--- Michael Carnes <moogiebird@earthlink.net> wrote:
I just wanted to show some of the differences,
I've had the chance to look at many examples of the new generation of Chinese binoculars, and found that there can be quality variations even between identical copies of the same make & model. Overall, the quality is good but there is always the chance you'll get a lemon. I now have two pair of 15x70mm, the Galileos & a pair of untested Barskas, but I went through the Bear & Oberwerk versions also. The Japanese binos tend to be heavier due to materials used; most Japanese binos I've seen are aluminum whereas the Chinese are mostly plastic. The good news here is that thermoplastic is more resilient to dings and knocks than aluminum, but less stable in the long run. The big advantage, as you pointed out, is price. I would never have spent the money for a large pair of Japanese binos, but thanks to the Apogee imports, I have reasonably nice large binoculars up to and including 100mm. I think price is what motivated most of us when these big, inexpensive binos first started appearing a few years ago; I'm glad they did. C. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/