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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RJM" data-source="post: 1696025" data-attributes="member: 66340">Hi Rich, I believe Kowa and Zeiss were the first to bring dielectric reflective coatings to the market. As with "ED", their overall contribution to a better image is probably marginal to the typical consumer. Nevertheless, this "feature" now has traction and probably helps sales. More importantly for OEMs, binoculars having it provide higher margins. But because it is deposited in several more layers than standard silver coatings, there is more chance for optical defects in the finished prism. However, even before the coating process we can assume prism batches are probably optically graded and sorted, just like diamonds. More likely, any prism "seconds" were such even before being coated. Finally, it is important to remember that the inherently low fixed magnification of binoculars does not require highly polished and refined optics. I would be real suprised if even the best exceeded accuracy in excess of 1/5 wave. There are some nice profits in selling through to the highend of the binocular market! cheers,Rick PS: Just got email indicating my 2 pair of Legend HDs are on their way and I should hopefully have them by Thursday. Yay!</blockquote>