TheSkySearchers

Finally received these, after some wait as they were out of stock. Impressive instrument out of the box, the beefiest, most solid-feeling instrument I own, but a good margin. They are also heavy. Very heavy when you hand-hold. I scoffed at that complaint, because when you read the numbers on a page you think "that's not that much weight". When you actually have to hold them, if you don't have elbow support, it's a different story. In addition to that, the eye cups have a funny design. They are fixed, short (the eye lenses are recessed), and made of a hard rubber. Lying on my back in the "zero gravity" chair, resting those on my orbital region, I ended up with significant discomfort. This seems to be a design drawback, at least for me. So, with all the above, I have to say that hand-held the experience was not necessarily and improvement over the 8x42 EDs. I did mount them on the (also new) Oberwerk 5000 head. That's a nice and smooth head (although the finish and visual impression could use some improvement; I'll post separately about this, had an extensive exchange with Kevin about it, he's aware of this problem). But the short length of the bino makes for a close-to-tripod position that is less than comfy.
OK, with all these ergonomic complaints (not really an instrument problem, more a match of tool to purpose problem), how about the image? This is actually excellent, and I hope I can solve the usability challenges, because image-wise these are an improvement over the other instruments I have or have used in the past in this range. Stars are generally pin-point, the focus is smooth but nicely tight to move, so it stays put. Some spiking is unavoidable on bright stars, but dimmer ones look "painted on", very nice. Good contrast, and a very bright image. The field is actually better in the periphery than the Sport ED, in spite of the absence of fancy ED glass!
It splits Albireo nicely, in spite of the difficulty keeping them perfectly still in hand. The Coat Hanger looks very nice. M29 was very quick to pick up as a direct vision nebulosity, and extended viewing starts to bring in tiny star points, in a now-you-see-it-now-you-don't fashion. The Dumbbell Nebula showed up as averted vision nebulosity South of 14 Vul. The colors seem good, but not as crisp and striking as in the Sport ED. The Garnet Star is clearly different from the bright neighbors. With Cassiopeia rising from the light-polluted horizon, I started hunting for some clusters there. I couldn't see M52, didn't even try Caroline's Rose, but NGC 129 was caught as an averted vision nebulosity, on the line between Caph and Navi, just North of HR 113.
All this was with some wisps of clouds darting in and out of the area (edges of Isaias), and later the glare of the just-past-full Moon washed everything out to the point that I packed it in.

So, overall: I think it's a very good instrument, that I need to figure out how to use better. I'll report further as I get it out more. Might be a good experience on the Farpoint parallelogram, and I'll likely only need one of the counterweights, to make the assembly relatively light.

Thanks for sharing the new bino experience [mention]rocdoc[/mention] - hope you can work out the kinks with regard to the eye cups and relief and the necessity to mount them. But it sounds like they provide excellent views.

Congrats on the new addition to your binocular collection Rocdoc! 3.5 lb weight would be my concern to. It is heavier then my made in Japan Orion 15x70 and almost twice as heavy as my 10x50.

Great binoculars. Thanks for your report. As always with binos, It will show what it's worth if you put it on a tripod.
Congrats on your new instrument!

Very nice acquisition RD! Hope you get the binocular mounting issue sorted out - its too good quality-wise (and heavy) to be used handheld.