Having been in the binocular sales for more than twenty years, I have seen many
binoculars come and go. For the most part, these binoculars were similar to one another, just a matter of quality and performance, of course, price. After all the binocular market has always been very competitive, so a truly different and great binocular does not come around that often. There have been a few, though.
One of the binocular series that I do miss are the old Zeiss Classic series, the venerable Zeiss 10x40 Classic, the less popular Zeiss 8x30 Classic,
Zeiss 8x56 Classic and, my favorite, the Zeiss 7x42 Classic. There was nothing revolutionary about those old
Zeiss binoculars; in fact, the external focusing on the 7x42 and 8x56 were a bit retro. Still, those old Zeiss Classics were the benchmark of what a premium binocular should be. They weren’t labeled Classics till just a few years before they disappeared; they were just Zeiss binoculars back when that was the only line of binoculars Zeiss produced. I loved the 7x42 Classic for its balance and super pleasing wide field of view with great optics. As with that 8x56 Classic binocular, you could spot the profile of the Zeiss Classic 7x42 profile from a great distance; the silhouette was distinctive. That was one binocular I wish I had bought when I had the chance.
Early in the 90s, the only binoculars in production to earn the title of premium or best binoculars, in terms of performance and quality, were European binoculars. Then along came that first Bausch&Lomb Elite (which survives as the quite different
Bushnell Elite). It was slender, sexy with optics that gave the best European binoculars a challenge. The first Bausch&Lomb Elite binocular was revolutionary in that it announced to the world that a binocular, made in Japan, could compete with the best European brands. That’s another one I wish I had bought.
I was at a birding festival, back in the late 90s and stopped by the Swarovski table to see what had drawn such a crowd. When it was my turn, Clay, the Swarovski rep, handed me an odd looking binocular; it had two barrels that were attached only at the front of the barrels and the back of the barrels; the center was completely open. When I picked up that first
Swarovski EL binocular, though, I was floored with how sweet it felt in my hands and, even better, the optics were breathtaking. That first Swarovski EL was truly revolutionary for its now much coped open body design. (That was one that didn’t get away.)