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Originally Posted by ballaratdragons
You gotted a bit ripped off methinks. Andrews sent me the small astro model. Great at night. Mediocre/good of a day. The Objective lenses are faint blue multi and the Eye end is faint violet. Hey, they were free! They actually work better than Cheryl's super expensive ($500+) Pentax GIANT Binocs.
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Ken,
Actually I think your the one that got ripped off maybe ?
The largest porro prism binoculars that Pentax "currently" makes/sells are the 20x60 PCF WP II and you can buy these for about $300.
http://centre.net.au/Pentax_20x60_PC...rs_0007KY.html
The original PCF WP series of Pentax Binoculars also included a 16x60 model which retailed for between $300 and $380 (I paid $320 about 3 years ago for mine) with the original 20 x 60 PCF WP costing just under $400. If you paid over $500 for either of these binoculars someone saw you coming. If your talking about paying over $500 for any of the Pentax roof prism binos I can understand the price, because roof prism binos are a "LOT" more expensive than porros and at the lower price levels (under $1,500) are not as good as porros for astronomy, however these aren't even close to being considered "giant". Which model and size Pentax Binos are you referring ? Something from years past maybe early PCF's or PCF III's, PCF V which were more expensive in the early days ? Its worth noting that the early PCF binoculars, up to the PCF III's were made in Japan. The later PCF series (V and WP) I believe are assembled in China from Japanese components.
That having been said, NO binoculars Andrews gives away for free (I doubt any that he sells as well) will come close to the performance of the 16x60 or 20x60 Pentax PCF WP. These actually perform way beyond there price level and perform BETTER than the smaller Pentax PCF WP binoculars due to an additional eyepiece lens element. The 20 x 60's also incorporate a field flattener lens. These are both high class binoculars at a lower/mid price level. They are not as good as Zeiss, Leica, Fujinon, Nikon or Swarovski but they offer 80 to 90% of the performance of the top quality binos at 10% of the price and perform infinitely better than any of the cheaper Chinese products which is generally what Andrews sells or gives away. They are so superior to anything with "ruby red coatings coming from E-Bay" its not funny.
CS-John B