Hi all,
I will be volunteering with the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory in San Francisco in about a month and want a good new pair of binoculars for the all-day biweekly shifts.
I have narrowed it down to the Minolta 8x42 D WP XL. They are roof-prism binoculars and the D adds phase-shift coatings to the lenses and prisms.
Now that I am trying to find the best place to get them I am finding them also as Konica Minolta 8x42 D WP XL. Adding the word Konica to the front seems to knock quite a bit off the price (about $75 USD). I see that Konica and Minolta merged in '03, but are these the same binoculars as the highly rated version or a knock-off Chinese version? In other words, has the quality of this model dropped of since they were introduced in 2003?
Has anyone but them recently and been disappointed? Anyone have them and love them?
I'd like to spend around $200USD or less, and these seem to list at over $300 and sell for as low as $159USD. Any help would be appreciated greatly.
-Chuck
[QUOTE=cab1024]Hi all,
I will be volunteering with the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory in San Francisco in about a month and want a good new pair of binoculars for the all-day biweekly shifts.
I have narrowed it down to the Minolta 8x42 D WP XL. They are roof-prism binoculars and the D adds phase-shift coatings to the lenses and prisms.
Now that I am trying to find the best place to get them I am finding them also as Konica Minolta 8x42 D WP XL. Adding the word Konica to the front seems to knock quite a bit off the price (about $75 USD). I see that Konica and Minolta merged in '03, but are these the same binoculars as the highly rated version or a knock-off Chinese version? In other words, has the quality of this model dropped of since they were introduced in 2003?
Has anyone but them recently and been disappointed? Anyone have them and love them?
I'd like to spend around $200USD or less, and these seem to list at over $300 and sell for as low as $159USD. Any help would be appreciated greatly.
-Chuck[/QUOTE]
Hi Chuck!
I am actually self interested in the Konica Minolta Activa 8x42D WP Sport binocular, which I guess is going to succeed the 8x42 D WP XL. It's quite cheaper, but has according to technical specs at least the same qualities as fully multi coating and phase coating. I don't know if the D WP XL is Japan made and the D WP Sport is Chinese. Anyway the (better) chinese made binoculars are today of a very high quality.
For the moment it seems that I will soon order the 8x42D WP Sport at a "sales or return basis" (or what you called it). In that case I can compare to my friends 10x42 D WP XL.
I will then give the report of my experience.
Here is one review of the 8x42D WP Sport:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...=glance&s=photo
Patric
I think you are right. I just noticed that all of the less expensive models say Sport and the more expensive ones say XL. But they do have pretty much the same specs -- optics anyway. The older XL seems to be about an ounce lighter (or 25 grams). They both are made of some sort of super durable non-metal polycarbonate material--maybe that composition is part of what has changed.
I have a Chinese-made Ibanez guitar that is practically flawless, so I probably should not be that concerned about the country of origin.
It just makes me wonder, since both the Sport and XL models are listed on Minolta's website, what they consider the difference to be. They don't list suggested prices, so you really have no idea what they consider to be there higher end models. And the last ones listed are the first ones I was interested in, the Activa 8x40 WP.FP, yet they are some of the cheaper ones in their class, which are porro prism.
What to do, what to do. I have $50USD coming to me from Amazon.com so I may just get the Sport model (with a "D" for phase-shift coating) and hope for the best. I doubt any local stores will have both models to look through, then I'd feel a little guilty leaving and buying it on line.
But post back when you compare yours to your friend's!
-Chuck