Phase coatings on B and L Elite's (1 Viewer)

I just found a nugget online that suggested Elite's were not phase coated until 1996?

Anyone know if this was true? I would be astounded if it is, as I had a 1990 version of the Elite's [10x42] that I thought were phenominally sharp, much sharper than any other roof of that vintage I had tried.

Thanks.

I just checked the BVD review from Ingraham in late 1996. He mentions waterproofing
was added that year, and they continued to sell the prior model, along with the new one. Also mentioned they were all phase coated. When that started ?

Most likely it was 1992. The first references to Elites with PC-3 phase coating I can find in my old stuff are in a review of the 7x36 from the first issue of BVD (August 1992) and in a dealer price list dated July 1, 1992. Have a look at the link below, which shows that the PC-3 trademark registration was filed on July 21, 1992.

http://www.trademarkia.com/pc3-74297158.html

henry link said:

Most likely it was 1992. The first references to Elites with PC-3 phase coating I can find in my old stuff are in a review of the 7x36 from the first issue of BVD (August 1992) and in a dealer price list dated July 1, 1992. Have a look at the link below, which shows that the PC-3 trademark registration was filed on July 21, 1992.

http://www.trademarkia.com/pc3-74297158.html

Click to expand...

That fits my recollection exactly. I remember the brochures in which B&L heavily advertised the coating update to the otherwise unchanged Elites in fall 1992-spring 1993. 1996 is when the totally redesigned (waterproof, "ergonomic" shape) Elites were released. Nikon was the last alpha manufacturer to the phase coated scene with the LX/HG in 1998.

--AP

This surprises me, as the Birding review [Birding, April 1990] in which Pete Dunne extolls the incredible sharpness of these bins, proclaiming them to be maybe ''the sharpest'' view available, would have been of a non-phase coated binocular!

I don't put much faith in what Dunne has to say about bins, as he is prone to hyperbole but I would be amazed if a non PC binocular would have made such an impression. I had a pair [I think they were 90's or 91's] and they were the sharpest thing I had seen to date.

Am I overestimating the effect of phase coating in the apparent sharpness of a roof prism binocular?

James,

I imagine if you saw those today you wouldn't be quite so impressed. It was a constant source or wonder to me in those days how optics reviewers could pile superlatives on the expensive non phase-corrected roof prism binoculars of the time.

I thought I would answer your question about the BVD review of the 7x36 Elite in this thread for continuity. The whole first BVD issue was devoted to a group review of 14 mid-sized binoculars, so the space devoted to the Elite was small. I think I would need Stephen Ingraham's permission to reproduce the whole thing, but I photographed a paragraph in the introduction which I hadn't noticed the other day. It directly addresses the question of phase correction in the Elites and contains most of what he had to say about the 7x36.

Henry

Thanks Henry. In that article, he mentions waterproofing - an error as waterproofing came in 1996 I believe.

What I do remember about my Elite's [90 / 91] is that they were clearly better than the Leitz Trinovids and Zeiss B's of the day, PC or not.