Quick - Non Scientific review of Promaster 8x32 (1 Viewer)

Promaster Infinity 8x32

OK had a few more moments with the 8x32 Infinity Elite. Compared them to a 8x32 Pentax DCF WP, 8x42 DCF WP, 8x32 Swaro EL.

Light and handle nice. Less eye relief than the others but I don’t where glasses so it’s a non-issue. Focus wheel, diopter and IP adjustments are firm and stay put.
Comes with nice case and tethered obj lens covers.

Now to the view. Decent FOV, about normal for this type of 8x32. Like I said before, edge distortion is kind of different as it’s more of a halo effect than just blurry. In decent light it’s not a big deal. For me any negative becomes more apparent at near dark. Even the best bino’s start to have issues at dark.

Center field sharpness and brightness is a tick behind the Pentax 8x32 WP.

For the price these are selling I doubt you can beat it.

FrankD, Kevin Purcell or Steve C – PM me if you want to look at them. I’ll mail them to you.

When everybody interested looks at them they will be for sale. Offers considered...... I just bought them to see them.......

DHB said:

Like I said before, edge distortion is kind of different as it’s more of a halo effect than just blurry.

Click to expand...

Is that field curvature at the edge of field? I've noticed in a couple of other bins that seem to have "brightness" around the field really have field curvature.

Easy to check for: center a smallish object in the center of fild and focus it then shift the object to the edge of field. How well can you focus it? How much do you need to change the focus to improve it's focus?

This gives a feel for the how much softness at the edge is due to field curvature which can be "focused out" (though you wouldn't actually do that unless you have young eyes with a lot of accomodation!) and how much is due to various aberrations (e.g coma, CA and so on) that can't be focused away.

BTW, I have one on order that should arrive tomorrow.

Some comments after playing with one out in the field.

The initial look from indoors was good. This is the same sort of view you'd get playing with one in a store.

Sharp. Quite bright. Decent contrast. Lightweight. Very compact, just on the edge of being too small for my hands. They try some interesting stuff with the rubber molding to hide the strap lugs. But as the bins are on the small side (for a 32) they have a rather awkard bump that gets in the way of placing your focusing finger.

Touchy focusing, I found it a bit difficult to get it just right. Focus range is about 1.25 turns (but there is runout at the end so its pretty fast focus). Only slightly offset diopter setting (better than some ... good enough for this class).

Took it out to the local park in bright fall late afternoon: clouds, blue skies, and low angle sun. Quite a good test for a bin!

Confirmed the above comments on the edge of woodland facing north. It's actually rather sharp in the center of field but it does soften out rather more than I like (and other may note I don't consider myself sensitive to this). Hints of the "bright ring" mentioned above. Some field curvature and some aberration that wouldn't focus out at the edge of field.

Out into the open ...

And the killer: terrible stray light issues. Veiling glare over about half of the FOV from bright clouds depending onplacement. Perhaps worse than the Vortex Hurricane.

I compared it at the same time to a couple of other bins I brought with me: Pentax WP 8x32 (7.5 degree FOV), Leupold Yosemite 8x30 (7.5 degree FOV porro) and a Pentax HS 8x36 (6.5 degree FOV). The WP showed a few stray light issues but was still fully usable. The Yosemite was pretty good though it would occasionally go completely pear-shaped: I can see someone might think it had terrible stray light problems in this case. The HS was excellent and was very resistant to stray light (as well as being sharp! I'll write that up separately). So other similar price class bins can do OK in this sort of light.

A look at the exit pupil shows a lot of stray light coming around the exit pupil (so relying on your eye's pupil to stop those out) but some is overlapping the pupil. Not good. I also suspect (after playing with the Bushnell Excursion EX 8x36) that they have a similar issue with the focuser lens being carried on a plate that could be a full baffle but has a gap on the side letting stray light though to the wide angle eyepiece. This was an issue with the 7x32 too but it didn't seem to suffer so much (perhaps because of the narrower FOV).

At least the Promaster 7x32 had problematic light issues but they were mostly discrete glints which are annoying but don't obscure the image like pervasive veiling glare. In fact I think the 7x32 was a better design but badly executed. The execution in the 8x32 is better (though certainly not perfect) but the results are worse.

The stuff here is fixable with a narrower FOV and better baffling (and perhaps improved barrel design. Perhaps if they make an ED version there might be a similar attention to detail as the Promaster 8x43 ED. But it needs better design.

Bummer. They've gone back.