Steiner Navigator Pro 7x30 marine binoculars - Extremely rugged, sharp images, 5m water proof - Outstanding viewing quality for beginners and professionals, Blue

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In other words, in the 90's Russian bins were a fantastic bargain as they were providing good optics at incredibly low prices. Unfortunately they haven't evolved much since and can't compete technically nor economically with chinese optics. This is a shame as there was/is undoubtedly a lot of potential.

Also note that if you really need to, you can actually reduce the minimum focus distance on this type of system by adjusting each of the diopters and I managed to get these down to about 5 meters, however, this is obviously more time consuming than on a binocular with a single focus wheel mechanism and the depth of view is also greatly reduced. And taking into account Swarovski’s after sales service, they would seem to be a much better long term prospect,This involved replacing all the glass and associated parts, see post #11: https://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=3824199&postcount=6 Also worth noting is that I never noticed any sort of distortions that can make the image look curved or wavy. Sounds like I am trashing it but I otherwise it is very nice, feels good in the hand, focuser works nicely, optics seem to be really good -- even though the FoV is still no match for any of my vintage wide angle 8x30s. The original versions introduced in 1985 and 1986 were respectively the 8x30 W and the 7x30 B, with W indicating a wide angle of view, and B long eye relief And for much general viewing I find it preferable - especially in the harsh white light of an Australian summer

It's apparant to me that the biggest improvements over the last 50 years did not come from glass/prism advances. Maybe some,...but not enough for me to loose any sleep over. The coatings and baffling more so i'd think? These seemed to be pretty close to the objective diameter of the new Zeiss armored objective tubes, but i couldn't use the side strap attachment points. They interfered with fitting into the leather case i wanted to use, and are of no use at the objective end anyway. These have served me well over the years, but i've not had a chance locally to review anything much newer. I've wondered what i was missing, with the better coatings available for many years now.

As can be seen from the image, the x30’s have a complex skeletonised body. And an alternate view can be seen in the image from the 1991 paper ‘Progress in Binocular Design’ by Konrad Seil The units were sealed by the expedient of placing a flat glass on the front of the previously open objective housings From this point on the optical design remained the same, though there were upgrades to the various coatings

The manufacturer of the red star 7x30 binoculars is the biggest Russian military optical plant KOMZ." At 123m wide when measures at a distance of 1,000 meters away (369ft at 1,000 yards), the field of view on the Steiner Navigator Pro 7x30 Binoculars is certainly wide if you are used to looking through an 8x mid-sized binocular. However, we do know that with the introduction of the EL Swarovision in 2009, Swarovski updated the anti-reflective coatings on all product linesHowever, I’ve not observed any units dating from prior to 2005 fitted with the neu style covering. This seems to be a deliberate distinction by Swarovski