If you will allow? A contrary view....
Based on the many raves here in bf, I purchased a pair of 7x36 ED2's at the end of December. They arrived very promptly just after New Years day. It's been cold in St. Louis this winter so it was a couple of weeks before I could take them out and put them through their paces. I thought that they were very good, as an after thought I compared them to my old bins and was very, very surprised that the old bins seemed just as good.
This brought about a close comparison with the new Zens stacked above, then below my old bins. No matter what I looked at: close or far, hard or soft - my old bins matched the resolution of the Zens??? How could this be? The Zens appeared to have a very, very slight edge in brightness (this was in mid afternoon) and perhaps also in contrast. They certainly had a definate edge in depth of field (a big plus here). They also had a wider FOV, but so what - although that might help in catching birds in flight, a wide FOV has never been important to me. Most importantly, in the field, the Zens did not provide any significant advantage. My old bins were certailnly much more comfortable to use with much better handling. I could not see into deep shadow or shade where I could not see with my old bins. There was no advantage in resolution - that I could percieve. To suggest that I was disappointed, is putting it mildly.
I contacted (emailed) Charles at ZR customer support. Charles was very polite and helpfull, he suggested that I return the Zen's and he would check them out. Also that, it might be difficult to see the advantages that the Zens should present in resolution and brightness in the field during mid day. He suggested looking at something like an eyechart in dim light, so I would be able to begin to measure respective resolution differences. Accordingly, I printed out in draft mode one of the emails we had interchanged. The lower case letters were 1/20" (0.05") high. I taped this email to my living room wall, Illuminated it with a 40 watt bulb facing a perpendicular wall about 8 feet away. Thus, I now had a dimly light optical chart that I could back away from through my living room and into the kitchen. I set a 25' tape on the carpet and stepped back to 5 feet from my "chart" and easily read the email while hand holding the Zen's. My old bins would not focus this close, so I had to move back to 7' or 8' for them to be able to read the "chart". I stepped back to 10 feet and both bins could still easily reed the "chart". Back to 15 feet. Now it was a bit more difficult. I had to concentrate and hold the bins steady, but when I did - both could still read a few words at a time. Back to 20 feet. I braced myself against a wall, my old bins - could still read an individual word, one word at a time; while the Zens could not. At best they could only identify a capitalized letter - they could not read a word. At 25 feet back, neither pair could read anything. I emailed Charles the results of this test and he suggested that I return the Zen's for examination, I did - with a request for a replacement, if the original pair were not up to standard.
Charles examined my returned pair and emailed me that they had center resolution of 4.4arcsec. a bit below ZR's standards and that he had hand picked out a replacement pair that had 4.01arcsec. of center resolution. He also suggested that it was a bit tricky comparing the 7x36 ED2's to a pair of 8x42's as a perfectly executed pair of 8x42's was capable of resolution of 3.7arcsec. I pointed out to him that the entire reason that I purchased the Zen-Ray 7x36 ED2 was for their reputed outstanding resolution.
Originally, I had been concerned about the specified 16.8mm of eyerelief which turned out -for me, to be entirely comfortable with my eyeglasses. Additionally, the problem with glare/flare was nonexistent on the pair that I received and focusing was very light -not a bit stiff. Finally, I had been surprised by the 7x36's handling, it was not anywhere near as awkward as I expected from a Euro open bridge design. But, overall I was willing to purchase and overlook all of the above in order to receive the benefits of their outstanding resolution. However, without their reputed excellent resolution I would not be interested in owning a pair of 7x36.
The second pair arrived quickly and went back the following day. I could perceive no added benefit. In fact when I repeated the email "chart" test, I got the exact same results. I spent a total of $50 shipping (including insurance) the ZR 7x36 binoculars back and forth to Portland. I can only conclude that my original bins (8x42 Nikon Monarchs) came from the happy end of the bell curve and that those on bf who would label Monarchs as mediocre have not looked through mine. Perhaps I was expecting too much, but in the field, I did not see what everyone else was so excited about?
As advertised Zen-Ray has excellent customer service, I received a full credit on the purchase price.
