My son bought a pair of these from Amazon based on the Kowa name and the fact they tick all the right boxes, eg phase corrected, waterproof etc.
I was keen to try them myself and he wanted me to check them out too as he felt something wasn't quite right.
Initial impressions were quite positive but it didn't take long to find out they had two issues.
The first was the possibly perennial problem of lack of focus synchronicity, so the focus was okay in one direction but not the other.
The second was the right side was sharper than the left. This would have been bearable had they focused properly.
Maybe good examples exist but these are going back for a refund.
I had previously advised a good reverse porro prism in this price range - ah well it's probably worth him saving up for the Terra compacts. For the time being he's going to borrow my Nikon 8x23 CF III's (reverse porros), which although old still do the job.
I think it's probably too difficult to consistently produce a good compact roof sub £100 at least that's been my experience so far.
I was keen to try them myself and he wanted me to check them out too as he felt something wasn't quite right.
Initial impressions were quite positive but it didn't take long to find out they had two issues.
The first was the possibly perennial problem of lack of focus synchronicity, so the focus was okay in one direction but not the other.
The second was the right side was sharper than the left. This would have been bearable had they focused properly.
Maybe good examples exist but these are going back for a refund.
I had previously advised a good reverse porro prism in this price range - ah well it's probably worth him saving up for the Terra compacts. For the time being he's going to borrow my Nikon 8x23 CF III's (reverse porros), which although old still do the job.
I think it's probably too difficult to consistently produce a good compact roof sub £100 at least that's been my experience so far.