8x42 APO

I purchased the very first of the phase coated version of these binoculars. Out of the box, my first impression was that colors were truly outstanding and the full multicoating resulted in very bright images. Even when looking at bright objects, the light flaring is well controlled. One only sees the flaring when looking at street lamps at night.

For a while, I was satisfied with these until I got my Siebert Quality Modified porro prism binoculars. Then the flaws in these binoculars became readily apparent. One of the bigger problems with these binoculars are edge curvature and astigmatism. When focuesed to be sharp in the center, the edge would be soft. When focused to make the edges sharp, the center would be soft. The image is sharp for around 60% to 70% to the edge.

These binoculars also don't take very good pictures when digiscoping due to the mentioned flaws. In comparison, my Siebert binoculars would snap pictures as sharp as the ones from my William Optics APO refractor paired with high quality eyepieces.

From a performance standpoint, the strength lies in the excellent color and the weakness lies in edge sharpness and astigmatism.

As the cheapest of all the phase coated roof prism binoculars, I think they are good value for the price but their performance falls short of the truly outstanding binoculars.

This is the first decent pair of binoculars I have owned, and I like them a lot. They are a good all purpose set, with great optics in a very compact size. I highly recommend them for the money.

There is no false color in these, and they show great clarity, and sharpness out to 90% of the image.

The twist up eye cups are nice, and I like them, but don\'t wear glasses, but it seems like the eye relief would be good for any users.

NOTE: In Spring of 2006 a new version has been announced that included Phase Coated prisms.

Timm

This product is made in China.Its ODM is
XI\'AN VISION OPTO-ELECTRONIC CO., LTD.
(SICONG GROUP)
These products are called \"Navigator Series\" in XI\'AN VISION\'s homepage.
For more information:
http://www.aoi.com.cn/english/index.htm
http://www.aoi.com.cn/english/Na1.htm
The manufacturers recommended retail prices is about 1500RMB in China.(About 180USD)
I have one and I am satisfied with its optical performance. I think its optical performance approaches Olympus EXPI 8x42. The latter is better in brightness and sharpness due to its phase coating, althought very slightly. But the former has a wider field of view(7 degrees vs 6.3 degrees), althought it result in a poor edge image. Anyway poor image is better than no image.