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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jring" data-source="post: 3366818" data-attributes="member: 133897">Hi,I mostly agree with Frank - the last big steps ahead in binoculars were phase coating and the use of dielectric mirrors in roof prisms in the 80s and 90s.After that we have seen further evolution of anti-reflection coatings but this is all on a very high level fighting for the last 5 or 15% of transmission missing to 100%, so the differences are small to not noticeable.An interesting later invention is the Perger prism which combines many advantages of roof and porro prisms - currently only used in the Leica Geovid rangefinder series due to patent reasons. This could be a game changer if used in less niche bins.The main effect is indeed that phase coating, dielectric mirrors and fairly good AR coatings can be had in rather low price chinese models nowadays. But good quality control costs money even in China so the example variation is still quite high with the cheap brands - in case of the big names with own factories or local partners it usually gets better but you pay for that.Joachim</blockquote>