Hawke Frontier HD X 8x32 Binocular - Green

Product Information

Colour feels extremely natural and true to life, with perhaps the merest hint of a warm tone, and try as I might, I struggled to find any colour fringing, even on snow-covered branches viewed against bright winter sun. That’s an indication of just how far binoculars have come in the last decade or so. The gearing on the focus mechanism is also the same, taking 1¼ turns to go from one end to the other. At around 700g, they're not a heavy binocular, but not as light as some others (including the Endurance ED 8x42). Eye relief is 18mm and 15mm for the 8x42 and 10x42 respectively, which should provide spectacle wearers

The Eye Relief was problematic for me. I had to have them rammed right against my glasses. I found the eye pieces steamed up and in general it was very uncomfortable. This WAS a deal breaker.

Acknowledgements

The Frontier HDX is, very simply, a Non-ED version of Hawke’s flagship Frontier EDX range. As such the HDX shares many characteristics with its high-performance sibling, but at a significantly reduced price point. If you’re on a budget the Frontier HDX offers the same outstanding build quality, superb ergonomics and excellent optics (without the ED Glass, of course) and delivers exceptional all-around performance for the price. The 8×32 configuration we tested here is a wonderfully compact and portable binocular. It would make a fantastic second pair for travel, or for carrying with you when a larger pair of bins simply isn’t practical. It would also make a very capable primary birding and wildlife binocular if you’re looking for something lightweight in terms of both bulk and budget. A wide field of view is an advantage in just about every situation, but is especially sought after by birders and wildlife observers who often frequent places like forests or woodlands where the viewing distances tend to be a little shorter and thus a wide view makes it much easier to locate and then follow your subject especially if it is small, fast and erratic in its movements. ER isn't going to work for everyone. Must admit I thought for a while it wasn't enough for me either because I couldn't get the field stop sharp. When I stopped fiddling around and just used it seems it was just fine as is. On the Vortex forum, i voiced this issue and got some help from "typo" with the results and now think i know what the issue was. Similar to those found on most Swarovski binoculars, the design and indeed function of the eyecups used on these Hawke Frontier ED binoculars is nothing short of excellent.

This combined with the silky smooth action makes focusing both accurate and a pleasure with or without gloves. The sapphires 8x42 that i bought a couple of weeks ago are in another league both in build and optics quality and i have no eye relief issues with them. However, they are more than twice the price and you would expect a big improvement. Measuring 19mm in diameter, the outer ocular lenses on this 8x32 Hawke Frontier ED X are a fair bit smaller than the 22mm ones on the 8x42 model. The chassis is made of magnesium alloy and covered by high-quality rubber armour. The binoculars are fully sealed, nitrogen purged and waterproof. At this point in time I would want to remove the tethered objective covers altogether. These don't want to stay in place when needed and the stiffness of the material means they don't want to drop away out of the view when they're not. The rain guard is quite nice though which I find more important in practice.So whilst it does go through the very basic information that you need to get up and running, as well as cleaning and warranty information, there is no more beyond that.

The benefits of the extra-low dispersion glass and first-class coatings throughout are clear to see. Controlled chromatic aberration eliminates colour fringing allowing all detail to be clearly visible, while the water repellent lens coating offers extra clarity whatever the condition. There’s sturdy hard rubber armouring that feels as though it would stand up to a lot of wear and tear, and the eyecups are extremely comfortable, twisting up and down to three distinct positions. Objective lens caps are drop down and stay on. But not all users like this, so they can be removed. For the eyepieces, there is a flexible rain guard, which is tapered to snugly fit onto the twist eye cups. Replaceable twist-up eyecups with position stops allow you to set correct eye relief depending on personal preference or if eyeglasses are being used.Next is the fact that the housings can be completely unscrewed and thus easier to replace should they get damaged. This is a feature you only sometimes find on more expensive binoculars and certainly not the case on the majority instruments I test. Being the same size as that used on the 42mm versions, it means that for a mid-sized instrument it is on the large end of the scale which has the advantage of being easy to reach and use, no matter the size of your hands. Quoted eye relief for the 8×42 Frontier EDX is 18mm, which should be plenty to afford most glasses wearers a full field of view when using the binocular with their spectacles. The eyecups twist up with and have a single intermediary position between the fully up and fully down position. Weatherproofing The Frontier ED X don't feature field flattening lenses (and aren't expected in this price range), so some softness and field curvature can be seen, but I was still more than pleased with the performance. The table below displays a small selection of mid-sized binoculars with an 8x magnification in the BBR database. To view the full results: