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Vortex Diamondback HD 10x42 Review/Comparison
My sister has recently bought a pair of these binos and seeing as they seem very popular and are often reccomended by others as a good entry level binocular, I have swiped them "new out of the box" for a few days as I have been thinking for a while now about doing some "simple language" reviews on some common items found in the kit of many hunters. I have my Brunton Icon 11x44's for comparison as they are my main hunting binos. The Brunton's are an obscure brand as they manufactured optical equipment for the medical field and went into sports optics only briefly a few years back. Their marketing failed them as they were trying to compete with the big name euros on price and features, without having years of loyal followers, feedback, and reviews to back them. The Icon's are very nice though, I owned these and Swarovski EL 10x42's and when it came time to sell a pair the Swaros went... they are an 11x bino so field of view can suffer compared to an equivalent price range (they retailed at about $3700) 10x, but that has never bothered me and I have always liked plenty of magnification.
So, first up, whats in the box? The Diamondbacks come packaged in a box complete with Vortex's Glasspak bino chest harness system, which is great if you are starting out and dont have a bino bivvy or similar allready, the Glasspak is reasonably simple and not as refined as some of the aftermarket stuff available, but perfectly functional to protect your binos and keep them close at hand. There is also a Neoprene padded neck strap and a cleaning cloth, along with an owners manual. The binos themselves are made in china, but I think we need to move past the impression that china cannot make good glass, the new Fury HD from Vortex for example is getting very favourable reviews for optical quality and there are many youtube video reviews etc where they are put head to head with the likes of the Leica Geovids, and come out on top.
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First impressions? The binos themselves seem "small" to me, compared to a lot of other 10x42s I have had. They are reasonably lightweight at about 620 grams, this is not light enough to create an impression of "mass produced chinese junk" but I do prefer a bit more weight in a bino, especially a 10x or more as a bit of heft helps with holding them steady, this was not a real problem but I did notice that even at 11x and with a smaller field of view, I was able to hold my Icons a lot steadier at their weight of 900 grams. They have a nice rubber armour coating which is "rubbery" enough to feel quality and not "plasticky"
They are a single bridge design, I dont have any preference in this regard, some people do prefer a twin bridge for whatever reason. The hinge was very stiff out of the box, I actually thought I was going to break them before being able to open/close them, but this has loosened slightly with some use. They come with objective lens caps, and a cover for the eyepiece end which can fit on the neck strap to avoid losing it if you decide to do so. I personally hate caps and stuff hanging on my binos so if they were mine to keep the first thing to go in the bin would be these.
Optical performance? I have had a chance to get these out in varying light conditions and they have found deer at all stages of the day, they lose a bit of time at last light but I found it hard to tell how much exactly as I can pretty much see in the dark to a degree with my Icons. They will find animals at all sensible hunting times though no problems. I picked these up and would scan for deer at anywhere between 100yds to 1500yds plus and then I would pick up my Icons and see if I could find any animals I had missed with the Diamondbacks. During bright daylight they never failed but during fading light in the evening I did find deer a couple of times tucked up in Matagouri etc with my Icons that I simply could not pick up with the Diamondbacks. Colour rendition is good and I find them to be "true to colour" they provide a crisp sharp image during most conditions but just lose that bit of definition as the light fades.
Probably the worst trait they have as far as optical quality goes is "purple hazing" which is where a sharp contrast in light ie: skylines, can result in some hazing and chromatic abberation. This is not a real big issue and I have definately seen worse binos (that cost a lot more) but it could be the difference between seeing that head of an animal on the skyline in the distance or not seeing it at all. I have tried to demonstrate this in the photo below, whilst looking at some deer mid shot you can see the hazing on the trees etc along the skyline, the shot is not a true indication of the actual image quality as my phone camera could not produce that anyhow, I could make out all the deer in this shot very easily with the binos.
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The image is surprisingly proportioned very well, a good test to see how much your binos distort an image is to go and look at a flat horizon, ie: out to sea, place the horizon in either the top or the bottom of your field of view and the degree to which it is "bent" is an indication of how much your binos are actually distorting the image you see whilst using them. I had a chance to do this test with them whilst in Dunedin yesterday and they have very minimal distortion. I have done this test with Leica Ultravids which are worth several times what these binos are worth and they had what I would almost describe as an extreme amount of distortion.
Final thoughts? For the rrp of $459 (you can find them cheaper also) these Binos really are great value for money, they will find you animals at all sensible hunting times throughout the day, the Vortex Warranty is unbeatable, and they are reasonably well built, everything is tight and smooth on them, the focus wheel has just the right amount of friction to make it easy to use but not too sensitive. The eyecups have the standard three position setup and settle into your desired position solidly. They are never going to compete with the euros etc on the real nitty gritty optical performance stuff, but they stay nice and bright a fair way into twilight for the money. If I had to choose a price bracket that they could compete in, they would definately compete with most binos in the $1000-$1500 range. I could pick on them for things such as the hazing issue and loss of some definition at last light, but we are dealing with a $459 bino here, and they are punching well in most regards. I wouldnt feel disadvantaged as a new hunter using these. A good workhorse binocular.
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