Alpen has announced the introduction of 2 new sub compacts, 8x20 & 10x25 with ED prime glass, BAK-4 prisms, PXA phase coating and silver coated prisms. They are supposed to be in the stores at the end of March. With a list price of $242 for the 8x20, the sales people said they expected them to sell in $180-$200 range. It will be very interesting to see how these new ED glass binos stack up against the alphas.
You can view the binos and specs at:
http://www.alpenoutdoor.com/html/binoculars.html
Size: 8x20 -- 10x25
Fov: 357 ft -- 285 ft
ER: 16 mm -- 16mm
Weight: 8 oz -- 8.5 oz
Close Focus: 6.5 ft -- 7 ft
Crazy and Kevin:
Alpen optics, I count 59 models in what they offer. I am not sure what they compare
with, but I suppose they are a clone of the others from the Chinese source. There have
not been many comments on these as to reviews and recommendations.
As far as the subcompacts, that is a good one to see how they perform. The small ones
are difficult to engineer. As far as comparing to the Aphas, I am thinking it is like usual, you
get what you pay for, sofar a good reverse porro will beat many of these entrylevel roofs. But, I am hoping someone will sample these pockets, and compare them.
Jerry