Hi Brock,
I agree about the IF. But I really like the shape of the Fujinon. The big prisms fit perfectly into my hands. There is no other binocular which I can hold as well as the 6x and 8x30 FMTR-SX Fujinons. What exactly don't you like about the ergonomics? Just curious.
Best,
Joachim
Joachim,
The problem I had with the 6x30 FMT is that bulk of the prism housing is on TOP of the binoculars.
I have large hands but there was little on the bottom to support the binoculars so I found myself hanging on to them from up top and jutting my thumbs backward like I do with small roofs. And there were no barrels to speak of, only two stubs, so all I had to hold onto were the prism housings.
However, since the Fuji had IF EPs, I found I could turn the binocular upside down, and that made it easier to hold. The straps had to come off since they were in the way.
The diopters on the second unit I had were stiff and "sticky". So if I had kept them, they would have gone to Fuji for a greasing. The original owner used the Fujis for safaris in Africa so the grease may have dried out from the extreme heat, and the stiff focusers added to the difficulty of having to focus two EPs. They also had a very long close focus (24'?). Except for feeder birding, I found them impractical for birding, better for general use.
Having ranted about my dislikes, I should balance that by saying that the views through the 6x30 FMTR were among the finest I've seen through a binocular.
The 3-D effect was phenomenal. Looking at some sparrows on a bush, the view reminded me of those stereo slides in the old View Masters (not sure if that was before your time, but when I was a child, we had stereo slide cards that slid through stereo viewers - the cards were either long and rectangular and went straight through the views or circular and turned so you would eventually come back to the original slide).
The color and contrast in the 6x30s were also top notch, as was the "ease of view" with its exceptional depth of field and edge to edge (or close to) sharpness.
I deliberated a lot about whether or not to sell the Fujis because:
(1) I paid way more than I had expected to in a bidding war on eBay and wasn't sure I could make my money back,
(2) I knew that I would eventually miss using them, and if I wanted to buy another pair, I would have to pay through the proboscis again and probably have to wait a long time (took me five years of eBay alerts to finally find a second sample), and
(3) now that "sniper" software is available for eBay (an unscrupulous practice, IMO, it takes away the "level playing field"), there's little chance of me winning an auction for these bins unless I upgrade to DSL and buy the same software as my competitors (who by then will probably have something even more devious
.
I also don't like the way that eBay now hides the identity of the winners. It used to be you could contact the winner to make an offer after the auction in case he wasn't happy with the binocular (I would always offer to do the transaction online to protect both of us so it's not like eBay lost out). End rant.
Then when I saw an 8x30 E2 for sale, I bought it and sold the Fuji. I put Bushwackers on the barrels to make the short bin easier to hold. The DOF is very good, though not excellent like the Fujis, sharpness is about the same, relatively speaking (being higher magnification the E2s resolution is higher), color and contrast are also very good, and the close focus and center focus make the E2 much more useful for birding.
If the E2 were WP and as robustly built and ergonomically designed as the 8x32 SE, I think I would never need to look for another birding binocular.
But when it's humid, the rubber armoring buckles so I switch to the SE, and if rain is forecast, I switch to the 8x32 LX, which is robustly built and sealed, and has slightly better contrast and noticeably better color saturation than the porros, but it lacks their DOF.
Be nice to have it all in one package. I'm looking forward to trying the new full sized Nikon EDG bins.
Brock