GPO 10x50 - does anyone have them, use them? (1 Viewer)

[Elpha8888]

At 45 oz. that would be a brick to carry birding. Maybe for astronomy.

Yea, Id like it under the stars. Hard to get Mavens here in the UK.

 

[tenex]

TODAY I went back to the Berkeley waterfront with JUST the B2 9x45s. Really put them to the test. Basically wholly unpleasant. Either my eyes or my brain could not focus them to a point of comfort. I tried and tried. Not pleasant.

There has to be something wrong with this unit, so if you think you might really like B2 it could be worth trying another. My single experience with a Maven several years ago (prompted by praise on this forum of course) showed that they pay little attention to the condition of their demo pool, and of course also that durability may be a problem. In my case I could tell what was going wrong, the diopter setting would drift and need to be reset each time focus was adjusted; your case sounds more mysterious, but being told that AK prisms and/or field flatteners give some people headaches is just ridiculous. None of which really inspires much confidence, but good luck.

 

[Scott98]

Would bet anything something is wrong with the 9x45. Maybe the last guy abused them and no one checked them, or maybe they took a knock during shipping.

Interesting comp though, I've thought about one of these myself. The 10x50 have more aperture and are actually lighter in weight. The 9x45 cost a little more, one would expect some kind of optical superiority for the extra weight and cost. Unless that superiority manifests itself somehow, I would take the larger aperture and lighter weight. Most other 50mm's are 35 ounces, these are only 30, that's the weight of some of the premium 42's from Leica and Swaro.