Hawke Frontier HD X 8x32 Binocular - Green

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A wide field of view is an advantage in just about every situation, but is especially sought after by birders and wildlife observers who often frequent places like forests or woodlands where the viewing distances tend to be a little shorter and thus a wide view makes it much easier to locate and then follow your subject especially if it is small, fast and erratic in its movements.

However, the ED ( Extra-Low dispersion glass) used in the lenses of these Hawke Frontier ED X binoculars gives the optical designers even more options and thus if designed well, will reduce the halo of light around the edges of objects even further. As always I came to the following image quality conclusions after thoroughly using, testing and comparing the view between these Hawke Frontier ED X 8x32 binoculars against the relevant benchmark binocular - in this case, it was my 8x32 benchmark. Objective lens caps are drop down and stay on. But not all users like this, so they can be removed. For the eyepieces, there is a flexible rain guard, which is tapered to snugly fit onto the twist eye cups. In terms of their appearance, the eyepiece housings and the eyecups look to be identical to those used on the 8x42 Hawke Frontier ED X binoculars. A robust high-performance hinge design, replaceable twist-out eye cups, high grade aluminium and a lightweight rubber coated magnesium alloy chassis ensure this binocular can withstand all you throw at it.Of course you shouldn't forget high build quality, cleanliness and proper darkening of interiors of the tubes.

for long periods. You won't find any thumb indents on the under side of the barrels, like those on the old Frontier ED and the Endurance ED, but I personally believe those recesses don't offer any extra comfort/grip anyway. I have had a closer look at the recess difference on both and indeed the recess on the endurance is indeed a good deal greater, perhaps 2mm. This would explain the actual eye relief difference in using both with glasses. The lens on the Sapphire is almost level with the eyecup" Like the bigger version, these Hawke Frontier ED X 8x32 binoculars feature an all-metal, magnesium alloy chassis.

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than once, so I was delighted to get a good look at the new Frontier ED X 8x42s and see how they compared with previous models. The first thing to say is that they look and feel good. They’re relatively compact for 8x42s, and well balanced, with their 692g weight feeling even less in the hand. You should also mention very good astigmatism correction, an important factor when it comes to properly contrasted, high quality images, and influence of ED glass elements which performs very well - chromatic aberration is properly curbed not only in the centre but also on edges of the field. Apparent field of view of 60.4 deg (according to simple formula) and 55.6 deg (according to tangent formula). Distance of the first curved line from the field of view centre compared to the field of view radius: 32% ± 4%. This also means that there is the potential for it to be less robust than a beefier, more substantial bridge and thus a greater chance of the barrels becoming misaligned should you drop your binoculars. I could not test it to destruction, but to me, it looks and feels easily strong enough and is not something that I would be concerned with.

Replaceable twist-up eye cups with position stops allow you to set correct eye relief depending on personal preference or if eye glasses are being used. Whilst the field of view is excellent and you get a good level of eye-relief, the minimum close focus distance is the part of the equation that inevitably suffers as a result of this. So by no means terrible, it will probably be a little long for those whose main focus is on the close study of things like insects and flowers. Yes there is a good helping of pincushion as you would expect. It did seem perhaps a little more than some of my other binoculars but I didn't find it a problem. The CA I certainly wouldn't say was high. Definitely not compared to similarly priced models. Can't explain that difference, or the sharpness. Did you do some kind of resolution comparison?

Endurance

Had a brief 45 minutes or so (although the wife said it was "bloody hours") look at these last Saturday and was very impressed. I had a couple of pairs of my bins with me (Nikon 8x32 HGL and Hawke Frontier ED 8x43) and also compared them with the Leica Trinovid HD 8x42 which I was having thoughts about buying. The build quality and finish of the new ED-X seemed much better than previous Hawke models and optically they were both brighter and sharper than my older 8x43 model, the only area they were worse was in close focus where, although both specs are the same at 2 metres, the older 8x43 definitely focused closer than the newer 8x42 model. Comparing them with the Nikon's and the Leica's I couldn't really see much difference in terms of sharpness in the centre although both Nikon and Leica were sharper in the outer 10 or 15% of the field. The ED-X were slightly brighter than the Nikon's (42 v 32mm) and about the same as the Leica's. The Leica's also had a better close focus with the Nikon's in between the two. Summing up. If the ED X is just out of budget, and you want a mid sized set of binoculars that give jaw dropping levels of brightness and contrast then the Hawke Frontier HD X 8×32 will not disappoint. Whilst at first this may not seem to be a big deal, this is the area the most often gets damaged, especially when dropped and so the fact that they are more robust is certainly worth highlighting.