First let me confess I'm a binocular collecter (or accumulator). Recently I decided to treat myself to a pair of mid-range roofs and bought the Nikon Monarch ATB 8x42. Physically they were great binoculars - lightweight, easy to handle. They were phase coated so the image is was sharp and crisp as any good quality Porro glass. Unfortunatly they also suffered terribly from color fringing. As did every other mid-priced, phase coated roof prism binocular in the store when I went back and checked. I found that only the $1000+ (Leica, Swaro, Nikon and Zeiss) glasses were completely free of chromic aberration. Not wanting to spend that kind of money I settled on a pair of Kahles 8x32's which were almost as free of CA as the Swaroviski SLC's.
I have a couple of inexpensive, non-phase coated roof binoculars as well as a number of pairs of Porro's. None of them show the degree of CA observed in the mid-priced phase coated roofs. Does the phase coating exacerbate CA?
Charlie
[QUOTE=clschmalz]First let me confess I'm a binocular collecter (or accumulator). Recently I decided to treat myself to a pair of mid-range roofs and bought the Nikon Monarch ATB 8x42. Physically they were great binoculars - lightweight, easy to handle. They were phase coated so the image is was sharp and crisp as any good quality Porro glass. Unfortunatly they also suffered terribly from color fringing. As did every other mid-priced, phase coated roof prism binocular in the store when I went back and checked. I found that only the $1000+ (Leica, Swaro, Nikon and Zeiss) glasses were completely free of chromic aberration. Not wanting to spend that kind of money I settled on a pair of Kahles 8x32's which were almost as free of CA as the Swaroviski SLC's.
I have a couple of inexpensive, non-phase coated roof binoculars as well as a number of pairs of Porro's. None of them show the degree of CA observed in the mid-priced phase coated roofs. Does the phase coating exacerbate CA?
Charlie[/QUOTE]
I've been barking at the low and mid-priced roofs for a long time (but see my review of the Nikon Sporter 8x36), but there are people who will defend them. No, the phase coating is supposed to eliminate CA induced by the roof prism design. However, there are many quality levels of phase coatings (Kia vs. Mercedes). Anyway, let us know more about that Kahles 8x32. It's on my list for a Christmas gift. How did it compare in clarity, brighness, and shapness with the top binos?