I must be CRAZY!
--- that's what I was thinking as I was driving off from York Optical in Melbourne with my new Fujinon 8x42 BFL. I have never seen these binos before (neither in person nor on any websites) and I usually never buy anything until I shopped around to get an idea of what's a fair price. But these seemed to have an edge on every other pair I looked at. For those who do not like to read long posts: I paid $300 for them and very happy with them after a quick (10min) look at the night sky 1-1.5h after sunset.
I must have gone to just about every camera store in the CBD. Most of them did not have anything close to what I was after, but I got to try out these binos (in the city, so looking at buildings/streetsigns, not ideal):
- Minolta Activa 12x50: not impressed. Blurry edge of FOV and seemed miscollimated (one edge can be sharp the opposite edge blurry). Sharpness and/or contrast did not impress.
- Olympus 10x42 EXPS I: these seemed quite good. Nice sharp images, and bright.
- Nikon Action EX 8x40: did not get a good look and I did not bother to try very hard because I was not going to buy Nikon, but they left me with no "wow these are so much better than ..." impression.
- Saxon 9x63: I just tried these because they were on special for $109. Heavy, awkward to hold, and pretty ordinary sharpness & contrast
- and some other Saxon's and lesser known / cheaper brands; all worse than the AOE 7x50s they were to replace
At this point I was thinking I'd be ordering ordering the Olympus 8x42 EXPS I from centre.net.au for $206 or maybe the 8x40 Marine binos from Andrews for $149 (I want to get a 30mm right-angle finder from Andrews anyway). But I thought that I might as well drop in at York Optical on Swanston St before heading home, even though their prices seem overly inflated from what I remember of their website...
Well, they actually had a better selection of binos than any of the camera shops; and some really big scopes to distract me for a little while (6" refractor, 12" Dob WOW they're big). The salesguy Andrew did not really give me much advice about the binos; just put them in front of me and let me look. I did not mind the no pressure approach. There was Konus 8x40 for $290, Fujinon 8x42 for $340, and some other new brand 7x50 for $250. After staring at Federation square and a crane in the distance for 5-10 minutes through the different binos, the Fujinon was a clear winner to me and better than any other binos I tried. But the price was a bit over my already reluctant budget of $300. In the end Andrew offered it to me for $300 and I gave in.
I had a chance to try them out handheld shortly after twilight and I am very happy so far. Jupiter is a sharp disk. Even Venus is clear with no flaring. There are some diffraction spikes (at least that's what they look like) with these planets, but it's nothing distracting. Stars are sharp pinpoints. The view is better than any other binos I've used (and the best ones I've used at night were the AOE 7x50s). It really draws you in, and it's very clear. I had a look around the teapot: Lagoon and its companion bright & clear; M22 stood out clearly, was unmistakable as a glob; M17 clearly visible; open clusters beautiful and colours (reds and blues) clearly seen in some brighter stars. Now, this is still with a bit of twilight around just under 1.5 hours after sunset in a light polluted suburb less than 20km from the CBD.
Visually, the coatings look very good (strong green at right angle to the glass, cyan at off angles, and violet at grazing angles). Mechanically everything feels perfect. The focus is very smooth. The diopter adjustment turns in soft clicks. The size of the binos is perfect for handheld use. It's light (specs say 560g) and it fits like a glove; very comfortable. A lot more comfy than 7x50s.
All in all I suspect I got a very nice pair of binos worth the little bit of a hefty price tag.
Now listen everyone! Be honest and don't feel like you need to congratulate me on this purchase. Feel free to tell me if you think I paid too much or about the unsuitability of these binos for astronomy. (Here's one thing I picked out already: some shiny metal bits seen through the objective lens. Also, I looked them up on Fujinon's website after I got home, and they are sold as birding binos...)
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