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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alexis Powell" data-source="post: 1271399" data-attributes="member: 5327">I glanced at this thread earlier in the day but I didn't have time to make sense of it (what an odd mix of topics and partial conversations!).  As for the "mystery bino" -- in the pic it looked "cheap" to me, and based on the silver coatings on the prisms my guess was that, assuming all the fanfare has some justification, that it is the latest Vortex Razor class glass, probably made by one of the big Chinese manufacturers and branded as whatever it is.  Well, curiosity got the better of me so I looked it up (just type some of those super precise specs of weight and eye-relief into Google and it will pop right up), and it appears that's what it is (seems cheesy not to just name it, but I'll play along since anyone who wants to know can look it up as described).  Pretty nice if it is as good or better than the Razor--I'll be interested to know.  Incidentally, I tried the Razor recently and it didn't exceed my expectations.  It's quite good, maybe as good as some of the top-end stuff prior to introduction of the latest lens and especially dialectric coatings, though perhaps with more field curvature.  The focus on the unit I tried was smooth but it was slow like the original EL focus.  Given today's optics prices, the Razor is impressive, but given that I bought my (equal or better quality) B&L 8x42 Elite and Leica 8x32 Ultra/Trinovid BA for just over $700 (and though the value of the dollar has fallen my salary has remained constant) it doesn't seem so remarkable. As for the premise that some roofs like the Razor would fair better in tests against the supposedly top-end glass if the tests were done w/o knowing the brand, I don't agree.  The differences between different models are consistent and their different optical personalities are quite obvious.  If the point is that the best $500 roofs are quite good, I don't think that is news.  --AP</blockquote>

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