ZRS HD Question (1 Viewer)

[paul2013]

A couple of the posts below have me wondering how different my 2 1/2 yr. old Summit HD 10x42s are from the current version. From what I can tell it's only the prism coating? (mine are silver-coated). Here's the current features overview:

"The newest ZRS HD features feather-light weight Mg alloy body design and HD resolution with enhanced brightness using state of the art dielectric prism coating. It's fully immersible waterproof and fogproof."

I believe mine are Mg as well (the box says so). Does anyone know what significant differences there are between the older XRS HD and the current models?

Thanks.

 

[paul2013]

No one?

Someone must know.....

 

[FrankD]

Paul,

My suggestion would be to email Zen Ray's customer service link. Charles will most likely answer within a day.

I believe you are correct though in your assumption. From what I remember reading back in 2009 from ZR's website, the switch from the previous prism coating (silver or aluminum I don't know) to dielectric coating was the main draw to the ZRS when they were revamped in 2010. I do remember reading some of the very first owner comments with regard to the original ZRS and they were all favorable.

 

[Chosun Juan]

The differences would be of a smallish %, and may not be able to be readily discerned by the human eye (less than 3-6% is thought to be difficult in practice) under all conditions. The newer Dielectric coating should offer a few minutes more low-light viewing at the extremities of the day. The sorts of things you may notice in going from Silver coated prisms to Dielectric coated prisms are:

1). Increased overall brightness
2). Better colour balance to the view (ie. more toward neutral colour rendition rather than the warmer view of the Silver coat)
3). There may be other tangible benefits to the better transmission, like less internal stray light bouncing around washing out the view, though this type of improvement would be truly incremental.



Chosun :gh:

 

[paul2013]

Thanks Frank and Chosun. I'll email Charles for clarification. I'm pretty happy with them as they are, so no urgency, I was just curious.