EA technical object that does not require a button to switch it on, without a display, battery or charging cable and yet brings you closer to foreign worlds, always ready. Wonderful. It has been quite a while since we last had high-quality binoculars in our hands until the new CL Companion 8 x 30 from Swarovski Optik crossed our everyday lives.
If you hold it up to the clear sky at night, the number of stars suddenly multiplies. The full moon shows its true face. Where the naked eye can no longer work out anything in the twilight, a troop of rabbits suddenly appears in the field. Deer within reach without running away. The jay in close-up, the white cheeks of the great tit, the red crown of the green woodpecker, the cheeky look of Turdus merula, the blackbird on the roof ridge opposite: the best television programme.
Open your eyes: in the middle, the wheel for focusing and setting the diopter compensation. Protective cover and carrying strap are not mounted here.
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Image: manufacturer
However, a reasonably steady hand is required. The CL Companion 8 x 30 works with eight times magnification and a lens diameter of 30 millimeters. The field of view is 132 meters at a distance of 1000 meters. The focusing distance ranges from three meters to infinity. The size is compact – length about 135, width 125, height 60 millimeters -, the weight is moderate at 600 grams including the carrying strap, whereby the mass is sufficient to keep the glass tremble-free.
Diopter adjustment is available
Because of this lightness, the uncomplicated handling, people like to grab the device with its handy magnesium housing to take it on a trip, a hike or just a walk. Remove the eyepiece protection cap and the two lens caps – and it’s ready. Adjusting the interpupillary distance (by angling the two halves of the binoculars more or less towards each other), adjusting the sharpness of the image by turning the easily accessible focusing wheel and adjusting the rotating eyecups for use with or without glasses are all done quickly and easily.
With strap and bag: the CL Companion 8 x 30 is available in green as well as in anthracite.
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Image: manufacturer
The water pressure tightness is given as four meters, the light transmission as 90 percent, which means that 90 percent of the light entering the lens arrives at the eye after passing through the entire optics. A diopter compensation is available for users with eyes with different ametropia.
The Swarovski binoculars “Made in Austria” deliver a pleasingly high-contrast image that is also sharp at the edges, appears finely processed, is a pleasant companion as universal binoculars for landscape, wildlife and bird watching, but for which you have to put 1250 euros on the table are. A proud price. In the long run, you will also buy a cleaning set for 61 euros and, with some probability, the VPA adapter plus adapter ring for a total of 226 euros, with which the iOS or Android smartphone can be docked in order to capture the observations via the cell phone camera in the picture . Then the display, battery and charging cable are back in play.
