Re: [OM] OT Binoculars

[Mike Lazzari]

While I agree with what Chuck and Moose have said the most important 
specification for me is the eye relief. This is especially true if  one 
hopes to make practical use of the binoculars without removing eyewear. 
The eye relief is the distance from your pupil to the lens. The longer 
this distance the better. 16mm is the absolute minimum that I find 
acceptable. This rules out most cheap compact binos. What a long eye 
relief does is to make possible fast image acquisition. This is very 
important for birding. After a morning of trial I narrowed my choice to 
the BN's and the Pentax below. There was no discernible difference in 
optical quality (to my eye) except for a bit more fringing at the edge 
of the FOV of the Pentax. Given the price difference $450 (grey mrkt) vs 
1200 the choice was a no brainer. Pentax now has an ED version of this 
model which must be very good.

<http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/278461-USA/Pentax_62616_10x43_DCF_SP_Binocular.html#specifications>

Buy once. Do your eyes a favor.
Mike
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