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Re: (ATMoB:Discuss) Barska 15 x 70 binoculars

I have a pair of Oberwerks 15x70.  Nice construction and 
all.  Multicoated optics all around.  IIRC, I paid 
around $150.00 for them plus a small shipping charge.  
Not the lightest binos, but not too heavy.

I bought them towards the end of last year and never 
really used them.  Made the mistake of leaving them in 
the car for a couple of months (yes, tsk tsk tsk, I 
know, I know), telling myself that one of those days I 
was actually take them out and use them after work (I 
work in Concord and thought it would be nice to have it 
around for when I left work and decided to take the 
drive to Westford) and never really tried them.

Well, last month I finally tried to take them out to 
observe Comet 2002 C1 (Ikeya-Zhang) and realized that 
the binos suffered from severw coma.  The left side more 
so than the right.  I sent an email to bigbinoculars dot com 
before I left work one day (early evening) and by the 
time I got home about 1 hour later I had already 
received a reply.  They suggested that I'd try to 
colimate the binos and gave me an url to an article in 
the site that explained how to colimate it.  If nothing 
else, they're pretty good at getting back to inquiries.

Given that I never really tested the binos when I 
received and that it did stay in the car for a couple of 
months during the winter, I'm willing to accept that it 
is my own fault.  I actually like the binos enough that 
I'd be willing to pay bigbinoculars dot com to fix it for me.

Despite the fact that it suffers from comma (really 
noticeable when looking at stars), it provides some very 
good seeing of the moon.  I can only imagine the great 
images, and increased contrast that can be seen with one 
that does not have as much coma as mine does.

Having said all that, I think it is at least worth the 
price to give one a try.  Worse it can happen is that 
you'll return it and get a full refund.

Mario Mendes
> Jon--
>  You might want to check out <www.bigbinoculars dot com>. They carry Oberwerks
> binos in the same general price range.  I've seen reasonable reviews of
> them.  Don't know how they compare to the binos you've found, but it does
> give you some additional choices.
>     Michael
> 
> Heartland, that world-renowned optical house, is selling Barska 15 x 70
> binoculars for $70 including a tripod adapter.(231 field of view at 1000
> ft.) I believe that Barska is a Russian brand.  Is it the equivalent of
> Tasco or is the quality sufficient to make this a good buy?
> Any input pro or con welcome.
> Clear skies!   Jon Greenberg
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Michael Carnes
> 252 Washington Street
> Arlington, MA 02474
> <http://users.rcn dot com/moogiebird>
> moogiebird (a) rcn dot com
> mcarnes (a) Lexicon dot com
> 
>