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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RJM" data-source="post: 2248761" data-attributes="member: 66340">I had my pair out for the first time yesterday for ~4hrs at our local seaside bird park. Blue skies with sun high in the sky making for harsh reflections off the water. Fortunately, not much haze so conditions were ideal but I did not bring a reference binocular to A-B compare. My initial impressions of the optics are that there is no significant spherical aberration as demostrated by its precise plane of focus. This binocular is either clearly focused or it is not. No mushy "zone of confusion" with this one. This is really quite an accomplishment for an optic this small I think as SA is the downfall of most compact optics. Chromatic aberration is virtually nil and color temp is appears neutral, maybe slightly warm, BUT contrast and saturation can be affected by some glare issues. Best views come with sun over your shoulder naturally. Pincushion distortion is quite mild with field curvature ~average.  IMO, the worst issue is some annoying vignetting. This is manifested by the fuzzy fieldstop and the weak tea-like tint at the edge of field. I measure clear aperture of both barrels to be 26mm. I cannot measure the exit pupil with submillimeter precision but is appears smaller than 3.5mm when compared to my Nikon 10x35 EII (which has been measured). FoV/magnification seems to be in line with the measured 8x Legend Ultra HD. I also detect what may be a prism "leak" as my sample has little bars of light at the 4 o'clock position at the edge of the right eyelens and the 9 o'clock position on the left. Also the edges of the objective lenses seem not to be blackened and combined with the somewhat shiny paint of the barrel/baffles allows for some rather strong reflections at the inside edge. As for the ergonomics, I found them hard to hold and keep steady at first but as the day progressed I adapted and they felt better in hand. The snap-in strap holders protrude too much though, poking the fleshy part between my thumb and index finger interfering with my natural grip, and their light weight still makes holding them ROCK STEADY an effort in concentration. But I wanted a lighter weight binocular so a less than steady view may be price I pay. Build quality seems solid and the diopter ring, while not locking, has enough friction that it does seem to stay fixed. Strangely, I have to set it slightly POSITIVE whereas all my other bins are set slightly NEGATIVE. Close focus is ~1.4m and to reach infinity requires 1 1/4 turn of the wheel COUNTERCLOCKWISE. So slightly faster than the Legend 8x42 Ultra HD. FWIW, I already seemed to have lost the tripod adapter cap. Guess I did not tighten it down enough after a quick peek. AR multi-coatings are so-so. I can still clearly make out my facial features reflecting back when staring into the objectives, unlike a Nikon EII or SE which are like staring into the abyss and are my gold standards, and to a slightly lesser degree the Legend Ultra HDs. For those who make a big deal about such things, all AR coatings reflect back green, while the Legend Ultra HD has one blue amongst the green. The phase coating test colors appear to be the same as the Legend's too. As for the included accessories, the hardcase is nice as is the over-sized padded strap but it is overkill for this size optic. Kudo's to Bushnell for at least including a stand-alone set of the propietary snap-in holders so you can use another strap. All that said, this is still probably a VERY good value for US$69 shipped within USA/Canada. As long as you don't look in the direction of the Sun (they warn us about this but we never heed!) the optics are very good, maybe even excellent, across most of the visible field. They will work for my intended use as an inexpensive lightweight, rugged, waterproof backpacking bino BUT I will keep looking for something smaller, lighter, better.:king:</blockquote>

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