Hi Bill,
over here you won't see many birders with Steiner bins - that's not necessarily due to bad optics but mainly due to the fact that their marketing is not really focused on birders as opposed to the hunting, military and maybe marine sector. Which is kinda understandable - Steiner is owned by Beretta Holding...
Regarding Made in Germany - Steiner touts that all Steiner bins are made in germany - I'll believe it after I have taken a factory tour and seen lenses ground and binoculars assembled - the $50 models too, please!
http://www.steiner-optics.com/faqs
Steiner also marketed IF bins as "autofocus" over here which didn't go well with birders... especially not with 8x and 10x magnifications. So boisterous marketing claims like the story about Karl Steiner are obviously a tradition that's still observed...
The top range - called wildlife XP today and peregrine XP before the facelift - not sure how much was changed optically - is rumoured to be not too shabby - with an MSRP of 2000€ (and street prices a lot below that - around 1250€) it better should be...
Joachim
over here you won't see many birders with Steiner bins - that's not necessarily due to bad optics but mainly due to the fact that their marketing is not really focused on birders as opposed to the hunting, military and maybe marine sector. Which is kinda understandable - Steiner is owned by Beretta Holding...
Regarding Made in Germany - Steiner touts that all Steiner bins are made in germany - I'll believe it after I have taken a factory tour and seen lenses ground and binoculars assembled - the $50 models too, please!
http://www.steiner-optics.com/faqs
Steiner also marketed IF bins as "autofocus" over here which didn't go well with birders... especially not with 8x and 10x magnifications. So boisterous marketing claims like the story about Karl Steiner are obviously a tradition that's still observed...
The top range - called wildlife XP today and peregrine XP before the facelift - not sure how much was changed optically - is rumoured to be not too shabby - with an MSRP of 2000€ (and street prices a lot below that - around 1250€) it better should be...
Joachim