Couple of details discovered this weekend: In my review, I docked the 10x50's for no tripod socket. Still, both Bruce and I were so impressed by the construction and image quality for such a paltry price, that we each ordered a pair for ourselves. Digging through my parts box, I found a front-hinge screw from an old, cannibalized binocular that had a 1/4-20 socket in it, and it fit the 10x50 unit perfectly! My pair is now tripod-adaptable. The little plastic cover that protects it when not in use has "made in Japan" printed on it, now installed on a Chinese binocular! (this is probably illegal in the state of Georgia...) I did attempt to drill-out and thread the one that came with the binos, but it was made of a very brittle aluminum alloy, and fractured during threading. If a person was willing to look through the assortment of used binoculars at D.I. or a pawn shop, chances are good that you'll find a unit with a tripod-socket that will fit the S.G.10x50's. Used or damaged binos can be had for as little as $5 at pawn shops, which would still keep your total investment for the 10x50's under $30. I like this binocular a lot, even more now that it can be mounted easily. I also noticed that the dust-caps were a very loose fit. I lined them with a strip of self-adhesive flocked paper, and now they fit snugly. I have a good supply of this stuff if anyone else needs a strip. Contact me off-list. I also had the opportunity to collimate a Bear 15x70mm unit belonging to a list member (you know who you are!). This unit had some problems other than collimation, and I had to disassemble the unit completely. I discovered that the front cone that holds the objective is plastic, not aluminum. The only aluminum body part is the prism housing itself. Checking my Oberwerks, I found (of course) the same construction. This is not necessarily bad news. The plastic cones should actually take impacts better than a cast aluminum cone. The threaded portion is still a weak spot, of course, but the threads are coarser than they would be if metal, which helps a bit. This binocular had an objective cone that was loose in it's seat, not completely threaded-in, and that made it very difficult to achieve collimation until I identified the problem. Make sure your objective cones are tightly threaded into the prism housings. This binocular also had the rubber that covers the prism adjusting screw glued-down on one side, indicating that they had been serviced before they came to me. Whoever did this didn't use a fine-enough screwdriver, and buggered up the screw a bit, making it hard to turn. They also got glue into the screw-hole, which didn't help, either. If you don't have the right tools, or are hesitant about collimating your binocular, please seek-out someone with experience. There are several of us locally. The good news is that this binocular is now collimated, cleaned, and performs very well. It should be gulping the photons again soon. Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com