Binocular Review - Leica Noctivid

Binocular Review - Leica Noctivid

- Peter Ryan

In 1958, Leica was the first company to introduce roof-prism binoculars with fully internal focusing and unmatched optical excellence. Called Trinovids for the three key innovations they introduced, these binoculars had a compact yet robust design that made them the first choice for any serious field work. NASA even sent a pair to the moon! As a schoolboy in the 1970s, my 8x32 Leicas were my most prized possession. I was gutted when they were stolen, along with my first spotting scope, from my broom cupboard office at university. Since then I have owned several other pairs of Leica binoculars, but none has quite lived up to the elegant simplicity of that first pair.

In the 1990s I was seduced by Swarovski when it introduced the ergonomic open-hinge design and in the 2000s I was dazzled by the compact efficiency of Zeiss’s 10x32 Victory binoculars, which remain my first-choice binoculars 10 years on. But when offered the opportunity to test the newly released Leica Noctivids I was more than keen to do so, because at heart I retain a soft spot for the ‘red dot’ of Leica.

Leica is still selling Ultravid, Duovid and ‘entry-level’ Trinovid binoculars, but since its release in 2016, the Noctivid is the company’s premier binocular range for nature viewing. There are only two models, 8x42 and 10x42, which have identical dimensions and weight.