Leica Ultravid 8x50 HD Plus

Brilliant view with vibrant colour. Pin sharp for most of the area with some blurring at the edges but vastly better than my other binoculars. Very easy to set up for eye distances with a lot of latitude so very easy to watch continuously without strain and steady enough if held at the front end. All lens caps are attached to the binoculars so are easy to flip on and off. The focusing controls are very well engineered and innovative making dioptre adjustments easy

I have owned a 10x42 Ultravid pair for 15 years. I bought the 10 x 50 Ultravid HD Plus for the extra light gathering capability that is useful in the UK, as I have lived in Spain for the last 17 years where the light is better. Whilst the new binoculars are brighter than the old pair the difference is probably not worth the extra cost for most birdwatchers. The build quality is as good as ever.

A Beautiful Optical Instrument To Hold And Look Through

After 1yr with the Leica Ultravid HD-Plus 12x50 binoculars I can say that I'm still amazed with the view, star images are beautiful at 12x and the FOV nice and big at this power, and I use it to take really good smart phone photos as seen it this sunset photo taken 1yr ago and I use this glass for high flying raptors(falcons being my favorite), just fortunate and glad to own a set of this Beautiful quality glass from Leica which I waited 5yrs to buy and now own, very happy with them.

Amazing Sharpness and contrast

These are my first pair of premium 50 mm binoculars. I have had a pair of the Leica 10 x 25 binoculars for 30 years that I thoroughly enjoy for their clarity and sharpness along with portability. My first view through these 12 x 50 binoculars was outstanding and did not disappoint. I purchased these for daylight viewing of the mountains birds, etc. from our backyard. Absolutely blow out of the water any other binoculars I have looked through over the years. Very happy with the purchase. I will not be using these for nighttime viewing as I have a fully dedicated astronomical observatory for that. So I really can’t comment on any potential chromatic aberration or coma as other reviewers have commented on. Basically for daytime use the view nothing short of ... MoreThese are my first pair of premium 50 mm binoculars. I have had a pair of the Leica 10 x 25 binoculars for 30 years that I thoroughly enjoy for their clarity and sharpness along with portability. My first view through these 12 x 50 binoculars was outstanding and did not disappoint. I purchased these for daylight viewing of the mountains birds, etc. from our backyard. Absolutely blow out of the water any other binoculars I have looked through over the years. Very happy with the purchase. I will not be using these for nighttime viewing as I have a fully dedicated astronomical observatory for that. So I really can’t comment on any potential chromatic aberration or coma as other reviewers have commented on. Basically for daytime use the view nothing short of spectacular. Also the focusing wheel on the pair that I receive is buttery smooth and very fast. Since I don’t wear glasses for looking through binoculars I find that the exit pupil is perfect as designed on these for my eyes.

Binoculars for Life

This lens system is peerless in its fidelity to the transmission of a viewed object's true colors. The sharpness and contrast of therendered image is second to none. These are binoculars for life.

Brilliant!

These binoculars are fantastic-I've never experienced such clarity and comfort. The Leicas bring the beauty of nature up close with ease and the build quality is beyond compare.

Leica Binoculars

Truely amazing. I was sent a pair of Swarovski, Leica, and Zeiss binoculars to try out. All three are extremely good. It got down to either the Swarovski or Leica. I chose the 8x50 Leica due to the slight, and I mean slight brightness and clearity. I only noted this at dusk overlooking a river valley away from the setting sun. Love my Leicas. With that said I have two Swarovski rifle scopes but again the spotting scope is leica. Swarovski gives a lot more options on their rifle scopes. I don't know if you can make a mistake on this one.

Outstanding!

Excellent Contrast, sharpness and color correction. Purchased for daytime use as I already have some excellent telescopes. But upon checking the moon last night with the Leica Binoculars I could not detect any color fringing around the edge of the moon. For daytime use these simply blow out of the water all the previous binoculars that I have used over the years. Very pleased with the purchase and the excellent B&H customer service.

Really impressive binoculars

This is my first pair of 12x binoculars, and my first Leicas, and I'm really pleased with them. The ergonomics are great compared to other 12x bins I tried; the only niggles I have are with a little bit of stiction in the focus wheel at some points, and the overly sticky ocular rain covers (hard to put on and remove quickly). But the view is amazing and immersive! And I find the Leicas to be so well balanced that holding 12x steady doesn't feel any more difficult than the 10x Zeiss Victory FLs I'm accustomed to. I find that I just want to keep looking at things through them because the view is so spectacular. These bins have definitely recharged my enthusiasm for birding.

Sticky Focus

I have owned this binocular for about ten years, originally purchased from B&H. The optics and image quality are excellent as one would expect however the focus mechanism is sticky making quick and accurate focusing difficult. I have been advised that the focusing would smooth out with use. Unfortunately it never has and remains as sticky as the day I took it out of the box. Very disappointing. The advertised "smooth focusing" is untrue. I would not buy this online but instead at a shop where you can test the focus before purchase.