I am having trouble finding a pair of roofs that I really like. I know part of it is me, making too big of a deal out of low light brightness, but that is a feature of importance to me. The reason, I have a cabin with a feeder about 125 yrds in front of my porch and I like to watch the game in the late evening hours when the light is very low in addition to normal bird watching. Most of the roof binocs have much less brightness than the Porros I have but I've come to learn, the porros generally produce a brighter image. However, I'm still determined to find a pair of bright roof style binocs in 8x42. I have about $500 to spend and would appreciate some input.
Here are a few observations I have made. Borrowed a pair of Nikon Monarchs from a friend and they seem to be the brightest though do have some distortion on the outer edges of the lenses. Ergonomically, they don't feel as comfortable as Leupold. The Leupold Cascade roofs were what I decided I originally wanted based on name brand and ergonomics but they proved less bright compared to the Nikon so I called Leupold and they suggested the Pinnacles. At about $150 more than the Cascades ($450), they fit my budget, had a good name brand, ergonomics and I believed would be brightest of all with the Silver L coating. Surprisingly, the brightness is slightly less than the Cascades. Perhaps there are other reasons that make the Pinnacles superior to the others but the lack of brightness concerns me, especially given the cost.
Anyway, I know I am making a project out of this but optics are expensive and I'd like to get the best I can get w/in a budget of $500ish. I don't really want the Nikon Monarchs but may end up there is I can't find something more suitable. Your help is appreciated. Also, if I am over emphasizing brightness at the expense of other optical qualities, pls advise. Maybe that's what's happening w/ the Pinnacles, they are designed for higher optical quality and trueness of color at the expense of brightness, not sure.
The brightest roof in your price range I have seen is the Theron Wapiti APO ED. If that won't work for you, you'll have to try something like a Vortex Vulture 8x56.
You might well be expecting too much brightness from a 42mm glass. After some point you have to get more light to get brighter and that means bigger objective lenses
Brightness also is helped by the size of the objectives to take in the light. An 8x56 would be brighter than a 8x42. The 8x42 is brighter than an 8x32.
You could try a Burris Signature Select 8x56. They had them on sale at SWFA for a while. I found this ebay deal on auction. now going for about $100. I think that would be the best tool for what you want. Do you think it would be too heavy?
It is true that roof binoculars are not as bright as the same specification of Porros. Porros have 'Total internal Reflection' inside the Porro prism. Roofs prisms do not. Porros often are made so that the exit pupil has a greater illumination along the outside edge of the exit pupil. Many roof prism binoculars seem to have exit pupil where the light contributing to the edge is a lower percentage illumination. Henry Link says that you do not notice the drop off away from your sweet spot of eye resolution. I got to believe that the brightness can be appreciated. The problem is that manufacturers can give you binoculars with bigger prisms, (make them heavier) and put a field stop to cut off the more meager light. That is a lot of material for only a bit of edge performance... What are we to do?
Rob.