Endurance ED 8x42 Monocular - Green

Pluses: tiny, bright for objective size, not too difficult to keep steady ( 10x would be too shakey, I much prefer balance of stability / magnification of 8x). ED glass really shows quality - no fringing due to chromatic aberration. Sealed and and gas filled so no condensation. Build quality superb. Comes with bag, case and lanyard ( which hasen't broken yet!) And cleaning cloth in nice packaging (great as a gift). Stand off for glasses / no glasses in two stages works perfectly so I can use with / without my sunglasses on. Focussing wheel just right degree of stiffness for me despite what others say... Negatives: its best in bright conditions ( I bought it for walking in sunny Spain where it works really well) due to small size I have other 8x50 binos and 12x stabilised canons for low light but they are humongous... Small field of view may make tracking birds difficult ( but at this size of device I cannot really complain). One cap is tethered other is not, unfortunately. All in all I absolutely love this device. Great for city walks and art galleries ( details, details) casual birdwatching, theatre?( haven't used for that). Small size and pocketability means it'll be the " one I have with me" ie the best. Way better price than other monos ( Nikon or absolutely mad Leica prices) and not that much less performant. I rarely review stuff but Hawke ( UK brand!).deserves a good review imho. I suspect Hawke have got the price / quality equation right in the sweet spot.

I just got my new monocular. I am really happy with it. I felt bad that living in the desert, it'll never be as clean as when I unboxed it! Anyway, the lanyard is kinda cheap, and I couldn't figure out how to use the flat part of the lanyard through the flat slot in the monocular or the eyepiece cap. So, I used the thin cord part for that. Probably someday, the rubber (silicone?) will eventually tear). It wasn't 10 minutes before I lost the cap on the other lens cap. I figure that was probably inevitable. I was out with a friend who brought binocs and she was missing both her's, too. So given these minor issues, why do I give this 5 stars? Well, the image quality is great! Sure enough, that little protuberance with the focus wheel fits nicely in my hand (I have huge hands, FWIW). The image seems reasonably stable while scanning with the monocular. My purpose is to scan rock faces to look for petroglyphs. I can't recount how many times I've looked at far away rock faces and wondered it that's a natural 'peck' into the rock or a petroglyph too far away to resolve. I think this monocular will work great for me.

Das hätte ich nicht gedacht. Ich bin ein ehr vorsichtiger Typ und wollte wirklich ein super Monokultur haben, welches mich in der Ausstattung und im Preis anspricht. Nach langen hin u. her habe ich mich dann für das "Hawke Monokular Endurance ED 10x42 Mono" entschieden. Und ich habe nichts falsch gemacht! Selbst meine ehr noch kritischere Frau hat mir zu diesem Gerät geraten. Festbrennweite, 10 -fache Vergrößerung, welche man auf Grund der sonst auch angenehmen Haptik, stabil und ruhig halten kann, zeichnen diese Optik von Hawke aus. Mit einem Gewicht (ohne Okularabdeckung) von unter 300gr. ermüdungsfrei zu tragen, besticht dieses Monokultur durch eine brillante Sicht, durch faszinierende Lichtstärke und sehr gute Schärfe. Wir freuen uns schon auf unsere Wanderungen etc, und wissen einen neuen sehr guten Bergleiter an unserer Seite. Nicht vergessen möchte ichzu erwähnen, dass die Einhandbedinung wunderbar funktioniert. Schade finde ich lediglich, dass die Okularabdeckung nicht am Gerät fixiert ist, die Vorbereitung hierzu ist jedenfalls vorhanden. Entweder Hawke bessert hier noch nach, oder ich muss sehen welche Improvisationsmöglichkeiten sich bieten. Trotzdem eine volle 5 Punkte-Bewertung, wenn es ein 5 + gäbe, dann gern auch diese Punktzahl. Liebe Firma Hawke: hier wurde alles richtig gemacht. Danke sagt ein zufriedener und glücklicher Kunde! Preis-Leistung absolut stimmig.

This thing has some nice glass in it. All the colors look very true. Nothing looks washed out or over bloomed with chromatic aberration. Light transition is good for a 25mm. Rain, heavy snow, dawn, dusk, it just performs well. Overall I’d say it’s well worth the $100 if you’re looking for a step above average monoculars.

The Endurance ED 8x42 Monocular (Green) is an excellent compromise among a number of different features if, like me, you use it for quick acquisition and identification of wildlife, navigation aids and landscape features while moving through the landscape on foot or by paddling, such as when you are hiking and canoeing. No monocular is a substitute for high quality binoculars when watching wildlife over a prolonged period of time. On the other hand, no high quality binocular is so easy to carry on your belt and use quickly as a good quality monocular. I have owned and used four different monoculars during my trips in Midcoast Maine. These are the Stilnend 16x50, the Opticon Oregon 8x42, the Opticon Explorer WA ED-R and the Hawke Endurance 8x42 Green. Of these, I would say that the Hawke Endurance is the best overall for my purposes. The clarity is as good as the Opticon models, but the field of view is greater than the Opticon Oregon and is much easier to focus than the Opticon Explorer. The clarity of the Stilnend is not as good as either the Opticon or Hawke monoculars and I would not recommend it for that reason, if in fact it is still production. To make objective comparisons, I used all four models side by side with a Nikon Monarch 7 8x42 binocular. I was in the kitchen on a dark and cloudy day in January, identifying the clarity of bark, twigs, leaves and other objects in the backyard and the forest behind my house at distances of about 20 to 50 yards. The clarity of the Opticon models and the Hawke Endurance were about equal to each other but not quite as good as the Monarch. The Stilnend was distinctly less clear. The field of view is about equal in the Opticon Explorer, the Hawke Endurance ED and the Stilnend, but much less in the Opticon Oregon. I would say that for finding small birds in the brush and for identifying the species quickly the narrow field of view in the Opticon Oregon is simply inadequate. As a result of this test, I still think that the Hawke Endurance ED 8x42 Green is the best monocular overall in terms of the compromise between clarity, field of view, light weight and ease of use.