NIKON 8X30 A

Nikon 8X30 A series (2nd version) is the grandfather of a famous contemporary Nikon 8X30 EII. But I will rather compare it with the last Carl Zeiss 8X30 porro. At a first glance they look very similar, although Nikon is a bit bigger, let's say chunkier, but they weight exactly the same. Also, optically they are pretty close, and Nikon seems marginally brighter than Zeiss. Which surprises me a lot. A big compliment to much cheaper Nikon. Unfortunately, they share the weaknesses, too. Both images have too much yellow tint for my taste. Nikon is very well built, only focus knob is too stiff, but not unusable.

Second opinion: Simon Spiers

CARL ZEISS 8X30 (West)

The 8X30 was the first model from a new Zeiss factory in the West - Oberkochen and was announced in 1954. It was produced along with its eastern brothers Deltrintem / Jenoptem and was sold for a double price. Is it worth it? My opinion is that it is not. For this price the view should have more neutral colours and it should be brighter than its cheaper and older rivals. Otherwise, this is a very good pair of binoculars. Simply disappears before your eyes. The view is very wide and sharp almost to the edge. Its optical construction allowed for short and very compact body, built to a very high standards.

KERN Pizar 6X24 AR

This little and lightweight binoculars will always stand in the shadow of 8X30 Pizar. Although it is not so bright neither has so neutral colours, it offers an amazing view and much better view comfort. Comparable to 6X30 Silvarem, Pizar has much better contrast, better sharpness and more neutral colours. Even if its FOV is declared only 120 m / 1000 m, I can not see any significant difference to Silvarem with 150 m / 1000 m. An interesting observation! There is one not so positive review of 6X24 Pizar. But be careful, I describe the AR (coated) version, which I use as family trips binoculars.

CARL ZEISS Silvarem 6X30

Silvarem is Deltrintem's older brother,  produced between 1910-1975. Except for lesser magnification they share the same built quality and good optics. They also have the same field of view (150 m / 1000 m). This means that with Silvarem you can see the same image slightly more distant and view circle is smaller. That's why it does not impress as much as 8X30 wide angle binoculars. Silvarem's sharpness goes much further to the edge of the image, and should be a bit brighter at low light. This Silvarem is a newer version, which is much lighter than the original Silvarem and its eyepieces are shaped a little differently.

Second opinion: WpgBinoculars (older version)

HENSOLDT Sportglas 8X30

Sports cars are lightweight, so is the Hensoldt Sportglas. Weighs only 432 g! This is a great achievement for center focus 8X30 binoculars made somewhere between 1936 and 1943. For example, the same size Deltrintem weighs 100 g more. It's not the brightest binoculars around, let's say average. But its colours are very neutral and center sharpness is pretty good. Brown leather looks quite unique.

KERN Pizar 8X30 AR

Kern Aarau, over 170 years of excellent Swiss workmanship ends in 1991. Binoculars were only a small fragment of the major industries of various optical instruments produced by Kern in Aarau. And how good are they? Excellent in almost every way! Field of view is slightly narrower, about 140 m at 1000 m. But the biggest problem is the combination of small eye relief and too deep and narrow eye cups. So it is very difficult to see whole field of view, even without glasses. You have to push your eyes as close as possible. Otherwise, this is the binoculars with the most neutral colour, even by today's standards and it's brighter than all vintage 8X30 binoculars I've ever seen. It matches the brightness of Nikon EII! Its pin sharp image goes almost to the borders. Focus is amazing! Not too slow and not too fast, and very smooth. And finally, its glossy black finish looks great.

  The latest models lack a crossbow logo which is a symbol of Swiss quality.

AR stands for anti reflex (coated) lenses.

MEOPTA 8X30

Very robust (well-built) and heavy binoculars. Design is well known Zeiss Jena style, with slightly shorter prism housing and longer objective barrels. Even the quality of optics is similar, except highly pronounced amber color view. That's why the view is not so bright as it is in Jena glass. Nevertheless, good optics.

Second opinion: Simon Spiers

PZO LP 8X30

The history of PZO (Polish Optical Industries) is quite interesting and dates back to the late 19th century. Their roots and knowledge comes from the famous French Krauss and German Zeiss.This binocular's optics, unfortunately, does not reflect this pedigree. The view is like you're watching an old sepia photographs and not particularly bright nor wide. Reverse view does not show traces of balsamin (their glue-karbidol for joining optical elements) and the optics are clean without any mist. I suppose it was made before 1960 (around 1957) so it is without any anti-reflection coatings. Minimum focus distance is only about 9 m. But the image is quite sharp and its mechanics is excellent.