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2010 Zen Ray ZRS HD (Summit) 10x42 or Nikon Monarch ATB 10x42 (1 Viewer)

karthys

Karthik S
Zen Ray ZRS HD 10 x 42 and Monarch ATB 10 x 42 fits by requirement and budget. Can you guys give some comparative feedback and pros/cons of these to decide either of the one?
 
I had a hard time deciding which to keep - the ZRS or the ED2. Aside from having to focus more often with the ZRS, it was hard to tell a difference. The ZRS is that good.
 
I had a hard time deciding which to keep - the ZRS or the ED2. Aside from having to focus more often with the ZRS, it was hard to tell a difference. The ZRS is that good.

If you don't have good focus accommodation, the ED2 might be preferable for the reason you stated above.

I had to continually tweak the focus with the Nikon 8x32 LX (mooreorless will say that he had no trouble with the LX's focus, just saved him time from repeating that again :).

Great images but to [sic] much work for me (our inside joke). As a journalist, I type all day and I also use my eyes all day for reading, so the LX kept my fingers and eyes working overtime. I get the feeling the ZRS would do the same thing.

However, I might be willing to make that trade off if the ZRS had less distortion (pincushion) across the view than the ED2.

How do the two compare in that regard (distortion)?

Brock
 
Didnt I recently read that ALL 8x binoculars would have the SAME depth of field/focus..?

Mayoayo,

That is a recurrent and seemingly solid fact as I see it represented. However, I for one have a real hard time buying into it. While I can see that 7x in general has better depth than 8x, and 8x better than 10x, as far as my eyes are concerned there are considerable differences between different binoculars of the same magnification. The poorest dof of any 8x I have ever seen is the Nikon Monarch 8x42, the deepest being probably the original 8x Vortex Razor or maybe the new SLC-HD. So, other than my own subjective observations, I do not know really how to explain the things my eyes tell me.

Having both the ZRS HD and the ZEN ED 2, I tend to find myself in agreement with birdazzled about the dof observation he made.
 
Didnt I recently read that ALL 8x binoculars would have the SAME depth of field/focus..?

I think the operating word in birdazzLED's comments was perceived depth perception.

I measured the DOF of the 8x32 LX and 8x32 SE and was surprised that while the LX was slightly less (apparently breaking the laws of physics :), they were much closer than I would have thought from looking through the bins.

The combination of close set barrels and an ultra fast focuser lends itself to a 2-D image that appears to be very compressed in the 8x32 LX. A slight nudge on the focuser and the object in front or in back of the bird is out of focus. So that says to your brain, the DOF is shallow.

Because perceptions are difficult or sometimes impossible to measure objectively, they are often overlooked in reviews, but they play a major role in which bins we purchase even when the buyer can't articulate this fact ("I don't know why, but for some reason I liked the view through A better than B").

If we all had the same perceptions nobody would buy the LXL or SV EL, because of the "rolling ball"... nobody would buy the FL because of the astigmatism at the edges... and nobody would buy an Ultravid because it has too much pincushion.

Fortunately, there is enough variety in bins at all prices points that most people can find something they like. The exception would be with high quality porros.

Brock
 
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