Cameras and Lenses
Bring Back Premium Porros! Please respond only once
Please respond below only if you would really like to see some new premium quality porro prism style binoculars on the market. Please reply only once and keep your remarks brief. I'm curious how many people might sign onto this thread. Who knows, maybe the binocular makers will consider it someday.
It seems all the binocular makers have decided that roof prisms are sexier, that only a roof prism can compete in a market flooded with roof prisms. But the pendulum has swung too far, to the point where almost no premium porro options exist, and many people do not know how good the view through a really good porro prism can be. I have heard it is more difficult to make porro prism binoculars waterproof, but it cannot be that hard. Acknowledging the disadvantages of the porro style, I have to believe there is a market for a water-resistant, optically superb and well-designed porro, with twist-up eyecups, priced well below the "alpha" roof prisms but with an image that really challenges them. "I have a DREAM! ...about a porro prism binocular just waiting to be built... IF YOU BUILD IT, PEOPLE WILL BUY IT."
Thanks everybody!
Yes...YES...Y E S
Bring back premium porros!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bob
Kentucky, USA
The porro design lost out, imo, because the roofs provided real all weather protection and much better shock resistance than even the military porros. The optical benefits of the porro are too easily lost when the optics are jostled.
It is normal for used porros to be seriously miscollimated, judging from years of collecting experience.
Bringing them back up to scratch is usually a hundred dollar proposition.
It seems that roofs tend to be less fragile, so over time they represent a better value for consumers. This perception will need to be overcome if any porro is to reemerge in the marketplace. However, judging by the apparent retreat of even Nikon from the ranks of the premium porro makers, industry itself has no confidence that such a reemergence is possible.