Edited to add all Hawkes now have a standard 10 year warranty.