Pinewood
New York correspondent
Alexis,
I did not really mean to toss a bomb in to the discussion, but my first look through an FL on a spring day was astonishing! The rendition of colors and gradations of color were far better than a Leica BN. Reduction of CA also improved both contrast and resolution which also impressed me.
There are many reasons to pick a binocular. I replaced the Nikon SE but I found it unusable, because its "superior" optics caused unacceptable blackouts. The optics are the heart of a binocular, everything else is the envelope. Even binoculars which attract on advantages of handling, precision of focus and flatness of field, will probably have to incorporate the new glasses.
The most significant improvements to binocular optics, over the last few decades have been multi-coating and phase coating. No one who wanted top performance would buy any binocular without the former and no roof prism binocular without both. Swift, Zeiss, Kowa and Leica have their HD, FL or ED models and I suspect that those glasses will be incorporated by other manufacturers so that non ED, etc. will be as rare an non phase coated premium roof prism binoculars are today. Because anything else will be "lagging behind the Kowa's performance on CA, contrast, resolution and colour neutrality," to quote Renze.
Happy bird watching,
Arthur :brains:
I did not really mean to toss a bomb in to the discussion, but my first look through an FL on a spring day was astonishing! The rendition of colors and gradations of color were far better than a Leica BN. Reduction of CA also improved both contrast and resolution which also impressed me.
There are many reasons to pick a binocular. I replaced the Nikon SE but I found it unusable, because its "superior" optics caused unacceptable blackouts. The optics are the heart of a binocular, everything else is the envelope. Even binoculars which attract on advantages of handling, precision of focus and flatness of field, will probably have to incorporate the new glasses.
The most significant improvements to binocular optics, over the last few decades have been multi-coating and phase coating. No one who wanted top performance would buy any binocular without the former and no roof prism binocular without both. Swift, Zeiss, Kowa and Leica have their HD, FL or ED models and I suspect that those glasses will be incorporated by other manufacturers so that non ED, etc. will be as rare an non phase coated premium roof prism binoculars are today. Because anything else will be "lagging behind the Kowa's performance on CA, contrast, resolution and colour neutrality," to quote Renze.
Happy bird watching,
Arthur :brains: