Do Swarovski's NL Pure binoculars deserve the hype?

Back in the first lockdown, I was asked to attend an international video product launch by Swarovski. Naturally, I was very excited to see what Swarovski were going to show us, knowing how ahead of the game they tend to be and seeing how excited they were about this particular launch, I was starting to ponder what we might see. Infra-red binoculars? A rifle scope with x-ray vision? OK, now I am being silly. But when they unboxed the NL Pure binoculars I wanted to know what the catch was; what quirk did they possess that made them worth this hype?

 

The answer was there were no quirks, but they explained these binoculars have the largest ever field of view they have made, they are revolutionary in their shape and they have incredible colour fidelity and clarity… Whilst that all sounded great, I felt like I may have missed something, however I still felt there must be something in it; Swarovski are at the top of the game and wouldn’t be that excited by ‘just another pair of binoculars’. I thought it must be one of those ‘you don’t realise how good this is until you get a pair in your hands’ kind of thing and let me say this now: ‘you really don’t realise how good these things are until you get them in your hands!’.

 

At the end of October, I was fortunate enough to be invited ‘wildfowling’ on the Ouse Washes in Cambridgeshire. Having been the year before, I knew of the importance of taking a pair of binoculars and as Swarovski had just sent me a pair of the new NL Pure 10x42’s to try, I was keen to take them out.

 

We packed our kit up the night before and after making a plan, sharing a few beers and some delicious venison tacos we headed to bed in good time for an early start. The next morning, three of us headed out to get onto the wash for first light, my friends being kind enough to set up the decoy pattern after putting me in my hide.

 

The reason for you need binoculars on a day like this is not only to spot duck on the horizon, long before you would with the naked eye, but also once you have shot a duck to keep an eye on it as the wind tries to blow it away - binoculars allow you to keep it in sight and then direct the designated picker-up to the brid in his boat. I was spotting duck from a long way off in the distance and the NL Pures did their job for the day incredibly well. My friend, who was using a cheaper brand of binoculars, came to take a look through them and remarked ‘Wow! It feels like I’m there!’ It really felt like I had the Lamborghini of binoculars and made his feel like a Lada Riva in comparison.

 

The field of view that you get with the NL Pure's is another one of those things that is hard to describe until you experience it yourself but it really is astonishingly good! You feel completely immersed and can barely tell you are looking through binoculars...as my friend remarked when he took a peep "you feel like you're actually right there."

 

The day was huge fun. We had 40 miles an hour winds, boat engine problems galore, a lot of laughs and some fairly straight shooting (particularly by one of my friends who was using his brand new Benelli semi-auto). We ended the day with twelve wigeon, four gadwell and three teal, plus six pigeons, three crows and a rook. Duck is one of my favourite meats and I cannot wait to try out some new recipes over the coming weeks.

 

No matter how good your optics, if the engine fails there's only one thing for it

 

A day later, I was back at my home in Suffolk and due to accompany a friend who has just started getting into deer stalking. I thought it would be a great opportunity to get the NL Pure’s out again in an environment which is perhaps a bit more typical of its likely use. We headed off to our high seat, seeing a lone muntjac and a herd of fallow deer that we could not get a shot at on the way there and settled in. It didn’t take long before we started to see some Chinese water deer moving around just out of range.

 

I had lent my friend my Swarovski CL Companion 8x30, which I love and are brilliant because they are pocket sized and are of the highest quality that you expect from a Swarovski product, but I must say the NL Pure’s completely outdid them in every way. Both of us couldn’t quite get over the clarity that they produce and as the afternoon became duskier they continued to prove their worth.

 

With 30 minutes of good shooting light left, my friend excitedly told me he had spotted a Chinese water deer about 45 yards away and, taking his time, he squeezed the trigger and dropped the animal on the spot. His grin said it all and he had his second ever deer to take home for the freezer.

 

Once again the binoculars had performed brilliantly; they really are magnificent; the field of vision and the clarity are so fantastic, on a level way beyond what I have seen before – I highly, highly recommend getting a pair in your hands.

I must warn you though, once you have taken a look through them you may not want to go back to your old pair. Starting at £2,370 for the 8x42’s they are certainly not cheap, but they are special and I can understand why they command the money they do. I must also mention, they feel absolutely brilliant in hand and although I did not get one to try out, you can purchase a forehead rest that clips onto the binoculars which gives you steadiness, which I can see being very useful. The NL Pure's make you wonder where brands can go next with binoculars and I cannot wait to see what Swarovski come up with after having had the chance to test these!