You’re going to have a larger ‘sweet spot’ with the Viper – the area with your best clarity, lighting and color rendition. The Viper? It’s at 341 feet at 6.5 degrees, which may sound trivial, but in the field, and particularly in low light conditions, you’re going to like that. The Diamondback’s field of view is an impressive 330 feet at 6.3 degrees. Vortex binoculars in general are renowned for their excellent field of view – the width and length of what you see.
Vortex Viper Binoculars come with an HD lens while the Diamondback does not.Īlthough the differences are fairly subtle, an experienced hunter/hiker/bird watcher or anyone who regularly uses binoculars may spot the following differences: Field of View Vortex Viper Binoculars Vs Vortex Diamondbacks: Where You’ll See the Differences These include better glass protection (ArmorTek), coating on the roof prism (Phase Adjustment) and, importantly, HD lenses incorporated in the design.Ī closer look reveals where we see the performance differences between the two models. As the next tier model from Vortex Optics, it’s got several features the Diamondback doesn’t have. Notably, though, the Vortex Diamondback 10X42 does not have an HD lens – and none of the Vortex Diamondback models do at the time of this writing. The Vortex Diamondback has an HD Optical System with select glass elements to ‘deliver exceptional resolution, color clarity, image sharpness and light transmission’. However, it’s important not to get misled by the ‘HD’ in the Diamondback’s description. Being 10X42s, they’re both full-size binoculars with the same magnification power (10) and objective lens size (42). These two models are a good way to see the difference between Vipers and Diamondbacks. Vortex Viper Binoculars Are ‘Better’ Than Vortex Diamondbacks, But You May Not Notice the Difference To illustrate the difference between these two lines, let’s look at their two most popular models, the Vortex Viper 10X42HD and the hot-selling Vortex Diamondback 10X42.ĭielectric Multi-Layer With XR™ Proprietary Coating Vortex Viper Binoculars Vs Vortex Diamondbacks: Tale of the Tape You’ll also find the Viper’s HD lenses tends to give better resolution than the Diamondback, and that it performs better in low-light situations, like early morning and just before dark.Īffiliate Disclosure: Some of these are affiliate links and I’ll receive a commission (no additional cost to you) if you buy a product through them. While Vortex Diamondback binoculars are definitely no slouches in the clarity department, you’ll likely have better clarity with Vortex Viper binoculars, particularly around the edges, where the Diamondback may get a little blurry in some lighting conditions. At roughly $200 more than the Diamondback, the Viper has HD lenses and a better field of view. That description generally tells you what you need to know about the difference between Vortex Viper binoculars and the Diamondback binocular. They’re the third-highest quality model out of four from that company – below the Vortex Razor, and above the highly popular Diamondback, and provide an affordable-ish entry to the $450+ binocular space, and the features you expect from them. Vortex Vipers are a model of popular binoculars.