But is it rugged?
OK. I’ll be honest. I’m afraid to find out. I’m afraid....
Because I really, really like this glass. It is so elegant, so well crafted, and just so handsome that I’m reluctant to abuse them or take a chance of breaking them because....
Because they are so hard to come by if I knock these things out of alignment I’ll bet it will take forever before Nikon gives me another pair.
Oh the agony.
Oh the indecision.
Oh the great, moral tug of war between self indulgence and meeting the needs of our optics buying constituency. Oh....
All right.
Thunk, Crash and Yee Haw in Real Time
It’s about three and a half feet from the top of my desk (where the EDG sits) to the floor of my office (where I file all my important documents) and....
Oops!
A perfect one and a half onto the floor belly flop. Landed with a solid thunk.
Shake, shake, shake...no, nothing loose.
Alignment?
Looks smack on!
Easy test. Cake walk for a premium binocular. Lets move on.
It’s about a ten foot throw to the plastic recycling barrel in my office (that was just emptied of all the paper I don’t file on the floor). If I miss the bucket and hit the wall, well....
Drat! You’ll never believe it. On my first attempt, the strap caught around the door handle and the binocular smacked the door instead of the bottom of the barrel. Not a fair test! Requires a second heat.
Ah. Much better on the second try. Swish. Make that crash. (Scared the bejeebers out of Deb Shaw in the next office who admonished me to warn her when a binocular test was in progress).
Instrument still fine. Alignment perfect.
OK. Now the big test. Excuse me while I step outside....
(Five minutes later)
Not my best throw (I blame the pre-frontal headwind). Just under 100 feet. Binoculars landed on baked, dry soil on the elevated leach field, with a sparse cover of weeds–which the glass neatly avoided. Judging by the deposition of dirt on the lenses I’d say it landed ocular first then tumbled onto it’s belly.
Results? No problem. Alignment fine. Mechanical function fine.
I’d say it’s a pretty tough glass.
