Steve C
Well-known member
I have one of the Tamron Rangemasters and like the standard porro style earlier Fuji models, it is pretty superb.
It is my feeling that Bushnell thought maybe it was time to tweak the old line porro design, so they flipped the prisms, as they had done with the smaller Custom series. This likely led to all sorts of "unnecessary new fangled crap" comments so it id not last, however it was also in the time of the roof explosion. My view is that it was a step taken to see if the design could be evolved to some degree or another. The Japanese had gotten the majority of the mileage to be gotten with the porro. The roof reigns supreme in the minds of most viewers, so I'll be surprised to see anything done with new glass and coatings in the old time WA porro designs.
One thing for sure, the Tamron model is pretty huge. But the original Fuji's were not very much smaller. Those prisms are at least twice the size of a more typical porro of the 7x35 size range, reduce the size of the Rangemaster and you have a completely run of the mill JTTI 7x35.
They were produced until 1973. There are several stories about special forces military use in Vietnam. It was not a widely purchased military unit and those used were lilely purchased individually by soldiers who used them. Hard to fathom an open porro lasting long in jungle use.
I posted a review of both models here a few years ago. It went on for a long time with lots of views and comments. It's here, but I'm not doing the searching.
It is my feeling that Bushnell thought maybe it was time to tweak the old line porro design, so they flipped the prisms, as they had done with the smaller Custom series. This likely led to all sorts of "unnecessary new fangled crap" comments so it id not last, however it was also in the time of the roof explosion. My view is that it was a step taken to see if the design could be evolved to some degree or another. The Japanese had gotten the majority of the mileage to be gotten with the porro. The roof reigns supreme in the minds of most viewers, so I'll be surprised to see anything done with new glass and coatings in the old time WA porro designs.
One thing for sure, the Tamron model is pretty huge. But the original Fuji's were not very much smaller. Those prisms are at least twice the size of a more typical porro of the 7x35 size range, reduce the size of the Rangemaster and you have a completely run of the mill JTTI 7x35.
They were produced until 1973. There are several stories about special forces military use in Vietnam. It was not a widely purchased military unit and those used were lilely purchased individually by soldiers who used them. Hard to fathom an open porro lasting long in jungle use.
I posted a review of both models here a few years ago. It went on for a long time with lots of views and comments. It's here, but I'm not doing the searching.
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