Reviews & Ratings for Hawke Sport Optics Endurance ED 8x42mm Monocular — 5 reviews — Page 1

I already owned a Hawke rifle scope when I ordered this 8x42 Endurance ED monocular, so I knew Hawke produces quality products. I have to say this optic blew me away when I first looked through it. Image brightness and contrast are visibly greater than with my naked eye. Also, the build quality and feel in the hand exceed what the various product photographs convey. The offset focus ring is smooth as silk and is far superior in ergonomics to monoculars that focus at the eyepiece. Resolution and color fidelity are excellent, hitting above the price point for this optic. It's not apochromatic, but very, very close. Only minimal color fringing is detectable at the edges, and I had to consciously look for it to notice. A VERY satisfying purchase! Thanks, Optics Planet!

I tried out a few similar monoculars in this price range and this one is by far the best I found. Well made and well designed with buttery smooth focus. The vortex 8x36 seemed durable but not as well made as this one and the the stiff 1/4 turn fast focus being right next to the eye were not for me. I thought the small weight and size increase would make this one less useful, but honestly I barely notice the difference. It's a clearer, brighter image and a great design. Highly recommended.

Very good image quality, fairly compact and light weight. At this price point, you could probably get as good an image from a 7x35 porro prism binocular, but they would be much bigger.

To get close to this size in a binocular, you'd have to choose a tiny roof-prism binocular that, at this price, would lack phase-correction on the prisms and would therefore have crummy image quality. No one should EVER buy a non-phase-corrected roof prism! The micro-roofs would also have a tiny exit-pupil, which makes them less easy to look in if you're, say, on a boat that's moving around...

I looked at a sharp-edged dark object against a bright white cloud background and could see almost no chromatic aberration along the edge of the object. Just a touch of gold color, which you'd never notice unless you were specifically trying to judge the CA.

Eyepiece design seems pretty good: I focused on something in the center then panned that object toward the edge of the field of view, and it stayed pretty sharp at least half way out. 2/3 of the way to the edge, I was able to refocus somewhat, so some of the loss of sharpness was focal plane curvature, not other errors. I haven't looked at the stars at night yet to judge coma, but my bet is that the outer parts of the field will have the stars looking pretty wonky. There is just a tiny bit of pincushion distortion at the edge of the field, but not enough to give a weird feeling of things moving as you pan that I've seen in some optics. So, ...
Read More...

I bought this monocular for bowhunting to complement my Hawke ED 8X42 Frontier Binoculars.
Monocular has a low profile so it slips under my jacket on its neck lanyard, without interfering with my draw. Being a trad hunter, ranges are fairly close and this suits my purposes perfectly. It's light and also functions well in low light conditions. One handed operation, so I don't have to lay down my bow. It's sharp enough that when practicing, I can see my arrows on bales at 40 yds. I hike daily and take it always, just so I can have peeps at things that are curious to observe.
Love it!