16-1-2018 - last update 15-12-2020

Serial Nr.: 2143674

Test period: 4-1 to 10-1-2018

Origin of sample: Leica demo pool/official test weeks

Unfortunately I did not have a comparison binocular as I prefer 8x42s to 10x42s and Leica´s agency sent me the wrong glass. Also, I only had the glass for a week, which is against my usual policy reviewing after a long period of use. Please do check my Noctivid 8x42 review also for much more solid long term review of a Noctivid.

The Leica Ultravid 7x42HD Plus is is one of my favourite binoculars ever. While it looks underspecced on paper, its images are truly stunning - probably because Leica concentrated on what is really important - contrast, colour, ease of view, compactness. You cannot fake such quality. I came to love the Leica way of balancing best qualities in a small package.

Enter the Noctivids. Truly new designs. Do they improve the few shortcomings of the Ultravids?

Body

Ergonomy: For my taste, a huge step back from the Ultravids. Firstly, space between the barrels is too small to have a firm grip on both barrels with hands in one line, unlike in a Zeiss SF. Secondly, and more importantly, the focuser is way to close to the oculars. As I don´t want to bend my index finger to reach the focuser I am forced to hold the glass like this: Left hand close to the objectives, right hand close to the focuser. Well, it works and I would not mourn forever, but this is far from the simple, efficient ergonomy of an Ultravid, Nikon EDG or Swaro SLC.

The double hinge is mostly about giving prospective buyers the impression that this is a serious Swarovision contender.

I can only hope that for possible 8x/10x32 versions they will NOT use this design. Anyway those should be as compact as possible.

The focuser is velvety smooth like in a Nikon EDG. Simply fantastic. There must be some grease somewhere here. 1.75 revolutions from close to infinity.

Hinge friction is perfect.

Eyecups lock in 3 positions (plus zero position).

Diopter adjustment works fine by pulling out from the focus knob, +/-5 is displayed, but there is a bit of headroom.

Internal blackening is state of the art, a very matte black everywhere.

top: Ultravid, bottom: Noctivid

Weight is 860g according to Leica, quite a lot, but maybe it´s childish to quarrel about this 80g more than my Ultravid weighs.

It feels like a top quality product and - as expected from Leica - the industrial design is superb. Why don´t Zeiss and Swarovski build such beautiful glasses?

Optical system

Global contrast and flare suppression: The Noctivid offers state of the art suppression of peripheral, crescent flares flashing into the image from internal reflections of the sun. But there is still a lot of milky veiling glare when watching against a bright sun, although less than in most competitors. I was a bit shocked that in some circumstances my 7x42 Ultravid had less veiling glare in the image center.

Microcontrast: state of the art contrast from big to medium to small objects down to the resolution limit. If you want to see the glow and the sparkle, here it is as it should be. Perfect. Both in daylight with closed eye pupil and open pupil in twilight a superb performance.

Colour reproduction is very similar to the Ultravid, neutral with a tad of yellow and very saturated.

top: Ultravid 7x42, bottom: Noctivid 10x42

Distortion is strong pincushion, panning behaviour perfect with no warping and quite a bit better than in the 7x42 Ultravid. I applaud loudly. See below - dimensionality.

Apparent field of view is 112m according to Leica.

Field curvature is slight but visible, the field curves towards the viewer (that is, when the image center is in focus, at the edges closer objects than those in the center will be in focus). Like pincushion distortion, I consider field curvature to be a very good trait in a binocular. Due to field curvature, when focus is on the centre, one has to refocus slightly for getting the far edges of the field into perfect focus. But then, objects are quite sharp, much sharper than in the 7x42 Ultravid. This is an almost flat field binocular but without the major disadvantage of a true flat field with low distortion - that is, that everything looks like a poster on a wall instead of a threedimensional scene.

Ease of view is exemplary for a glass with 4mm exit pupil and it is possible to roam around in the field quite a bit by eye movements, without blackouts. The first I attribute to the excellent control of residual aberrations.

Chromatic aberration when looking at bare branches is something which puzzles me a bit. It almost seems the otherwise advanced optical construction and extreme contrast also unveil quite a bit of extra chromatic aberration. Also, sloppy placement of the exit pupil relentlessly induces CA. Here I would need another 10x glass to get a better feel for the issue. CA is more the yellow-blue kind than the usual magenta-green, and the sometimes strong blue distinctly reminds me of the blooming phenomenon which sometimes occurs in digital images... Fortunately, in most situations CA is absent. The Noctivid 8x42 has almost no CA!

Top: Ultravid 7x42, bottom: Noctivid. These ocular lenses are huge.

Brightness seems much higher than I expected, but I would love to confirm this with the 8x42 vs my 7x42 Ultravid. State of the art brightness for a SP prism design.

3D high fidelity: I found this to be the main issue of the Noctivid 8x42, which renders really much flatter than the Ultravids. In absence of a 10x42 comparison it is hard to judge 3D high fidelity in this Noctivid.

Eye relief is 19mm according to Leica. Seems about right.

Close focus is a mere 1.9m according to Leica, but this involves serious squinting and is not a comfortable view, even if you decrease interpupillary distance and move a bit further away from the oculars. This is a bit strange because close focus in the 8x42 is probably the best I ever had.

Summary

Pros:

- Extreme contrast

- Great ease of view

- Very good aberration control

Cons:

- Chromatic aberration in high contrast scenes

- Heavier and bulkier than Ultravid or Nikon EDG

- Ergonomy

Opinion:

Zeiss tried it with the SF, but IMO failed (for a couple of good reasons). Leica may do it now with the Noctivid - challenge the Swarovision as the most successful top bin. My only serious complaint is ergonomy, comparing with Ultravid or Nikon EDG this is a big step back. But then, I don´t like the Swarovision ergonomy either...