Well I ordered one of these monoculars from CameralandNY.com (during their 10% off sale) and I have had the chance to use it a bit and see how it stacks up to a bino.
A quick explanation as to why I went with a monocular rather then a bin: 1st reason is my eyesight is not 20/20 in both eyes, my left eye being weaker then my right eye (its about 20/40) so I don't see the fully benefit of a bino. Secondly covering a fair bit of ground (a lot of which is very uneven) when out hiking and hunting weight was a major factor in how often they would find themselves in my pack. I didn't want to go for a smaller / lighter bino as I still needed the low light performance of the 42mm objective when trying to find game.
Optically:
I will keep this brief as many aspects of optics I don't have enough experience in to provide a satisfactory conclusion.
Light transmission was noticeably worse then a Vortex Viper rifle scope (8x zoom, 95% transmittance, 5.5mm exit pupil ) which is to be expected as a roof prism mono has more lens elements (I think?). Were this a comparison of binos vs scope I am not sure the scope would come out on top. Regardless of the difference the much wider FOV of the mono meant I could still see better though them in extremely low light.
Focus seemed very critical with a complete 360° revolution of the focus wheel required to go from 6 feet to (seemingly) well beyond infinity however the focus wheel itself feels very positive. Focus also seemed backwards to me (clockwise to reduce focal distance). Without diopter adjustment to muck things up I will be adding labels to the focus wheel to allow refocusing on the fly.
Mechanically I thought the eye caps could be better, there is some play in them and softer rubber would be nice.
Documentation wise they arrived with a card detailing how to make adjustments for the binos not the monocular.
The lack of info about the tripod threading had me worrying I had let all the argon out when I unscrewed it and an o-ring fell out.
Another complaint (and one which everyone makes) is that the covers are not as tight as they should be and are prone to slipping off.
Usability wise they are harder to hold steady compared to bins but for me this is offset by the reduction in weight, the ability to attach a tripod will no doubt come in handy. If you have two good eyes I don't think they can replace a bino but I see these getting a lot of use.
I'm sure there are other things I will think of adding later, but that can be done when I think them up.
A quick explanation as to why I went with a monocular rather then a bin: 1st reason is my eyesight is not 20/20 in both eyes, my left eye being weaker then my right eye (its about 20/40) so I don't see the fully benefit of a bino. Secondly covering a fair bit of ground (a lot of which is very uneven) when out hiking and hunting weight was a major factor in how often they would find themselves in my pack. I didn't want to go for a smaller / lighter bino as I still needed the low light performance of the 42mm objective when trying to find game.
Optically:
I will keep this brief as many aspects of optics I don't have enough experience in to provide a satisfactory conclusion.
Light transmission was noticeably worse then a Vortex Viper rifle scope (8x zoom, 95% transmittance, 5.5mm exit pupil ) which is to be expected as a roof prism mono has more lens elements (I think?). Were this a comparison of binos vs scope I am not sure the scope would come out on top. Regardless of the difference the much wider FOV of the mono meant I could still see better though them in extremely low light.
Focus seemed very critical with a complete 360° revolution of the focus wheel required to go from 6 feet to (seemingly) well beyond infinity however the focus wheel itself feels very positive. Focus also seemed backwards to me (clockwise to reduce focal distance). Without diopter adjustment to muck things up I will be adding labels to the focus wheel to allow refocusing on the fly.
Mechanically I thought the eye caps could be better, there is some play in them and softer rubber would be nice.
Documentation wise they arrived with a card detailing how to make adjustments for the binos not the monocular.
The lack of info about the tripod threading had me worrying I had let all the argon out when I unscrewed it and an o-ring fell out.
Another complaint (and one which everyone makes) is that the covers are not as tight as they should be and are prone to slipping off.
Usability wise they are harder to hold steady compared to bins but for me this is offset by the reduction in weight, the ability to attach a tripod will no doubt come in handy. If you have two good eyes I don't think they can replace a bino but I see these getting a lot of use.
I'm sure there are other things I will think of adding later, but that can be done when I think them up.
