Doublers

[CouesPursuit]

It will never replace a spotter.

I've seen the tagline "friends don't let friends buy doublers."

The majority of reviews on doublers appear to be negative.

 

Does anyone use and enjoy a doubler on premium 15x glass? 

[oz31p]

5 minutes ago, CouesPursuit said:

It will never replace a spotter.

I've seen the tagline "friends don't let friends buy doublers."

The majority of reviews on doublers appear to be negative.

 

Does anyone use and enjoy a doubler on premium 15x glass? 

DONT DO IT. 

I’ve tried it on slc 15 hd and non HD’s and 12x50el . 

[Jimmer Negamanee]

I have a doubler for my old Swaro SLC 15s that came with the binos when I bought them 2nd (maybe 3rd) hand 15 years ago.  So I'm talking about almost geriatric binoculars.  (They were once top of the line, and are still pretty dang good though.  I'm just saying that they're old.)

Here's my experience.  (And my eyeballs are over 50 years old too.  So take that into account. Your mileage may vary.) 

I'd be glassing a extreme distance, and see that gray shape that looks like a bedded coues deer.   I'd stare and stare until my eyes started playing tricks on me.  Then I'd search through my pack, find the doubler, unscrew the occular eye-cup on the binos, and screw on the doubler.  Then look again. 

Instead of being doubled, it looked like I increased the size of the image by like 5 or 10% while simultaneously degrading the image quality.  So most of the time I wished I just stayed behind the 15s waiting for an ear flick or a head turn instead of wasting time attaching the doubler. 

BUT, there have been a couple of time where taking out the doubler has resulted in a quick "Nope.  That's a stump."  an I've found it helpful.

I've not had the heart to sell my doubler but I don't pack it anymore either.  If you have old swaros and want to borrow it, PM me.

[CatfishKev]

4 hours ago, oz31p said:

DONT DO IT. 

I’ve tried it on slc 15 hd and non HD’s and 12x50el . 

I've wondered this myself when it comes to top tier glass.  If any place I'd imagine it an option it would be the 12s.  Would you not even trust it to verify points on a backpack hunt?

[oz31p]

13 minutes ago, CatfishKev said:

I've wondered this myself when it comes to top tier glass.  If any place I'd imagine it an option it would be the 12s.  Would you not even trust it to verify points on a backpack hunt?

Nope. I backpack hunt a ton. Very seldom do I need a spotter at all. If I can’t see what I’m looking at with the 12’s I’m too far away to kill it any way. 

[CouesPursuit]

Thanks for the posts. It is pretty clear from the interwebs that Swarovski's 2x was a letdown and you see them for sale quite often. Not bashing them but I'd imagine Vortex's level of quality, slightly or not, puts it at an auto disadvantage for the concept. I did read a couple positive reviews about Meopta's but nothing compelling, and I'm not sure who else made one. 

 

I'm mostly just curious. I figured there would have been a niche somewhere whether backpacking, digiscoping or something else, but don't come across very many reviews at all, let alone positive ones. 

[CatfishKev]

14 minutes ago, oz31p said:

Nope. I backpack hunt a ton. Very seldom do I need a spotter at all. If I can’t see what I’m looking at with the 12’s I’m too far away to kill it any way. 

Yeah I've always wanted to look through one myself but never wanted to spend the money just to be disappointed.  When researching duel spotter big eye set ups I came across an old post where a guy had 2 on a pair of swaro 15s. I thought maybe that might be the ticket but I've never heard anything but bad about doublers.  

[CatfishKev]

6 minutes ago, CouesPursuit said:

Thanks for the posts. It is pretty clear from the interwebs that Swarovski's 2x was a letdown and you see them for sale quite often. Not bashing them but I'd imagine Vortex's level of quality, slightly or not, puts it at an auto disadvantage for the concept. I did read a couple positive reviews about Meopta's but nothing compelling, and I'm not sure who else made one. 

 

I'm mostly just curious. I figured there would have been a niche somewhere whether backpacking, digiscoping or something else, but don't come across very many reviews at all, let alone positive ones. 

I got the meoptas not too long ago. Saw a YouTube vid of a guy talking them up but still was apprehensive.  All this was a deciding factor for me to build a set of big eyes with the 664s, my intention is to have one easily removable to throw in the pack to have a lightweight spotter when hiking in.