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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ronh" data-source="post: 1710140" data-attributes="member: 55514">Kevin,That's a good idea, abandoning the AK prisms, I wonder what young whippersnapper will suggest that to the "old man" in the meeting room with the fine old wooden table, and whether his ass will be grass after that.I really think Z is up against it with with these long john thingys. Like you say, back before dielectric coatings, in the days of ClassiC Dialyt vs Leica Trinovid, they gave a great brightness advantage, but no longer. And although a blurry off-center is almost a trademark, I doubt they could do much better even if they tried, with the AK's meager light-folding capability, unless the bodies reverted to ClassiC length. I don't know how much to make of this, but the Schmidt-Pechan Swaro EL and the Abbe-Koening Zeiss are the same length, but who has the fabulously sharp to the edge view, and who has the slower optical system? Leica, although taking full advantage of the SP's compactness, is in between in edge sharpness.The next issue with the AKs is for optics freaks only. How many people are there like me who light up at the word Abbe, or can even name the designer of the prism in their binocular? But Abbe was a giant, the first to actually "calculate" complex optics like a binocular and get it right, rather than try and err. The first to whittle a tiny perfect crystal of natural Calcium Fluorite into the first apochromatic microscope objective, and design compensating eyepieces, this in a time when bacteriology was like Homeland Security is now. The man is a god. May his name live forever. I think of him every time I wish my Zeiss FL was as compact, and had as nice a field correction as my old Leica Trinovid BA!Ron</blockquote>

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