Telescope Reviews: Yashica 10x40 binoculars

~Mini review YASHICA 10x40 roof prism binoculars.~
OK, the Yashica's arrived a couple of days ago, nice leather case and complete with original lens caps for both objectives and eye pieces. A good clean removed the years of dirt etc. and the binoculars appeared to be in pretty good condition. Internally they were nice and clean, no sign of fungus etc. Next a quick check of the focusing mechanism revealed a problem, the left eyepiece didn't move when the focusing wheel was turned. To be fair this problem was alluded to by the seller. Dismantling the binoculars was relatively simple and the problem was located, the left eyepiece yoke was broken, obviously the binoculars had sustained a direct blow to the left eyepiece. Two hours later the repair has been made good and the binoculars are reassembled and now focusing smoothly!
Handling them feels very good, they are compact, not too light and have a "quality" feel to them. I am unsure of age and googling for any information has so far proved negative. They appear to be of 1970's vintage?
Eye relief measures 12mm, certainly a little tight but OK for non eyeglass wearers. FOV is marked as 6.5 degrees. Optical surfaces appear to be fully coated,? prisms appear to have a 'pinkish' coating. I am uncertain if the prisms are phase coated. They are not water proof.
It's now night and a quick check outside at a streetlight shows a sharp, bright, well collimated image with very little flare. However, as is normal with any optic destined to be tried astronomically the sky is heavily overcast......
Its now daylight and images appear to be very sharp on land based objects, good contrast and colour rendition as well. Very slight pin cushioning at very edge of field. A test object (a cell phone tower some 3 kilometres away) with fine structure proved that these bino's will be keepers. Sharpness appears to be comparable, in fact slightly better than a pair of porro Pentax's.
A week later and a cold front has just moved through, the night sky is ink black and the stars shine with that magical clarity when the air is perfectly clear, not a twinkle to be seen! A few minutes of dark adaptation and the first check on a star reveals a nice, perfectly collimated pin point of light at the centre of the field. Moving to the edge and sharpness falls off as expected. Next is the Pleiades, and the image is very nice. Orion is rising in the east and a look at M42 is very satisfying. The LMC is high in the southern sky and given the small 40mm aperture the view is again satisfying. The Tarantula nebula stands out boldly.
Am I pleased I bought these?, most definitely, they are very comfortable to use and the images are very satisfying. Performance on stellar objects was better than I imagined given their small aperture. Given that I paid $8.00 for them plus a couple of hours of my time to repair, (that was something I enjoy doing anyway), I am more than satisfied. If anyone has had/owned a pair of these their comments would be appreciated.
- Chris, thanks for your comments, re my comment about NZ's clear night skies, should we let the secret out to our fellow astronomers in the northern hemisphere!!?? Also, I note you list some 35 binoculars, I have some way to go to catch you but I have a feeling that this collecting of binoculars could become a 'problem'. Mustn't let my wife know how many I have! she will only want me to sell them. She doesn't seem to understand that I need these

cheers to all.