Telescope Reviews: Pentax 10x50PCF WPII - personal review and opinion

I received the Pentax 10x50 PCF WPII yesterday. The first impression was very good. Beautiful finish and they are in a very attractive and reliable performance, apart from Oberwerks lowcost design. Very comfortable to hold. They are small in comparison to Oberwerk 11x70.

One of the first thing I noticed is the small ocular lenses, who are fairly deep recessed, exactly as I have seen at a photo of the 8x40 model in the same serie. Not a good sign. When I try them I can see that it’s what I have been suspected: the usable eye relief is on the short side for eyeglasses. I can barely see the entire FOV if I look at the center of the field, but it feels limited. It doesn’t work well to look against the edges.
The eyecups are adjustable in 3 steps. When I look without eyeglasses I prefer the middle step rather than the outer. But the best is having them at the bottom! Because the ocular lens is recessed it works well, and gives the most comfortable seeing.

I measure the ocular lenses to 17mm in diameter, exactly the same as my Minolta 8x25 D WP XL, which works very well with eyeglasses. Taking in consider that the Pentax 10x50 has 50º AFOV (Minolta 8x25 has 44º), and that the lens is recessed about 3-4 mm deeper than the Minolta 8x25, it’s not hard to understand that the performance with eyeglasses has to be much worse. That is to compare to the Oberwerk 11x70 with 22mm ocular lens and 49º, and the lens is not much recessed.
I don’t remember the ocular lens size of my former Pentax 16x60 PCF WP, but I think it’s similar to the 10x50. In the 16x60 the lens is not recessed as in the 10x50, and the AFOV is 45º, so they worked very well with eyeglasses. Here we have one example of same stated ER (20mm), but totally different in practice.

I have read about the good performance of this binocular when it comes to a sharp image to the edges. Actually this example isn’t sharp to the edges, but to what I estimate about 80-90%, as usual with binoculars this vary depending on the position of the field. After that the sharpness at some positions slightly worsen, at other positions worsen quite much.
The sharpness is fairly good at the most of the field, but Oberwerk 11x70 is superior to Pentax 10x50 PCF WPII in as well sharpness on-axis and sharpness out to the edges.
I could also notice a slight difference between the left and the right ocular, the right was a bit sharper.

According to all the good reviews and testamonies of this binocular I am surprised to experience this. The example I got lack the real brilliance and sharpness I expected, and it’s not at all sharp until the edges. Usable ER is too short. Apart from that it has good coating, and ghost images are noticable against strong light sources but at an acceptable level.
It doesn’t have the problem with ray of lights from light sources short outside the FOV as Oberwerk 11x70.

I read someone claiming that the 20x60 PCF WP is superior to the 20x60 PCF WPII, and suspect it’s the same with the 10x50 version. From my impression and memory of the 16x60 PCF WP (I sold them 2 years ago), I think they were more brilliant than the 10x50 PCF WPII I have tried.

I’m sorry to say that, but I send the 10x50 PCF WPII back at monday.

I welcome commentaries.

The photo below: Fully coated bk-7 10x50 from 1979, (12-years old birthday gift and my first real binocular), Pentax 10x50 PCF WPII and Oberwerk 11x70.

--------------------
*2,3x40 Constellation View Wide-Bino
*Leupold 6x30 Yosemite
*Leupold Katmai 6x32
*Swarovski SLCNew 7x42B
*Bresser (Lidl) 10x50
*Oberwerk 11x70
*No name (Kunming) 15x70
*Scopos ED APO 66
*Meade 5000 26mm Plössl, Vixen LV 10/5mm

Psalm 19:2