I went round to a local dealer today to pick up an astronomical eyepiece I had ordered for my Zeiss Diascope.
The salesman was probably bored with selling eyeglasses (the shop is primarily an opticians) and offered to show me some astronomical binoculars, among them the Fujinon 10x70 FMT-SX2.
They were absolutely brilliant with a 7mm exit pupil (and reputedly 95% transmission), a very easy view, excellent edge to edge sharpness and a price of under €800.
What a pity that individual focus and a weight of about 2kg makes them rather unsuitable for birding!
John
indeed, at 2kg they are twice the weight of some scopes!!! - wouldnt recommend them for prolong viewing. they would have to live on a tripod to be of any use.
Salty,
I'm not generally a fan of 10x bins but the weight actually contibutes to a very stable hold - just wouldn't like them hanging round my neck for hours!
There is a 16x70 version, which is also excellent but this would, of course, need a tripod. The 16x mag. is a bit low as an alternative to a scope and then again there's the problem of individual focus.
Regards,
John