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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Patudo" data-source="post: 3985433" data-attributes="member: 139299">Ted's observations struck a chord with me, as I experience something similar, although not exactly the same, when using porros (or at least the great majority of the ones I have, or have tried).  With all, or almost all of my porros, you have to almost learn to look through them in a way that doesn't seem necessary with roofs.  Porros seem to require more observation time to achieve that sense of comfortable familiarity with them, whereas the image presented by most roofs seems more immediately "accessible" (a term I recall another Birdforum member using, which I have most gratefully pirated).  I'm not sure why this is so - it may in part be because my roofs allow me to use them with glasses, whereas the short eye relief of my porros requires me to use them straight to my eyes.  The wider spread of most porro objectives likely also has something to do with it, as when I tried the Canon 10x42 IS-L (a Porro II design, of course) I found it as immediate and accessible to "get into" as a roof.  I don't get a headache when using my porros and find using binoculars straight to my eyes to be a more immersive experience than using them with glasses.  There are some aspects of my favourite porros (field of view in particular) I greatly enjoy.  But virtually all of them require some getting used to.  I well remember that when I first started using the 10x50 Zeiss West that the "getting to know you" stage was more troublesome with this binocular than any other I've tried - something I was reminded of when I started using it again a few days ago.  Both afternoons I tried it, it took about one hour of fidgeting with IPD, focus and diopter settings, how close I should hold them to my eyes and so on - in general repeating the learning to look through them phase - before everything clicked and I could see through them instinctively and naturally.  My experience when starting to use the 12x50B again earlier in the year was very similar, although eye-placement of this binocular was easier than with the venerable 10x50, with the rubber eyecups fitting more naturally. Both binoculars are still good and in their day must have been superb, but both, I find, need some time behind them to really show their qualities.  This isn't to do with the supposed 3D qualities of porros, which I personally don't notice, likely because of the distances I observe over.</blockquote>

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