New Leica Trinovid HD Binoculars

Leica has updated it’s much loved Trinovid binoculars. Available in 8x42 and 10x42 configurations, these premium "entry level" binoculars (costing under $1000 / £1000) in their line up now include a number of improvements on what has to be said were already excellent bins:

According to Terry Moore, Leica Sport Optics head of sales & marketing, “In everything we do at Leica, our objective is to be best in class. We developed the new Trinovid’s to be fully-featured and to maintain Leica’s high standard for exceptional engineering while providing superior value and performance as the new Best in Class of premium entry-level binoculars.”

Whilst still in no way can you classify them as being cheap, in comparison to their flagship Ultravid HD Plus binoculars, the Trinovid’s are relatively affordable. As you would imagine, the highest quality for which all Leica sport optics are renowned is still very evident in both their manufacturing and optical quality.

For instance, you won’t find any plastic parts on the body and the chassis is made from magnesium which is very light as well as strong, but more robust than the polycarbonate shells that are now also commonly used. This housing is then covered in a rubber armouring, which ensures that they are durable as well as tough enough to handle rugged conditions. This includes unpredictable weather as they are fully waterproof (impermeable to water to a depth of 4m) as well as being fog-proof as the air inside them has been replaced with dry nitrogen gas.

HD Optics
As is eluded to in their new name, these Leica Trinovid HD binoculars have HD optics (High Definition), although rather frustratingly Leica do not specify as to what exactly this means.

Usually it indicates that ED glass elements are used in the lenses and a number of other coatings are added to the lenses and prisms to improve the view, but as I say no exact details are given in their marketing.

As far as I know, these new models still feature a P40 phase correction coating on the prisms as well as their HighLux system (HLS) – A mirror layer on the prisms that is said by Leica to increase light transmission significantly (99.5%) which in turn increases the image brightness. I have also read that they also have an improved optical and mechanical configuration that markedly reduces stray light.

Other features include a stainless-steel center hinge and large eye-cups with 4 click-stops and a reasonably good amount of eye-relief (15mm on the 10x42 and 17mm on the 8x42 model).

New Leica Adventure Strap

Another new addition and something that comes suppled with the Trinovid HD is Leica’s new ADVENTURE STRAP. In simple terms it is a binocular harness and carrying case all in one!

Leica seem totally convinced by it as they state that in terms of protection, it is guaranteed for the binoculars lenses in any type of use.

At first people seemed quite sceptical about the idea, but the initial reviews from those who have actually used it seem to be mostly positive.

Made from neoprene I have read that like a harness, it has the advantage in that it takes the weight of the binoculars off of your neck and prevents it from swinging about as what can happen with a traditional neck strap.

Then when you are done, you can wrap up the bins into it and so it now becomes the Trinovid HD carrying case.

Main Features & Specifications

For more details take a look at their main specifications supplied by Leica (PDF file): Leica Trinovid 42 HD Specifications

Field of View on the 8x42 Trinovid?

I also recently received a question from a reader which alerted me to the fact that Leica may be miss quoting the width of the view on their 8x42 Trinovid HD binoculars:

Answer

Thanks for the question, if you want to be 100% sure, I would ask Leica directly, which I will also do, but until then lets take a look at the info that we have on hand:

To me it looks like the 414ft@1000 yards figure that they quote is incorrect. I say this for a couple of reasons:

Firstly on the PDF document and on their website, they also give the metric FOV as being 124m@1000M – to covert that to feet you just need multiply it by 3 to get an approximate figure. In this case it is 372ft and is exactly what everyone else is quoting the FOV as being.

Then if you take the Subjective Angle of view of the 8x42 Trinovid HD that Leica states as being 54°, you can use this number to work out what the approximate width of view will be at any distance (more details on this can be found on my page about Wide Angle Binoculars):

First we convert the "subjective angle of view (SAOV) to the actual angle of view (AOV) by dividing it by the magnification, so 54÷8 = 6.75°

Then to convert the angle of view (AOV) to the FOV you will see at 1000 yards away we use the following formula: tan(AOV)x1000x3:

tan (6.75) x 1000 x 3 = 355, which is far nearer the 372ft quoted by most websites than the 414ft quoted by Leica.

As I say I will contact Leica and see if they can clear this up for us, but to me the FOV of the Leica 8x42 Trinovid HD seems more likely to be 372@1000ft than the 414@1000yds quoted on their site.

Update: I spoke with Leica tech support and it is a typo in their PDF. The FOV of 372ft is correct.

Cost & Where to Buy

Further Reading

• About Leica Sport Optics and Leica Binoculars