Latest reviews

After almost a year of patient research in the secondhand market, I could realize an excellent Gitzo setup: the wonderful G1327 carbon tripod and the excellent G2380 fluid head that I had already found first... truly, a perfect combination for 80mm spottingscopes in terms of stability and especially vibration damping so as to avoid turning to solutions who are frankly overkill for weight and size.
Since 1990 I could have and still I have several very good tripods, carbon and not, in addition to video heads, all quality tools anyway (Berlebach, Manfrotto, Velbon, Sirui) but only recently I could pick up a tripod Gitzo G1327 used, a model from twenty years ago. Well, it’s really superb, I never had anything like it. Rigidity and vibration damping are top notch, as I had read in comparative tests and measurements: materials and build quality are both really outstanding. I am very satisfied indeed.
.

These were my wife's first pair of quality birdwatching binoculars.

Optically, they are superb; I can't help but pick faults in my trusty Pentax 10x43 DCF ED binoculars after looking through them - but they are a generation or two older.

What really lets them down is the "rubber" armour, which has become brittle over time and chunks are falling off; the lens caps have nothing to attach to any more, and I'm worried about the strap attachments.

Hopefully this issue has been fixed in later generations, because fine optics should never be let down by icky, sticky "rubber" coatings.