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Canon 10x42 L IS waterproof binoculars coming soon (1 Viewer)

I've read the article Jan Meijerink wrote on the Canon 10x42 L IS WP; his findings correspond with the already mentioned notions that it's a very good quality bino, no surprise here.
The diopter adjustment ring on the right ocular is of a locking kind. It has to be pushed downward to set the diopter and be pushed up to lock, i.e. the other way around like for instance the Nikon LXL's whose diopter adjustment ring locks by pushing it down. It seems the DA ring on the Canon falls out of lock too easily when the bino is used in the field, and the diopter is bound to be misset unwillingly.
I'm telling this in my own words, I wouldn't know if someone else has different experiences.

Greetings, Ronald
 
I recently got my pair of Canon 10x42L IS binoculars. I have been very curious to see just how Canon's best "L" glass would compare to Europe's finest. IS aside, these are phenomenally good optics! If Canon decided to forego the IS, and simply re-package these optics in a sleek and lightweight housing - this might be THE finest binocular on the market. They are bright, sharp across the entire field, free of chromatic abberation and completely free of flare in even the most difficult lighting. But alas, Canon is synonymous with Image Stabilization in the binocular world - and this is their undoing. Thanks to IS, they are overly large and heavy, and worse yet, an ungainly shape that doesn't seem to have been made to be comfortably held by human hands. The price of image stabilization is an image that is constantly fluctuating into and out of perfect focus, due to the constant high-frequency movement of the prisms as they "Stabilize" the image. In fact, we have simply traded one annoying optical artifact (image shake) for another (a disquieting image instability). Since most of us have unintentionally trained our brains to compensate for a certain amount of image shake, this new and unaccustomed phenomenon is just bothersome. In order to keep the image critically sharp, it is still necessary to concentrate all ones efforts on holding them steady - but this is a bloated, overweight contraption - so doing so is even more tiresome than without IS (and all that comes with it) at all. It's a shame, really - this may be the finest set of optics I have ever sold.
 
angelo225544 said:
I recently got my pair of Canon 10x42L IS binoculars. I have been very curious to see just how Canon's best "L" glass would compare to Europe's finest. IS aside, these are phenomenally good optics! If Canon decided to forego the IS, and simply re-package these optics in a sleek and lightweight housing - this might be THE finest binocular on the market. They are bright, sharp across the entire field, free of chromatic abberation and completely free of flare in even the most difficult lighting. But alas, Canon is synonymous with Image Stabilization in the binocular world - and this is their undoing. Thanks to IS, they are overly large and heavy, and worse yet, an ungainly shape that doesn't seem to have been made to be comfortably held by human hands. The price of image stabilization is an image that is constantly fluctuating into and out of perfect focus, due to the constant high-frequency movement of the prisms as they "Stabilize" the image. In fact, we have simply traded one annoying optical artifact (image shake) for another (a disquieting image instability). Since most of us have unintentionally trained our brains to compensate for a certain amount of image shake, this new and unaccustomed phenomenon is just bothersome. In order to keep the image critically sharp, it is still necessary to concentrate all ones efforts on holding them steady - but this is a bloated, overweight contraption - so doing so is even more tiresome than without IS (and all that comes with it) at all. It's a shame, really - this may be the finest set of optics I have ever sold.
Click to expand...

I have the 12x36 Mk.II version, which isn´t L-series glass. It´s light (almost as light as Swaro EL 8x32, pleasant in the hands, nice rubber eyecups, and small. I really like them, and use them now in preference to my trusty EL 10x42. I wish Canon would produce exactly the same package with L-series glass, about which I´ve heard so many excellent reports. I´ve never seen the 10x42, but the photos of a rather brick-like apparatus, and the 1.2 kilo weight issue, put me off.
 
"The price of image stabilization is an image that is constantly fluctuating into and out of perfect focus, due to the constant high-frequency movement of the prisms as they "Stabilize" the image. In fact, we have simply traded one annoying optical artifact (image shake) for another (a disquieting image instability)..."



Hi, Angelo - I have never had a problem like that with Canon IS, including the 10X42 that I tried out a while back. Sounds like your binoc was defective. My problem with the 10X42IS, brilliant optics notwithstanding, was the poor physical design, especially the junk eyepieces, and the lenses not being perfectly collimated.
 
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