As I primarily used large-aperture binoculars, I had completely lost interest in smaller ones for quite some time. However, I recently became intrigued by the heated debates surrounding SRBC on various sites. Coincidentally, a retailer in Korea started importing two models, the Skyrover Banner Cloud 10X42APO and 12X50APO, so I decided to purchase them.
The first 10X42 model I received had an issue where the image in the right periphery of the left barrel became blurry starting from around the 70% mark. Despite this flaw, the optical performance of the SRBC 10X42 was astonishing, to the point where it was hard to say that the comparison model, the Leica Noctivid, was optically superior. The second 10X42 model I received, after an exchange, greatly surpassed the Noctivid 10X42 in optical performance. The areas where the Noctivid excelled were ghost control, stray light suppression, and the alignment precision of both barrels, which was maintained at around 30 arcseconds.
I was fortunate to receive a 12X50 SRBC model without any peripheral image deviation. I did encounter a 'rainbow-colored light streaking' issue with the SRBC 12X50, but I managed to resolve it by readjusting the interpupillary distance and eye relief.
Given that eyepieces like the UFF30 and HFW12.5, independently produced in China, did not meet my expectations, I was quite skeptical about SRBC. However, after testing these two SRBC binoculars, I can only say that I am extremely impressed. Unfortunately for Leica, I believe they are no longer in the top three in terms of optical performance. In my personal opinion, Swarovision and Victory SF are still not outclassed by SRBC. Therefore, I believe the successor to the Swarovision, the NL Pure, likely surpasses SRBC in optical performance.
However, based on my observations so far, there are still quality control issues between individual products. For this reason, I don't think the top three manufacturers are currently at risk of being overtaken by this binocular. Nevertheless, in the sub-$1500 price range, I think the landscape is about to change significantly.