Oberwerk Sport ED reviewed by Badgerland Birding

Badgerland Birding reviewing the Oberwerk Sport ED

Badgerland Birding, a popular website and YouTube channel dedicated to all things birding, has given the Oberwerk Sport ED a stellar review. With birding season beginning in earnest, we at Oberwerk have made a concerted effort to get our binoculars into the hands of more birders.

As our existing Sport ED customers already know, our flagship roof prism binocular is ideal for birding and wildlife observation. You get fantastic optics coupled with a rugged design that feels great in your hands. The aluminum focus wheel and diopter provide the cherry on top, gliding smoothly without feeling too loose.

As usual, the Badgerland review found the Oberwerk optics impressive:

The view through the binoculars was exceptionally clear and colors really popped, specifically the bright green on the head of an American Wigeon I was observing.

Badgerland Birding

Badgerland Birding is a great resource for anyone looking for birding content online. They currently have 462 videos on their YouTube channel where they discuss everything birding. The crew has traveled all around the U.S. looking for birds and you’ll find great tips and interesting facts in their videos.

Check out the web review here and see the video below:

While our Sport ED binocular makes for a great birding binocular, we also make some fantastic compact porro prism binoculars that are ideal for birding. Our SE lineup has a 8×32 model and a 10×42 model. You won’t find a better value for birding—enjoy fantastic optics without breaking the bank!

Oberwerk Celebrates 25th Anniversary

Oberwerk 25th Anniversary

April of 2024 will be a very busy month at Oberwerk. Events include the April 8th Eclipse (Dayton is in the path of totality), a move to a much larger building, exhibiting at the NEAF (NorthEast Astronomy Forum) Convention (Apr. 20, 21), and a week-long visit with our business partners from Kunming, China, including a celebration dinner for friends and family at the new building. Somehow all this will happen within the month of April! We will effectively be closed after our return from NEAF for one week as we transition from the current location to the new location at 3880 Kettering Blvd., Dayton, OH 45439. Our 937-640-1040 phone number will not change, and our website will remain up and accepting orders- but those won’t ship until late-April. Our new location will feature a large showroom area, with all Oberwerk products on display. Visitors are welcome, but by appointment only please, simply due to personnel constraints.

Oberwerk Sport ED Reviewed by Cornell Lab

A bird catching a fish

Oberwerk has enjoyed the position as the top choice among astronomy enthusiasts for years, but recently birders have taken notice of our high quality compact binoculars. The birding market has largely been dominated by exorbitantly expensive luxury binoculars that, while nice, provide a diminishing return in quality for every dollar spent. Keeping in line with Oberwerk’s mission to make high quality optics available at a reasonable price, our Sport Series and SE Series are ideal for birders. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology recently reviewed our 8×42 Sport ED binocular and they agree!

Here’s a quick excerpt:

For birders looking for excellent image quality at a relatively low price, the Oberwerk Sport ED is an impressive option. These compact, slightly heavy binoculars got our reviewers’ attention with bright and very crisp images. The colors are true without seeming overly saturated. Even against the glare of a gray sky, we were impressed with the gradation of grays and tans in the fur of an eastern gray squirrel as it nibbled the vivid buds of a red maple.

Cornell Lab

The Sport ED has been our most popular binocular in recent years. The ED glass provides amazing image quality and the metal focus wheel and diopter feel fantastic in operation. Featuring lightweight magnesium-alloy construction, with attractive textured dark green rubber armor and red anodized trim.

8x42,10x42 Sport ED

8×42,10×42 Sport ED

In stock.

$349.95
Shop now

More Praise for the Sport ED Binocular

Word about this fantastic binocular has been spreading. Check out some of these other great reviews!

the one binocular to own if you can only have one.

Space.com

Test driving the Oberwerk Sport ED 8 x 42 has been nothing short of a revelation. Just when you thought you’ve seen it all, along comes an instrument like this that upsets the apple cart.

Dr. Neil English

Oberwerk Partners with B&H Photo

For most of our 25-year existence, we’ve only sold direct to our customers, the exception being a limited selection of our smaller binoculars that we supply to Amazon. But here at Oberwerk, we’re getting serious about growing our brand. So after much discussion and negotiation, we’ve decided to partner with B&H Photo and Video– the world’s largest and most-respected dealer of optical goods, as well as other high-tech gear for enthusiasts. While Oberwerk celebrates 25 years in the optics business, B&H is celebrating 50 years! As they say on their website “B&H is a group of people who are passionate about the things you’re passionate about”. Their customer reviews are universally excellent and they’re also trustworthy. Our customers know the same is true for us, so we believe this will be a great match- and it will allow us to reach many more new customers than we could on our own. B&H is also as good as it gets with international shipping. For our customers outside the USA, B&H should be able to provide the lowest-possible shipping rates, brokerage services, and options for prepaid duty and VAT.

We also expect to soon have some Oberwerk products on display in B&H’s incredible 70,000 sq. ft. New York City SuperStore. So the next time you’re in Manhattan, be sure to stop in!

Oberwerk Binoculars to be Featured in Homestead

Oberwerk is the official binocular supplier to Homestead, from Angel Studios.  Homestead is a hope-filled post-apocalyptic thriller TV series, based on the best-selling Black Autumn series of books by Jayson Orvis, who was also one of the co-founders of Black Rifle Coffee Company.  It’s an action-packed show that highlights the importance of family and faith after the end of the world. Actor Neal McDonough, most recently seen as “the villain” in the Yellowstone series, plays the lead character Jason Ross. He’s also appeared in Band of Brothers, Minority Report, Captain America: The First Avenger, and The 100. Angel Studios is best-known for their recent box office hit Sound of Freedom. A variety of Oberwerk binocular models are expected to be featured in the series, including the 10×42 SE, the 20×65 ED Deluxe, and a BT-82XL-ED, as well as our 4000 and TR3 tripods- with other Oberwerk models to possibly appear in future episodes.  Watch the trailer for the pilot episode below. Coming in 2024.

20×65 ED Deluxe in the foxhole
20×65 ED Deluxe on TR3 tripod at the lookout

Upcoming Annular Solar Eclipse

Annular Eclipse: October 14th 2023

Are you ready for the next solar eclipse? On October 14th, an annular solar eclipse will be viewable from a swath from Oregon through Texas. The rest of the USA will experience a partial eclipse. An annular eclipse means that the Moon is at or near its farthest point from Earth. Therefore it’s smaller, and won’t totally obscure the Sun. This creates an amazingly bright ring around the moon called the annulus.

In the map below, you can see the path the annular solar eclipse will take. Check out Great American Eclipse for more details if you would like to plan a trip to view this amazing event.

Map showing path of annular eclipse. By Great American Eclipse.
The path of the annular solar eclipse over North America. Credits: ©2021 Great American Eclipse, LLC.

Nothing beats seeing a solar event like this with your own eyes, but it’s no different than looking directly at the sun. Viewing an eclipse with the naked eye can severely damage the eyes. Fortunately, there are ways to safely observe an annular eclipse.

An annular eclilpse
A photograph of an annular eclipse. With the proper equipment, you’ll be able to capture your own image of the annular eclipse.

Solar Filters for Binoculars

To safely view the annular eclipse with binoculars, you’ll need a pair of solar filters. While some create Oberwerk customers have created custom-made solar filters, we offer a more elegant solution. Oberwerk carries Seymour solar filters, which are custom fit for all Oberwerk binoculars (42mm and larger). Seymour Helios thin-film has a consistent yellow-orange solar image, with higher contrast than competitor’s filters. For binoculars capable of magnifications greater than 25x (our XL Series), we also offer Seymour Premium Glass filters, for highest possible resolution. The filters snugly fit over the objective end of the binocular so the sunlight is safely filtered before it enters the binocular. Most sizes are still in stock, but they’re selling out quickly!

Seymour Solar Filters
Seymour Solar filters. Get the perfect fit for all your Oberwerk binoculars.

Check out the products below to get ready for your annular eclipse watch party. Get a digiscoping adapter for photography and a beverage/eyepiece tray to keep organized.

See You at NEAF 2023?

NEAF (Northeast Astronomy Forum), held at Rockland Community College in Suffern, NY, is the world’s largest astronomy convention. Oberwerk normally exhibits there every year, but the event has been cancelled for the last 3 years due to Covid. It’s finally back on for the weekend of Apr. 15th. We’ll be there demoing every binocular in the Oberwerk product line, as well as our various tripods and mounts. We’re not bringing any inventory to sell, but we can relay orders to our office in Dayton, OH, and those will ship the following week (no sales tax, free shipping). We’ll be giving away our beloved Oberwerk pens, as well as Oberwerk eyepatches for telescope users- because telescopes are for one-eyed pirates 😉
Our booth location is 123-127, look for the banner below. Stop by and say hello!