10x43 ED3 For a friend (1 Viewer)

Charles;

Thanks much for helping Don with the 10x43 ED3’s.

I do not know when he received them but he brought them by here Saturday morning to check out and help him set up.

I just did the very basic checks, no review; this was the first pair of this model I have seen. I was suitably impressed by the performance/dollar ratio.

Had a quick look at the resolution, collimation, FOV, field curvature and astigmatism on the bench. Only spent about 15 minutes with them and that included showing him what I was looking at until he could see the same results. Then measured his IPD and helped him set the diopter.

I did not do a transmission curve but noticed a little cool for my taste but Don really liked the color and commented about the brightness even before he got here.

He was very pleased when he got here and even more of a happy camper when he left.

Thanks again, I am sure we will talk again.

Hello Frank;

Like I said, really impressed for the dollars. I am not a 10x fan but these sure looked good.

The FOV measured 6.5°, which, I think, matched specs. The field was nice and flat almost to the edge.

Resolution in both tubes was 3.2", right at, or just a shade better, than the Raliegh constant.

Seemed to have a little less pincushion than my 7x36 ED2's. Did not notice any at distance, but became more noticable about halfway to edge as you got inside of 100 meters.

Colors looked neutral, just a little green/blue bias, but nothing measured.

Collimation was almost spot on, only about 5' (30) vertical and 7' (100) horizontal.

Only used them a few minutes outside, looking towards the bird feeder and some house corners and power lines in the general direction of the morning sun and noticed no glare or reflections.

I did not do a review, just checked for major flaws. I am really just thanking Charles, publically for helping Don, both technically and financially with his decision making. Comes under the heading of great customer service as far as I am concerned.

Ron,

Thank you for elaborating. I was just curious of your thoughts/experiences, however limited, with the binocular. Ever since the introduction of the Prime and now, to a lesser extent the 8x32 ZRS, I haven't really heard many comments about the ED3s. I think the All binos review of the ED2 did a little damage to their reputation and was interested to see if you ran into any similar issues with the pair of ED3s that you had on hand.

Thanks again.

The ED3 is defenetly good optics, I havent tried the Primes yet, but I am sure the only big diference is edge to edge performance.
I have my 10x43 ED3 from the begining of the year, thanks to Charles and the excelent customer service of Zen Ray. I have been trying them on the field side by side with my 7x43ED3, and I must say that the 10x surprised me a lot! I was not expecting that they were so good and bright!!! believe me, they are very good binos.
Then I realized I loosed almost 50% bird IDs with the 10x vs the quick spot on image of the 7x on the close and mid-range birding ..... flying passerines were a true tragedy ... and I have been a 10x user before!!

Then I realised how much I liked my 7x, and how perfect they are for birding!!!