I purchased a pair of Swarovski 7x42 SLC series binoculars at approximately the same time as he examined the lackluster pair at the 1993 SHOT show. With the exception of their blockiness and weight and a slight stiffness in the focus knob, I'm absolutely delighted with them. I ordered it from a company called L.L. Rue that carries high-quality camera equipment. There is absolutely no vignetting of the image when I place the oculars up to my eyes, and my eyeglass lenses are extremely thick. The overall image quality is nothing short of revelatory.
Light gathering is excellent.
Hunters will greatly appreciate the excellent light-gathering ability of these binoculars. The depth of field is superb, allowing me to focus on warblers flitting through tree branches and discern silhouettes of raptors and seagulls soaring across a distant seashore or treeline. Edge-to edge image definition is remarkable. If I place the oculars at a somewhat unnatural angle to my eyes and look all around the very edges of the dimensions of the image gathered by the objective lenses, the tiniest trace of fuzziness appears. Bear in mind that to see this minuscule defect requires the user to adopt a thoroughly unnatural perspective when looking through the binoculars.