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Message: <blockquote data-quote="denco@comcast.n" data-source="post: 2405909" data-attributes="member: 25300">"I found the light transmission post from Dennis interesting and my first thought was the same as Brock ...... Does the repellent coating have any material impact on light transmission? The closest binocular to the EDG (lens flatteners) that I could think of is the Swarovski EL Swarovision. According to the Allbinos.Com web site the Swarovski SV 10X42 transmission is 90.8% while the Nikon EDG 10X42 is 88.5%. The Swarovski with the Swaroclean coating beats the Nikon, so that makes me think the impact of the coating on light transmission is not much."It could be that the water repellant coating causes some other optical abberations also. Notice the Nikon EDG is the top rated binocular and it is the only one WITHOUT a waterproof coating in the top three. I am not saying for certain that it is the cause but what other design difference is there between these top alphas that causes the Nikon EDG to come out ahead? My point is would you rather have the BEST optics without a waterproof coating or second best with a waterproof coating? I will take the former because most of the time the very best optics will benefit you more than the waterproof coating will.</blockquote>