Telescope Reviews: Fujinon 10x50 FMT-SX mini review

Hello all, after a pretty good night last night under the stars from a reasonably dark site (for this part of the world at this time of year!) i've put together a few thoughts and first impressions of these binos when used for astronomy. I hope you find this completely subjective non-scientific review to be of some value!

I have owned and used the old style (yellow trim) 16x70 fmt-sx for a while now and always wanted to try the 10x50 to use as a milkyway sweeping/large open cluster instrument. Many reviews on this site (notably those from Ron Harper) convinced me i wouldn't be disappointed with them.
These sell for 612 UKP over here (around 1150 USD) so i decided to go with company7 and got a pair for 720 USD delivered + import duty and vat. Even with these extras, i saved around 175 pounds.
First impressions are that this is a very mechanically sound bino. Chunky but still nice in the hand (i have large hands) and quite weighty at around 3 lbs.The cosmetics are quite different from the old style FMT and i must admit to a real fondness for the old yellow trim FMT's.The 10x50 FMT-SX come with a very sturdy nylon hard case, good strap,snug fitting objective covers and eyepiece guard. Superficially at least, the coatings on the newer version seem to reflect less light than the older version. Taking both outside i found that reflections of my face in full sunlight to show slightly more detail in the older coatings than the newer. I also noticed that the older coatings have a bluish cast to them, whereas the new shows green with very subtle purple (I warned you this would be non-scientific!).

I have a relatively narrow IPD of 61mm, so with the 16x70 i unscrew the rubber eyecups just to give me a little extra nose-space.I found at the same IPD with the 10x50 this was unnecessary and could see the entire FOV with the eyecups folded down. I was very pleased with this and after using them for a while found the 10x50 to fit my face better than the 16x70. The eyepiece glass surface on the 10x50 is slightly wider than the 16x70 too.

Under the stars, the 10x50 is everything i had hoped for,a wide TFOV of 6 deg 30' (actually measured as 6 deg 45' by edz) and an AFOV of 70 deg is superb for sweeping the summer milkyway. What really impresses though is the sharpness and edge correction of these binoculars. On bright stars on axis there is very little flare, no false colour and this is the case 90% + out toward the edge. Fainter stars seem to be pin points at both the centre and the extreme edge.This aspect is where the 10x50 betters the 16x70. Stars focus down tighter and the field shows sharper stars further out from the centre.
Contrast is also excellent, I managed to glimpse M51 last night with the half moon well up and in bright skies due to the long day length at this latitude. Star colours are also very noticeable, perhaps even more so then the 16x70. I thought Mu cephei showed marginally deeper red in the 10x50 - this though is very personal to each observer i believe.

Probably the surprise of the evening however was spotting NGC 7000 (north America nebula)just barely discernible, but there. Given the conditions last night i consider that to be astonishing.

As the moon rose higher to spoil the party, i decided to test for false colour by placing the moon at various points in the FOV. On axis i saw none, and the only colour i saw at any point was when i placed the moon at the extreme top or bottom or side of the FOV where i noticed a very slight greenish yellow edge to the moon. Overall I would say these binos show negligible false colour. The contrast on the moon itself was excellent with some larger features being visible even at 10x braced.

I can wholeheartedly recommend the Fujinon 10x50 FMT-SX and I hope this review has been of some interest to you. I would also like to thank the members of this forum who have posted regarding these binos and helped me make the decision.

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Clear skies

Rich