I recently purchased the Artes J 8x42 HR WP Roof Prism Binocular. This purchase was driven by my purchase of the Artes HR 6x21 monocular a few years ago & still have today. For those of you who also have the Artes monocular, it’s bigger brother the 8x42 J Artes binocular provides the same crystal clear/sharp view. Since my purchase of the Vixen monocular, I have been following the price of the 8x42 Artes holding off because I really do not need any more binoculars. The recent price drop of $339 triggered my purchase, now I see it even lower. This binocular has to be held/viewed thru to be believed. Made in Japan, the Vixen 8x42 Artes J in my opinion is a real sleeper. Now having said all this I have to mention one last thing ... I held & looked thru a Opticron DBA VHD 8x42 binocular 2 weeks prior to my purchase of the Vixen Artes. Now thinking back I honestly can not say if I had them both side by side today whether I could say which binocular was better. I will say, they do look like twins with almost identical spec’s.
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