Swarovski’s AX Visio has certainly been a hot topic amongst birders since their recent (Feb 2024) release.  So what is all the hype? It incorporates a 10X32 binocular, a camera and bird identification (AI recognition) software – the world’s first ‘smart’ binocular. 20 programming languages were used and 475,000 lines of code were written for...

African Birdlife last conducted a comparative binocular review in the March/April 2013 issue. One of the best models was the Zeiss Conquest, which sits between Zeiss’s top-end Victory and entry-level Terra series. Costing only half the price of the premium Swarovski, Leica and Zeiss Victory models, the Conquest combined excellent optics with a robust, no-nonsense...