Price of ED glass dropping? (1 Viewer)

I ask simply because I see that ED glass objective binoculars can now be had for as little as $209.99.

http://opticscamp.com/bresser-everest-binoculars/13-bresser-everest-8x42-ed-binocular-1702000.html

Granted, the Bushnell Legends were discounted close to this amount on one or two occasions but the $209.99 seems to be the regular price on this model.

Hi Frank,

the glass prices does not necessarily depend on dispersion properties. That means ED is not equal ED because there are many other properties that determine the quality of the glass. Some examples: number and size of micro-bubbles inside the glass, evenness in density of the glass, eveness of its polished surfaces, transmittance properties and so on. In consequence it's possible to produce very cheap ED-glass with otherwise bad optical properties.

Steve

There are glass manufacturers in China, Schott for one. I expect it to keep dropping with this in mind.

I know that the Bresser Montana line uses Hoya glass, and are assembled in China.

I own a pair of the Everest 8x42s, and they are way beyond what I expected when I purchased them. Very surprising quality for the price. I'd recommend them.

Hinnark,

I guess I should have been a little more general in my original post...or maybe retitled it to say something along the lines of "Price of ED glass binoculars dropping?".

Yes, of course, there are varying grades of extra low dispersion glass. Some vary in quality and some vary in effectiveness. The two issues can certainly be related but then I also think it is possible to create a high quality/low effectiveness piece of glass. If that makes sense.

I haven't tried the bins above but they are going on my radar. I love trying out new optics that offer a great deal of value. My original intent was simply to point out that I don't remember seeing any ED glass objective binoculars advertised that low as a regular price. The "trickle-down" effect is certainly continuing.

What is next? Field flattener binoculars at the $300 price point?

These bins are showing a price of of just over £400 in th UK, so yours are much better value!
Im in the States in April - are they widely available as would be worth looking at whilst there with your price in mind.
I have some Leicas and Nikons but am always on the look out for a cheap pair to leave in the car etc

Frank,

I see now what you mean. There seems to be an inflation of the use of 'HD' or 'ED' in binocular marketing. The first binoculars claimed the use of ED-glass I noticed was the Ultima EDs by Vixen. There seems to be some kind of magic with those abbreviations in capitals for both, the marketing booth and the consumers as well. So I think we can consider such a combination for field flatteners as well, in order to rise the selling numbers. What about FF?

BTW, those Everests do look very similar to Minox HG series.

Steve

Hinnark

I was thinking the same thing (similarity with the Minox HGs) when I first looked at the pics. It was one of those double-takes and then trying to remember what they were similar to.

As for field flatteners...well, we have them in $600-$700 roofs now. Who is to say that two or three years down the road they won't show up in the $300-$400 market? I wonder what the new "thing" will be down the road in a year or two.

Daniel,

The easy answer is "I have no idea". I haven't used any Bresser optics before. I did look at one of their scopes a few months ago, online, but not in person. Haven't heard much about them. Having said that I am sure they are readily available in the US "online" but I don't ever remember seeing a pair at any of the optics retailers I have had a chance to visit. Of course, I never saw any Sightron or Celestron products at local retailers either.

Daniel,

Bresser (named after Josef Bresser, who was kind of a German David Bushnell in the 1950s) is a trademark that belongs to Meade, the well known US-brand of astronomical telescopes. So I assume that they could be available where that astronomical gear is sold. If not in stock, probably as a special order item.

@Frank, I assume indeed that an advanced eyepiece design, that implies a flat field, could get standard in the alpha class. Mainly after that this could drop down to more affordable classes. Still, I think the magic of ED/Apo comes from another market, this is the photo-world. With FF this crossing of the two markets of photo and sport optics is probably not so easy done, perhaps because they have no amazing sounding buzz-abbreviation found yet

Steve

How about FFAPOED ? :hi: . Or the Zeiss equivalent - FFAPOHT ?? :hippy:

Or APOFFED ? :h?: . Or the Zeiss equivalent - APOFFHT ?? :cat:

Or EDAPOFF ?! :brains: . Or the Zeiss equivalent - HTAPOFF ??!! B


Chosun :gh:

Chosun Juan said:

How about FFAPOED ? :hi: . Or the Zeiss equivalent - FFAPOHT ?? :hippy:

Or APOFFED ? :h?: . Or the Zeiss equivalent - APOFFHT ?? :cat:

Or EDAPOFF ?! :brains: . Or the Zeiss equivalent - HTAPOFF ??!! B


Chosun :gh:

Click to expand...

Hm, this does look a bit like the sound words they use to use in comic strips if they want to illustrate a brawl...

Good point Steve..now that you mention it.

I, on the other hand, was getting cross-eyed trying to read them....

...didn't even try to actually do the phonetics.

;-)

Just as an update...

I was able to get a Bresser Everest 8x42 from Optics Camp for review. It should be here by the end of the week. I will give it a workout over the weekend and write a review for the forum at some point next week.

I have to admit to being genuinely curious as to how this optic will perform considering the price. More to follow....

Those Bresser Everests appear to be from the alternate "family" of shorter Chinese Open Bridge ED's that include the Alpen Wings ED and Celestron Granite. If you look at the structure of the binocular (shape, location of bridges, etc) it's almost a dead ringer for the 42mm Wings ED or Granite. The 142m/1000m FOV spec and the 17mm ER also seem to be identical to those of the Granite 8x42.

Definitely looking forward to your thoughts. Appears to be the same concept as how Atlas Optics and Promaster came out with a cheaper version of the Zen ED2 / Hawke Frontier / etc. family.

Eitan,

Interesting comments. I knew there was a physical difference between the Granite, Wings ED and the first group of open bridge ED bins. I thought these looked more like the first group but then I have never laid my hands on any of the 2nd group so you may be right. Will let you know at the end of the week.

hinnark said:

Frank,

I see now what you mean. There seems to be an inflation of the use of 'HD' or 'ED' in binocular marketing. The first binoculars claimed the use of ED-glass I noticed was the Ultima EDs by Vixen. There seems to be some kind of magic with those abbreviations in capitals for both, the marketing booth and the consumers as well. So I think we can consider such a combination for field flatteners as well, in order to rise the selling numbers. What about FF?

BTW, those Everests do look very similar to Minox HG series.

Steve

Click to expand...

I thought the Swift 804ED Audubon preceded the Vixen Ultima. No?

In any event the Swift 804ED was clearly not a marketing ploy, as they were arguably better than Swift's non-ED 804, — if not everything else on the market at that time.

Ed

Just an update...

I received the Bresser Everest 8x42 EDs yesterday. That was some pretty fast shipping as I only exchanged emails with Optics Camp the day before! Granted we both are in Pennsylvania but that was practically overnight shipping.

Just a few brief impressions to whet your whistle....

Though it may sound like a broken record considering my other recent reviews...I am impressed. As Eitan referenced previously, this is an excellent time to be in the market for new optics...at just about any price point!

Smaller than expected...Monarch ATB size,feel and handling.

Better optical performance than expected...sharp...wide field of view.

A couple areas of average performance but nothing quality control related.

More to follow in the next few days.

Got to try out the Bresser Everest 8x42 ED's this afternoon with FrankD as we compared 20+ bins and the Bresser's are very nice indeed. With a plethora of very fine glass at hand, I found myself grabbing the Bresser's quite often. I'll let Frank fill in the details but I was very impressed with the sharpness of this bin at this price point.

As the experts have told us, not all ED glass is created equal. However, with some type of ED glass trickling down all the way to the $200 price point with the Carsons and Bressers, and being employed in a number of mid-teir bins, I want to kick a dead horse again (not illegal if it's already dead) and reiterate that the Nikon Premiers/HGLs, which were well ahead of their time when they first appeared on the scene in 1999, have now become outdated as even much lower priced roofs employ ED glass and dielectric coatings.

I don't care so much about the prism coatings, and in fact, might actually prefer the warmer bias of the sliver coatings, but to me and others, the HGL series shows more than its fair share of CA and could use an ED glass upgrade. I don't share Henry's concern that this would make the HGLs too much like the EDG.

Zeiss wasn't concerned about adding ED glass to the Conquest HD because it would make them too much like the HT, and physically they look much more like the HT than the HGL looks like the EDG. Not only are the ergonomics very different btwn the HGL and EDG, but so are the FsOV and other specs, and most importantly for me, the level of pincushion.

Also, other than the FOV and level of distortion, the SE and EII's optics look a lot alike, and those old dinosaurs are both still around. So I think the worries that a Premier ED and EDG in the same market might annihilate each other in a matter/antimatter reaction are overblown. As with the Conquest HD and Victory HT, what makes them both viable is that birders with different sized wallets can buy one or the other.

Given these new developments at the subprime and entry levels, at the risk of getting a cal! from the Humane Society, I think it's time to kick this horse one more time: Nikon Premiers/HGLs are due for an ED glass update.

Mike, are you reading? While they're at it, please ask the engineers to add some pincushion to the full sized models! If you read the Swaro RB thread, it should be apparent that the industry may have underestimated the number of RB + birders out there.

Three inches of snow on the ground in my neck of the woods right now. Old Man Winter, the skiers and snowboarders will be sad to see you go, but not me and the robins.

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