Features of the Vortex Viper HD 10×42
Vortex decided to take its already award-winning binocular, adding High Density extra-low dispersion glass onto it. The Vortex HD 10×42 is a premium quality binocular, conveniently packed with everything you’ll need and absolutely nothing you won’t need. By just looking at it, you’ll clearly understand why the Vipers are always award winners. Below are some of its features, clearly outlined and explained.
Design and Packaging
The Viper HD arrives in a forest-green box with a distinctive Vortex branding. It comes safely housed inside a soft padded case, along with a great assortment of accessories: objective lens covers, padded neck strap, an eyepiece rain-guard and a lens’ cleaning cloth. It’s amazingly compact and lightweight, in addition to having a solid, well-made feel. It weighs a mere 24.6-oz (697 grams), offering enhanced portability. It features a tough polycarbonate body, covered in substantial rubber armor and having ridges on its upper surface to provide for better grip. The thumb indents are right in place on its underside to ensure maximum comfort. This Viper HD’s ergonomics are notably excellent, providing for a refined, upmarket feel.
Handling
Its weight, Compactness and balance are perfectly in match, making the use of this binocular totally effortless. It’s able to easily fade into the background, ultimately enabled by its design. The rubber armor provides for a secure grip while the twist-up eyecups adjust to offer the right eye relief for different users, regardless of whether one is wearing glasses or not. Vortex Viper HD 10×42 offers a maximum 16.5-mm eye relief that is certainly more than adequate in giving a full field of view to all glass wearers.
Focusing
You’ll find the Viper HD’s focusing mechanism to be quite smooth and consistent. The close focus on it is impressive close. It’s actually among the closest focusing full-size Binoculars on the market. The diopter adjustment ring sits right in place under the right-hand eyepiece. It makes use of a simple locking mechanism, ensuring that once it’s set, it can’t be knocked out of place while in the field.
Optical Performance
The Vortex Viper HD produces bright, crisp images with superb detail and excellent contrast. All its glass surfaces are fully multicoated with XR anti-reflective lens coatings, still made by Vortex. This improves light transmission, resolution and contrast. Its optical system features phase-corrected and dielectric coatings on all prism surfaces which further enhance light transmission, improving color fidelity and resolution. Vortex have made use of special HD extra-low dispersion glass at the objective end, reducing the degrading effect brought about by color fringing. This also allows for perfect viewing, ensuring that the colors always remain vibrant and clear at the optical sweet spot. All of these adds up to provide a fabulous viewing experience which hovers close to the upper echelons in optical excellence.
Durability
The Vortex Viper HD 10×42 is well-built, being O-ring sealed, filled with argon instead of nitrogen and fully waterproof. Purging of all the moisture from the inside eliminates the possibility of fogging or condensation on the internal glass surfaces when moving in different temperature extremes. The special Armor-Tek coatings on the eyepiece and objective lenses cause any water on the lens’ surface to quickly bead and drop off. This implies you can keep using the Viper HD even in the worst weather conditions.
Field of View
The linear field of view is 319-feet at 1,000 yards. The 6.1-degrees angular field of view can be considered average for such a binocular. However, it still offers a better view of the activity, giving you an increased opportunity to see all action.
PROS
- The build quality is inarguably great, being compact and robust.
It offers outstanding optical quality.
It produces superb, clear image with good edge sharpness and excellent detail.
It performs amazingly in low light conditions.
Vortex offer a lifetime warranty which is simply unbeatable.
- Some users have reported to prefer a wider field of view.
- High Density (HD) Glass Elements
Phase Corrected Roof Prisms
Fully Multicoated Optics
ArmorTek Scratch-Resistant Lens Coating
Wide-Angle Viewing
Close Focus Under 6 ft
Center Focus Wheel
Waterproof/Fogproof Construction
Twist-Up Eyecups
Rubber Armored Exterior
Q: Is the warranty transferable?
A. Yes, Vortex offers a lifetime warranty that’s transferable in case you give out or sell the binocular to someone else. You need not have a receipt or even registration card to obtain the service under their warranty.
Q: Will the exit pupil be applicable for all uses?
A. Its 4.2-mm exit pupil is adequate for almost any use on land. You may however need a larger exit pupil if you plan on using it on marine vessels with the roll from waves accommodated.
Q: Does the binocular come with a manual?
A. The Vortex Viper HD doesn’t come with any manual. However, you can still download the manual from their website.
Final verdict
Vortex have really put together an impressively balanced package, offering it at quite a compelling, affordable price. They also offer an incredible warranty that makes this deal unbeatable. This binocular has been specially designed to provide ultimate optical performance. If you’re seeking a top notch binocular that is definite to offer great value for your money, the Viper HD is worth considering.
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