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Seems very expensive for a pair of binocs, but the price is clearly justified as Canon has crammed in some amazing optical wizardry in a small compact package. I will outline what makes these particular binocs so unique....
1. TFOV - 6.5 Degrees. TFOV = True Field of View - in optics this defines how much of the scene is visible inside the image circles your eyes see. (those big circles of light you see when looking through binocs) The greater the TFOV is, the easier it is to locate subjects you are seeking. (such as finding wildlife) To be specific, the 6.5 degrees means, if you stood in the middle of a circle, and held the binocs still, you could see a 6.5 deg. "slice of pie" of the circle. It doesn't seem like much, because we can see approx. 110 degrees with our two unaided eyes, but the binocs offer 10x magnfication, which is why we see such a small piece of the pie.
Large TFOV requires relatively short fl's lenses which must be well corrected for abberations / distortion, and also must contain large field stops in the EP's, (EyePieces). Both of these optical characteristics are very difficult to design and build...this is true in all optics, not just binoculars. 6.5 deg. TFOV is one of the most generous TFOV's available in ANY binocs of this magnfication, even ones costing several thousand dollars. This is a very impressive feature. This is one of the features that differentiates lower priced binocs from higher priced binocs., as larger TFOV requires bigger (and heavier) glass.
2. AFOV - 65 Degrees. The Apparent Field of View is a clear and sharp 65 degrees. AFOV defines the size of the image circles you see when looking through the binocs. This means, at 65 degrees, your eye must swing 65 degrees left to right (or up n down) to see the entire image circle. This has NOTHING to do with TFOV, which designates the how much of the target you can see inside the image circles.
At 65 degrees, Canon is approaching the limits of AFOV, even in very high end astronomy gear. But Canon maintained the sharpness in the entire AFOV, with virtually no distortion. (a remarkable accomplshment in optics in this price range) The larger the AFOV, the more life-like the view becomes as it fills your retina with image. A single unaided human eye can see 90 degrees. So at 65 degrees, you are filling 2/3rds of your retina (where an image is formed in the back of your eye) compared to unaided vision. This produces a very immersive feeling, adding the WOW factor of the binocs. This is the largest AFOV I have ever seen in a pair of binocs at this magnification. This large AFOV is the first thing that will strike you when using these binocs, because it is the first thing you sense, giving you the desire to say, WOW. Unless you venture into high end astronomy gear (costing several times these binoculars) it's hard to find find good optics with a AFOV this wide.
3. L Glass.... very sharp glass, with no false color and pinpoint sharpness, nearing true Apo chromatic lenses. This is very evident when viewing stars at night, the stars are pin point sharp, better than any binocs I have ever used to date.... and with the the wide TFOV and large AFOV, you feel like its a space walk into the stars when just laying back and viewing the stars. If astro use is the primary use though, the 15x50 should be a strong consideration also. But to be fair, these binocs make good astronomy binocs, but not ideal...there is better options with bigger apertures for star hopping... it's just a nice add-on feature.
4. IS - well, this has been beaten to death, but IS is the single biggest breakthrough in binocs since binocs were invented. And the IS in these 10x42's are superb... the "push once" IS button is a nice feature, as you don't have to hold down the button continously, and it sense when you are done viewing and shuts down, increasing battery life. But other Canon binocs have IS, so it's not what sets the 10x42's apart from the other Canon binocs... But if you hand hold, and specially at 10x or greater magnfication, IS should be your single most desireable feture to have.
5. Aperture - 42mm apt. at 10x magnification provides very bright views, specially at twilight. They are also just large enough to use as astro binoculars...once you begin star gazing through these you will become interested in the night sky. Buy a good binocular astronomy book and you will be amazed. If they tried to go bigger, the weight of the binocs would become unruly, creating arm fatigue, so I feel Canon reached a good balance point at 42mm objectives. A pair of UV filters are a good idea to protect the objectives as the elements are not sitting back (recessed) far enough behind the shades. (one of the few shortcomings I have found) I have a pair of Fuji 10x70's, which the 70mm objectives, which allow almost 3x more light in....yet with the IS and pinpoint sharpness, I quite amazed how these Canons perform considering their small objectives. I am pretty sure Canon did not design these for astro binocs. But night time viewing is very acceptable with the 42mm objectives, as they allow 2x the light vs. normal 30mm objectives, and the added light is very apparent in added sharpness and contrast.
And interesting tid bit regarding aperture diam. The purpose of apt. diam is to displace your small 3mm wide eye iris opening (daytime) and cram the light coming from the large 42mm objective lenses into your small 3mm eye opening. The 42mm objective lens will gather 200x more light than your 3mm eye opening. However, each time you double the magnfication you loose 1/2 the light, so 10x magnfiction equals light loss as follows, 2x magnification = 50%, 4x = 25%, 8x = 12.5% 10x = approx. 10%. So 200x added light * 10% = 20x more light vs. the unaided eye. However, to realize this added light gain, your iris opening must be greter than 4.2mm wide so all the light coming from the eye pieces exit pupil will end up on your retinal. During twilight is when this nice effect is most appreciated, as the subject appears much brighter than the unaided eye. In photgraphic terms, this only adds a tad over 3 stops of light. During bright daylight, your iris opening is often smaller than the eyepieces 4.2mm exit pupil, which means not all the light is getting to the retina, but it will during twilight or night viewing when your iirs will be in the 4.5 - 6.5 mm diam. range.
6. Retractable eye cups. This makes for excellent eye placement. As these binocs are a "one size fits all", they have excellent Eye Releif (ER) of 16mm. Which is the distance your eye (pupil) needs to be from the glass to see the entire image circle with no vignetting AND see the sharpest rays the eyepieces are capable of delivering. At 16mm ER, it will allow most users to wear their Eye Glasses, (but, 16mm is on the low side of required ER for EG wearers) For non EG wearers, it is difficult keeping your pupils at exactly 16mm from the glass.... so Canon allows the eye cups to twist inward / outward to accommodate your eye sockets. When the rubber cups touch your eye area, it provides a perfect reference point to hold your eyes at the exact ER position. For a "one size fits all" product, this is a very well designed system to overcome the difficulty of maintaining properl eye placement position. However, if you are forced to wear corrective EG's due to astigmatisms (the binocs will correct for mismatched refractive errors with a diopter corrector on the right eye piece), AND you wear thick glasses AND have deep set eyes, then the 16mm Eye Releif will fall very short and the view will be vignetted and you will no longer be seeing all the sharp rays from the periphery portion of the image circle. however, this can be compensated by always keeping the subject of interest in the center of the binocs. Considering the fovea portion of the retina has 20x the resolving power of the remaining parts of the retina, EG wearers keep the subject centered, otherwise, they will notice the "less sharp" rays at the periphery. The standard for EG wearers when the eye is allowed to swivel in the optics is about approx. 23mm, but preferably 30mm ER.
7. Diopter adjustment to accomodate different refractive errors of the eyes, allowing many EG wearers to view without their EG's assuming they do NOT have astigmatisms which the user often will be forced to wear their corrective EG's. You use the focus adjustment for one eye, then correct for the other eye with diopter adjustments.
8. Rugged and waterproof. The build quality seems superb.... binocs are very sensitive instruments, and the more expensive the binocs, the better the optics and mechanicals need to be protected against hard hits, otherwise, they can go out-of collimation. Canon did a great job projecting these binocs, as well as making them water proof, another expensive feature in binocs.
9. Excellent collimation. These binocs are very well collimated, which adds to the beauty of the view. Each eye sees the same subjects within the image circle and requires no divergence or convergence at infinity. This is a very labor intensive process to provide such accurate collimation, something not often found in lower priced binocs., and the difference can mean WOW type viewing, vs. "these binocs give me a headache" viewing. My binocs were very well collimated, but since I never saw others, not sure if mine were the lucky ones...so....
If you buy these binocs, or any expensive binocs, first thing to confirm when you open the box, confirm the two sides are well collimated, if not, send them back, as its very difficult to collimate binocs and they will provide you with years of headaches! A simple test to determine collimation, focus on single subject at infinity... preferably something that fills the center of the image circle only (such as a street light lamp many miles away)....then blink your eyes simultaneously, so you see right view / left view / right view, etc..... If the binocs are not well collimated, you will see the subject bouncing all over as the brain holds the previous image long enough to notice the difference in placement between the two views. While perfect collimation is not required as the eyes can converge (move together in cross eyed mode) with no problems, the eyes can NOT diverge (move apart, like a lizard can do) AND the eyes can NOT diverge verticaly, which is what must occur if one side shows the subject higher / lower vs. the other other side. Any of these collimation issues become very apparent when doing the blink test. If any new binocs are out-of collimation on horizontal divergence OR Vertical divergence, the should be returned immediately, as this creates large amounts of visual and mental stress, making the viewing process very annoying, leading to headaches, light headiness, disorientation, etc. Yet if a small bit of convergence exist, meaning the two subjects overlap a bit, this is not so bad, as it adds a slight depth feeling for infinity subjects and rarely if ever provides any visual stress... (assuming its not extreme convergence which would be very noticeable)
10. Matched fl's. Canon seemed to pay a lot of attention to assuring the fl's of each optical train, for each eye, are matched in magnification... .this is another very high-end feature which is often not a concern in lower priced binocs, sometimes creating mis matched magnification in each eye, creating a condition called retinal rivalry, i.e. the brain is battling two different images, which creates mental stress. Often these subtle differences create eye strain as well. If the problem is extreme, you can see this in the blink test....not likely noticeable in binocs of the 10x42's quality.
11. Exit pupil - 4.2mm. The exit pupil is the diameter of the light cone leaving the EP's and entering your eye pupils. The larger (diameter) the exit pupil, the easier it is to keep the exit pupil ray bundle over your eye pupil, which prevents vignetting when you swivel your eye. Vignetting is that annoying constant black-out the comes and goes when you move the binocs the smallest amounts (or swivel your eyes to see the edges of the image circles) ...this is a result of the exit pupil diam. missing your eye opening (iris or eye pupil). Exit pupil diameter is derived by the objective diam in mm / magnfication. These 10x42's represent a nice day time viewing exit pupil at 42/10 = 4.2mm. Our eye pupil diamters during bright sunlight is 2.5 - 3mm wide. So 4.2mm provides enough diameter to prevent constant vignetting yet not too big as to waste the light outside your eye pupil. Small exit pupils, relative to your own pupil size during daylight cause constant stress to hold the binocs in the EXACT position to prevent vignetting (annlying black-out condition in part of the image circle) in one or both eyes. 4.2mm exit pupils provide enough leeway for slight errors in hand holding. For example the 18x50's Canon IS binocs, have only 2.7mm exit pupils, virtually the same size as your daytime constricted eye pupil diam, which makes it very difficult to keep the exit pupils leaving the glass perfectly centered over your eye pupils, (as they are about the exact same size) which causes constant vignetting unless you have the steadiest of hands or tripod mount the binocs. The 10x42 exit pupil diameters are a very nice sweet spot for daytime viewing.
These issues all add up to great binocular vision. Binocular vision is hard to simulate at magnification as a result of many of the issues I pointed out above.... the more variables that go wrong, the worst the experience. Clearly these binocs have very good QA. Now keep in mind, I may just have a good sample... unless I tested many of them, I would not know for sure how good the QA is.
So overall, these binocs are superb. And if a company other than Canon attempted to make such a fine optical instrument, they would probably cost 2x the price Canon is selling them for. Yep, this is Canons "claim to fame" making high end optical products affordable... I am not saying $1k binocs are affordable to everyone...but I am saying, it took a company like Canon to cram all these features in binocs priced this low...so Kudos to Canon...
Now, there is a few areas I would like to see improved...
1. front objectives dangerously exposed....I would have liked to have seen an extra 10mm of recess. (see below for a fix)
2. Eye cups are a bit hard... a softer rubber would be nice
3. Lens caps poorly designed on front objectives and poor fit on the EP's.... surprising for Canon, but all things considered, you will probably over look this.
4. IS button hard to find, hard to push. It would be nice to hear a slight beep when they turn on/off.
5. The inter pupilary adjust is very stiff and cumbersome to grasp.
6. Focus could be a bit finer.... a bit coarse for high end optics - but sufficeint.
7. Weight is heavy, but that is the price you pay for such superb optics and and large AFOV...there is a lot of glas in these binocs. Reducing weight, would either reduce the optical quality or the housings ability to secure the collimation.
The one issue you should first decide when buying binocs is magnification requirements. IMO, I feel 10x is a sweet spot in binocs....but often 8x is enough, and if the binoc are used in daylight, and you are not so keen on the best optics, a pair of the 8x IS binocs could very well suit your needs, and you might appreciate their smaller size and weight. Not everyone can hold heavy binocs. On the other end of the scale, the 15 and 18x binocs are quite a jump in magnification for handheld optics. Be sure you need that extra magnification to justify the added weight and inherent less stable images....its much harder for the IS to hold an 18x image still vs. a 10x image. But if you view things from a great distance, this may be very important. But often, the limiting factor is how far one can see with any optical instrument during daytime, is atmospheric conditions, NOT magnfication...hence again, why 10x is a sweet spot for binocs. Remember, at 10x, viewing a person at 100 yards (football field) will proide the same view as if you saw that person standing on the on the 10 yd line - with the un aided eye. That is a lot of magnification! When adding additional magnification, some of the features of the 10x42's begin to fall-off... such as the TFOV is reduced to 3.7 degrees, (about half), and the image will loose about 1/3 of the brightness level. The point is, first assess your needs, then find the binocs that best fit your needs....
One final subject I would like to mention regarding binocs in general. The beauty of these binocs are their compact size, relatively large objectives, Canons "L" glass and of course IS. If the price of these binocs are too expensive.... one can easily attain a very good pair of binocs for much less money, excluding IS, but yet still have great optics and big (even bigger objectives) If your intended use can tolerate either a tripod or monopod to support the binocs, you can save a lot of money and get a very nice pair of 10x binocs with even better stabilization via tri / mono pod. Nothing holds optics more still than a tripod, and in most cases, even a monopod can match or beat "IS" performance. Sometimes it's wise to avoid the cost and weight of "IS" in lieu of non IS binocs. Also if you use a monopod or tripod, you can also tolerate more weight and therefore gain bigger objective lenses.... a much desireable feature as it allows for larger exit pupils (see above) which makes binoculars much easier to use as you experience much less, or no black-out (vignetting) conditions when the exit pupil from the binoculars becomes mis aligned with your eye pupil. Oberwerk has a lot of good wide objective binocs that offer great views for the dollars. Garrett Optical also has wonderful large apt. binocs. For wide exit pupil binocs, the Fuji 10x70 are my favorite, producing massive 7mm exit pupils, but NO IS, and not L glass, so view is good, but not as crisp as the L glass...and of course, only 50 deg AFOV, so much less immersive feeling. Of course, if the tripod / monopod doesn't fit your using style, than nothing beats the "IS" feature.
11/5/06 - I have added two images above. See Customer images below the pix on this page. I have shown the binocs with added UV filters and lens hoods. Considering how expensive these binocs are, and how exposed those front objectives are, I consider these 52mm threaded UV filters and 52mm threaded lens hood mandatory. With this added protection, I don't have the need to use the poorly designed front lens caps anymore as now the objective lenses are fully protected. Both the UV filters and the lens hoods I used are from B+W, but there is many less expensive brands also. The lens hoods also do a good job of reuducing flare, as the objective lenses are very vulnerable to stray light as they are not recessed enough. This is the one shortcoming I was dissapointed with, but it was easily correctable, albeit and extra $50 - $150 dolllars based on teh quality of the UV filters and lens hoods you select. Considering these binocs are selling for 1/2 what they are really worth, this does not bother me.
Hope this helps with your buying decision....
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"Great view - but at a price."