Hi all,
It's been a while since posting last. I'd just like to mention that I recieved my AP 15x70's today.
They arrived in good condition. They were in the case that's included, surrounded with a single layer of bubble wrap, inside an extra thick cardbord shipping box. Not double boxed, if anyone is interested in such things.
I haven't seen much due to the high clouds in CT tonight. I'm glad to report not experiencing double vision with them when looking at Vega. It's not a good enough night to say much else.
These are similar to the ones I looked through at NEAF. Big, solid, and a bit heavy. Very large eyepieces that focus independently and very smoothly.
The coatings seem fine. I can't see any facial detail in the reflections and can only see the outline of my head when backlit by a fluoresent overhead light. All the surfaces, including the prism faces are coated.
The inside of the barrels are cleanly ridged and flat black from behind the objectives to just in front of the prism assembly. The prism body has no debris visible and the inside of the housing is coated with a thin layer of grease.
The prism housings look sturdy with what seems to be an adjustment screw visible from the front of the unit. There is a shield or baffle protecting the second prism from incoming light. I suspect this baffle is part of the clip that holds the second prism in place. It looks like the same material, I just can't quite see if it's one piece. The adhesive between the prisms that has been reported to be a variety of colors in other binoculars is flat dark grey in these binos.
There's no question that the external aperture is a full 70mm. The exit pupil is round with no cutoff in the right tube and has an ever so slight indentation in the left tubes exit pupil. It corresponds to the prism baffle mentioned above just barely intruding into the light path. I measured the exit pupil several times using a clear millimeter rule and 3x surgical loupes. It looks like 5.0 mm on each side. This could mean it's a 15x75 unit or a 14x70 unit or something in between. Rechecking the objective, it's definately not 75mm, probably not even 71mm, just 70mm. So it looks like I have a 14x70 binocular.
The eye relief looks like 21.0 - 22.5 mm. The eyelens is recessed ~ 16 mm inside the edge of the eye guard. The exit pupil is focused ~ 5.5 mm outside the eye guard. With the eye cup folded down the effective eye relief is 11 - 12 mm. Some people with close fitting glasses may find this OK, others won't. The eyepieces on the 10.5 bino have more generous eye relief. Without glasses, most will find no trouble from an eye relief standpoint.
The eyepieces and the helical focusers are large. The eye lens is ~ 23.5 mm in diameter. The outer diameter at the focussing ring is ~ 48mm. The IPD range is 56mm to 74mm. At 56mm you have to have a real slender nose with only 8 mm between the eye pieces. My IPD is 63mmm and I have no trouble with "nose relief". When adjusting the IPD, The central hinge is smooth acting, with no slop and no tendency to shift during normal use. When using the supplied tripod adapter the minimum IPD increases slightly to 58mm.
I find it easy to adjust the focus by holding one tube with the opposite hand and resting the other tube on that hands wrist. Then switching hands for the other side. It helps that the focusing action is smooth with no noticable slop.
A nice cast aluminum tripod adapter is included along with the obligatory lens cloth. The lockable case is nice with felt covered foam but the basic case is similar to those seen with other scopes and binoculars these days. It also has a good padded neck strap which I haven't tried yet.
The price of the AP Binos includes shipping, or as we say, free shipping on this item.
The lens caps have a ridge that fits nicely into a channel on the inside of the objective cell for a secure but not too tight fit. The eyepiece lens caps are one piece but work much better than the one size fits all that are so common. These are like two round caps connected by a rubber bridge that acts as a hinge so the dust caps will be useable at any IPD. Both sets of caps are a step up from the ones normally available.
When it clears up I'll let you know how the view is.
Peter
Edited by EdZ (08/30/06 09:16 AM)
|
Previous
Index
Next
Flat
Re: Astro-Physics binos 15x70 First Light review
Edit
Reply
Quote
