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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kabsetz" data-source="post: 3280973" data-attributes="member: 10167">I'll also chime in with agreement. I cannot think of any ways of reducing contrast in binoculars or telescopes from "too much" to "just right" that would not compromise the image in serious ways, and that assuming that there would be a level of contrast that was lower than maximum and also better for the human eye somehow.Also, if there was a wish by the manufacturer to tweak the optical formula in a way that would increase lower frequency MTF by reducing high-frequency MTF, such fine-tuning would be lost in actual manufactured copies since manufacturing tolerances are not high enough.Perceived contrast I believe is influenced to a significant degree by the transmission characteristics and stray light control of binoculars, as stated by many here, and will also vary depending on what exactly you are looking at. This leads to subtle differences between models in the ease of detecting some color hues under some circumstances, but because of the number of variables involved, it is difficult to make blanket statements about this.Another factor significantly influencing contrast, both real and perceived, in binoculars is the cumulative optical flaws or aberrations in a particular binocular sample. This I have seen when having the opportunity to test and view with a number of identical binoculars. The units with the lowest overall aberrations have a markedly better contrast and "snap" to the image than the ones that have high aberrations.Kimmo</blockquote>

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