William Optics 10x50 (1 Viewer)

I spent a day in Weymouth this week watching the Olympic Sailing events (Go Team GB!). I took with me my Nikon XLii Spotter and was going to take my Opticron Vistas or my Lidl 10x50 cheapo binos principally for my wife to use. I was worried about rain showers though...not a problem with the Spotter but the binos were not showerproof and although they are cheap I was not keen to risk them.
A friend of mine lent me lent me his Williams Optics 10x50ED binoculars. which are waterproof, and when you have handled a pair they seem to be bombproof and eveything else proof, they weigh about 1 kilogram. Apart from carrying them to the venue the weight was not an issue since we were sat on a grassy hill, and I could mount them on a tripod with an adaptor.
The binos are individual focus and a large traditional porro design. They have a marine style rubber armour all over, which I rather liked as it was a mid to light brown in colour and looks very different from the usual black or occasional green that proliferate. Most importantly they contain ED glass. To say I was blown away by the wide bright pin sharp view would be the understatement of the year. Eye relief was not fantastic, but each eyepiece adjusted to plus or minus 5 dioptres on the scale but in practice this must have been greater since I have a minus 6 correction to accomodate in both eyes and these were fine for me to focus to infinity without glasses.
Individual Focus binos would not be ideal for birding generally I guess but with a very large depth of field I would think that in the right environment such as estuaries (similar to Weymouth & Portland) these would be good for wide field views of wading birds etc. Anyway I loved them, and so did my wife, we had realy good wide clear views of the sailing events, and excellent ability to zoom in with the spotting scope. My only problem now is giving them back, they are the only binos that I have looked through over the years that I would part with a good deal of money for. A little reseaching on the net reveals them to retail for between £200 and £250 new, which seems like cracking value if they fulfil your requirements.
Guess what? it did not rain after all!

More on the William Optics 10x50s I wanna keep them!

My friend generously allowed me to hold on to these William Optics 10x50ED binoculars for a few more days so that I could try them out in a variety of situations.
As I mentioned previously they are very heavy and very large. The weight is actually over 1.5kg (3.4lbs). They come with a well padded strap, but the lanyard itself is quite narrow to support such a large binocular. The semi rigid case is very well designed with two compartments, and a metal tripod mount is included which is very well made. The case has a separate wider padded strap, so my preference would be to carry them in the case all the time.
Objective lenses are protected by tethered “bung” type covers, which do not stay in place well. The eyepieces have a single cover/rainguard which tethers to the strap. The rubber armour is very thick and smooth and is a mid brown colour. Quality of construction is very impressive for a Taiwanese made binocular. The centre hinge is smooth with a good resistance and eyepiece focussing is very smooth but firm. The eyepieces are very big and measure 48mm in diameter, this makes for huge eyepiece glass giving an astonishing “walk in” view that took my breath away the first time I looked through them.
I found that sharing the viewing with my wife did require significant adjustment between us each time, but she said she found the IF mechanism more intuitive than centre focus. I certainly did not find it slow to adjust, though following an object moving towards or away from you would surely be more problematic than using CF binos.
The weight does allow them to be hand held very steadily, which is important given the greater than average magnification for birding purposes. I found that although the quoted eye relief was 19mm, it was difficult for me to get a comfortable glasses on view even with the rubber cups folded right back. Fortunately the adjustment is greater than the stated +/- 5 dioptres and consequently these are the only binoculars in any price range that I have been able to focus to infinity with without my glasses on.
Despite the ED glass the view is not perfect, as there is a bit of distortion at the very edge of the image, but it is barely noticeable given the sheer size of the image. Having owned a number of cheap optics over the years I am very familiar with what Chromatic Aberration looks like, so I looked for it…and looked …and looked, but could not find it in any situation over the past few days use.
I took the binoculars to a spot down on the banks of the River Severn yesterday, and between the rain showers enjoyed lovely wide views of a mix of Gulls, Sanderlings, and Oystercatchers. The deep field of view allowed me to focus on individual birds in the flock without changing the focus setting at all. The light was occasionally very poor but the light gathering capability of the 50mm objectives kept the view very bright and allowed me to spot the difference between Little Gulls and Black-Headed Gulls, the former being an uncommon sight in these parts.
I would say that for coastal viewing where I find I need more reach than my Opticron Vista 8x40 the Williams Optics 10x50 are a good proposition. I had pretty much given up on binoculars, preferring to stick with my newly acquired Nikon XLii Spotting Scope, and the extra magnification. I had forgotten the wide views to be had with binoculars.
There is a William Optics 7x50ED model which was also made, and although I think that both models are now out of production it may still be possible to obtain, the rrp being around £200-£250 which has to be great value for this much ED glass. Unfortunately my friend is unwilling to part with these so I shall have to give them back.
I would be interested to hear if anyone else has experience either with these binoculars or more generally with IF designs for birding.