I received my Eden Quality 8x42 ED's yesterday, from the company mentioned in my first post. Delivery was prompt, and within 24 hours like they'd promised. Excellent.
After opening the package I found a quite small black box that contained the binoculars in their bag. Also a strap, cleaning cloth and instruction leaflet, but no eyepiece caps nor objective caps.
On my inquiry they apologized for forgetting the caps, they'd tested the bins before packaging and forgotten to put the caps back on. I received both today, promptly, a flexed bridge rubber rainguard that fits the eyepieces snuggly, and two hard plastic objective caps with two springs that fit inside the objective tubes and can't be detached or lost by accident. Excellent.
The bino's themselves are quite small and lightweight for a 8x42 model, covered in nice-to-touch rubber armour, providing a comfortable grip. The handling is easy and feels very good. The objective end's rubber widens forming a distinct ring of 8 mm thick around the objectives. Not sure if it's just a design folly, but it has the advantage that, when you put the bins upright on the table, they stand on the objective rings like an earthquake-proof Japanese building. They are unlikely to topple when you try them to, this is a nice feature.
The diopter ring is located in between the focus wheel and the central hinge, and easily moved and adjusted with a small notch. The eyecups are three-position twist-ups, one middle position between fully in and fully out. They are firm, and operate smoothly, and hold their position well.
The insides of the tubes are well black-matted, with no trace of specks inside.
The view through the bins is very sharp, colours appearing quite neutral ( as opposed to my Canon IS bins which show a slight yellowish bias ), no CA under demanding lighting circumstances. FOV is excellent, wide with decent edge sharpness, though not as good as my Canon 10x30 IS's which have field flatteners.
I can see the full FOV with my large specs, eyerelief is adequate.
The focus wheel turns from near to far in just one turn, and is firm, with no slack but not buttery smooth.
The views are very relaxed, though I admit I'm being used now to stabilized bins for more than a year, so it's a bit of an unfair comparison.
All in all, for the price I paid, € 279.- , these are very good bins; they perform great, they just miss the WOW - factor that truly great bins provide.
I can recommend them to anyone who is looking for good bins for a small price.
I haven't been out in bad weather yet, we're in a fair weather period; the bins are said to be water- and fogproof, and filled with Argon gas. I haven't been able to try them at dusk, but I intend to and compare them to my 10x30 and 18x50 IS Canons.
For now, they replace my 10x30 IS's when I'm taking my 18x50 IS's as well. They are definitely more suited to track fast flying birds like swallows and swifts than my Canon 10x30 IS's. That's what I had hoped for in the first place, and I'm glad they deliver in this respect.
One final remark: it's the first time ever that I ordered a pair of bins over the internet, so sight-unseen. Had I found these in a shop, and tried them before purchase, I'm not sure wether I would actually have bought them. The focus wheel being not so smooth as I would like, but since it's a fast focuser and the depth of field is good, I can live with that one shortcoming.
Best regards,
Ronald
