Telescope Reviews: Zhumell 20x80s on Sale

Erik,

Please forgive the apparent contradictive nature of my coments. While I feel that my concern/dismay over consistent optical quality - particularly with the Chinese instruments - is valid, I didn't really mean it as a blanket condemnation/utter and final rejection of them. True, I was very disappointed with the performance of my pair of Zhumell 25x100s, but in this case it was probably as much an emotional thing as an objective one (no pun intended). By this I mean: this was my first-ever experience in the realm of giant binos, so, being perhaps naive and idealistic, I may have been a bit more "vulnerable" to problems with them, and I may have been expecting too much in the way of perfection. Were the 25x100s THAT bad? Not necessarily. But to me their performance was ultimately unacceptable. By comparison my Vixen 12x80s are real gems, capable of image quality that I deeply wish the Zhumells had been.

So my conclusions about the Chinese binos are, at least to myself, still valid. However, this is not to imply that all Chinese binos are of this quality. My main concern is the extreme aggravation/frustration with finding a good pair, i.e., in the sense that most of us have to mail-order these items and can't personally examine them before purchase. Let's say that one has to try out three pairs of a particular model before he/she gets a "keeper". The amount of time involved in contacting the dealer, arranging for shipment back of the defective pair, waiting for the next pair to arrive only to find out that it too is defective and needs to be returned for yet another, etc., ect., can require the patience of a saint. To me this is just as big of a factor in dealing with these instruments as is that of the inconsistent optical quality. If the quality was consistent (of course I mean GOOD quality), the entire shipping-back-&-forth nightmare would in most cases be eliminated entirely.

Another thing I considered when posting the 20x80 sale announcement - and please correct me if I'm wrong - is that IMO there may be a better chance of receiving a good pair of 20x80s than there is of a pair of 25x100s since it may be that with the smaller pair it is easier to achieve acceptable optical quality/performance than with the larger pair. My impression is that with the larger pair lens figuring/grinding, etc., may be a bit more critical, and any optical imperfections may be more obvious. Also, because of their size (length if not weight) they may be more prone to problems like barrel alignment. Again, I may be wrong about all this, but it seems possible.

Incidentally, I will also say that one big reason I chose the Vixen 12x80s a replacement for the 25x100s was size. I actually found the Zhumells to be large enough to be a bit of a hindrance. Not excessively so, but just enough to where they were a bit of a hassle to use (again, this may well be a result of my first encounter with an instrument of this size, being used to a pair of Celestron 10x50s). Even so, if the optical quality/performance had been there I certainly could have accepted this minor size/inconvenience condition. As it turned out it just added its influnece to my disappointment with them and helped finalize my decision to return them. Yet my intial urge was to return them for another pair of same. This is when I first began to weigh the pros and cons of such a decision and reluctantly decided against it. In other words, I dearly wanted a good pair of these big guys but didn't want to suffer through the agony of not knowing if I'd get lucky the second time around, or worse, receiving another defective pair. I would have "died" (a good example of what I'm trying to describe here is Glassthrower's relatively recent experience with his newly-acquired pair of - oh, gosh, what were they? 22x85's? He was so very upset and crestfallen with their performance when actually they weren't quite so bad afterall; IIRC some it had to do with his eyeglasses. His was a VERY emotional reaction to his state of affairs - perhaps not exactly calm and objective but one that I feel is legitimate and that I can totally relate to and sympathize with).

So, as far as the Zhumell 20x80s are concerned, even if "long-distance" purchase of these Chnese binos can, IMO, be a risky affair, I felt that many may find the idea of a $99 pair of 20x80s worth the risk. That's a heck of a price for an instrument of that size - assuming it can be had by folks who aren't already Binoculars.com customers.

Mike Rapchak Jr.