Miyauchi binoculars

[cameron_c]

After some consideration, Ive decided on Miyauchi binoculars (mainly the interchangable eye oculars - dont know of others that have this). Does anyone know who is, or if there is a distributor in Aus? And if anyone owns a pair, Id be interested to hear your experience.
thanks,
Colin

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Welcome Colin! Those Miyauchi's do sound pretty good, don't they? The only putoff is having to buy custom eyepieces (non-standard barrel) and the lack of medium power EPs. I can't remember what it is but it's something like 25x, 40x and 120x, with nothing between 40 & 120x. Still, they do sound very nice, especially the f8 71mm's.

Astronomy and Electronics Centre in SA advertised some in S&S.

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Hi,
if money is no object go for the M ****'s
Otherwise, what about the large 100mm binos offered by AOE and Andrews with interchangeable oculars/decent mount?
They are a hell of a lot cheaper than the M's.
Is the perceived increase in quality worth the money?
Just a thought...
Doug

[cameron_c]

Thanks for the advice Doug. Had thought that the interchangebale 1.25 eye pieces would be better. Was wondering about the cheaper brands though - is it the Saxon binoculars that you mean? - they seem to be the same models as the Oberwerks available in the US from Bigbinoculars.com. Given that the Oberwerks have had excellent reviews, and if they are only rebranded as Saxon, then why not.
Colin

[johnno]

Hi All,

I am pretty sure,the Saxon Brand are NOT the same quality as the Oberwerks.

I have a pair of Saxon 11x70 Binoculars,and a set of 11x56,(for handholding),from A.O.E,and I can assure you the 11x56s,from A.O.E,are FAR superior in Quality of coatings,and quality of Image,and have BAK-4 prisms,also no,or very little ghosting on a full moon compared to the Saxons,which have more ghosts,than a Cemetary,with their inferior coatings,and BK-7 prisms.(Prisms,have nothing to do with ghosting)

Saxon,are NOT the same as Oberwerks,I cant even Gaurantee the ones from A.O.E are either,but their Specs,are VERY similar to Oberwerks,

I also have a set of LW 20x80s from a.o.e,and they are STUNNING.
INMHO.

They appear REMARKABLY SIMILAR,to Oberwerk Standards,which according to EDZ,on Cloudy Nights,are the BEST 20x80s he has ever looked through.

I dont have ANY commercial interest in A.O.E.
Just buy my Binoculars from them,3 so far.

The Saxon 11x70s,are no longer used.

Regards.
John

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

Originally Posted by dugnsuz

Hi,
if money is no object go for the M ****'s
Otherwise, what about the large 100mm binos offered by AOE and Andrews with interchangeable oculars/decent mount?
They are a hell of a lot cheaper than the M's.

They are similar in price, you just get less aperture per $ with the Miyauchi (71mm vs 100mm). But I expect that to be quality aperture that can handle higher powers. The Chinese models would suffer from too much false colour I reckon. How about a good refractor and a pair of binoviewers? (Played around with an ED80 on the w/e; very nice for binoviewing.)

Originally Posted by johnno

I am pretty sure,the Saxon Brand are NOT the same quality as the Oberwerks.

Agreed. The 7-10x50, 15x70 and 20x80 Saxon binos I've looked through were optically inferior to the 7x50HG from AOE and the 20x80 triplet from Andrews.