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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kevin Purcell" data-source="post: 1386532" data-attributes="member: 68323">My right index finger (my trackpad finger!) is "annoyed" (RSI like but not painful) from messing with the Zen Ray 8x43 stiff focuser yesterday. I went at it rather too much thinking it might loosen up. It didn't. The 10x seems OK but perhaps stiffer than I'd like but curiously a little less stiff than my Eagle Optics Raptor 10x42 (aka Vixen Foresta) porro. This is something I've not paid attention to before but it's an important part of the ergonomics of a bin.I think I've now become sensitive to this so there are two definitions of "slow focus". The first is the usual one lots of angular rotation to move from close focus to infinity. The second on is how much force is needed which is roughly saying the same as how fast can you turn the focuser. They're two different things but can interact in an interesting ways.For example, a focuser that needs a lot of angular rotation and where the focuser knob can move quickly might seem smooth and fluid. But a focuser with a little angular rotation and a fast knob might seem "too quick" and "imprecise". So there is a distinction with "amount" of turning and "rate" of turning.Perhaps the ideal combinations for birders (I can see people at Swaro, Leica and Zeiss spending hours on getting this right) are either small amount and a slower rate or a larger amount with  faster rate.I've been using a Zeiss Victory 8x40 a lot recently and they seem to get it right and I think that's critical to why I like them (because they aren't as quite sharp as the Chinese EDs). The rate is faster than any of the Chinese EDs. And the amount is a bit smaller (but not so much as to make it twitchy). This makes a good combination for birding in the field as one slews the focus to find the wren in the bushes 3m away then the Western Meadowlark in the tree about 70m away.Add it to the list of tests to try!</blockquote>

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