I've pretty much "always" wanted a pair of Fujinon 16x70mm FMT-SX astro
binoculars. This is a story of persistence in getting the "right" pair for me.
I'm leaving out names of companies involved. All the companies i dealt with were
fine and good. No problems with returns or refunds. I just don't want seem like
i'm endorsing or criticizing anyone. [If anyone wants to know names please
contact me off-list.]

A few months a go i finally ordered a pair from one of the big online dealers.
They arrived and i went out that night to try them out. Images were sharp but it
felt weird to look through them somehow. I tried them the next day on a distant
mountain peak. I kept seeing two peaks. Though my eyes were able to merge the
images the binos were not right. Out of alignment. I sent them back and got a
full refund including my original shipping costs.

A couple weeks ago i placed another order with a different online company. These
"seemed" better at first. But i'm picky. I kept doing little alignment tests and
the more tests i did the more i became aware that there wasn't something right
with these either. I live in Palm Springs and we have the tramway on the
mountain west of town. The upper station is about 9000' elevation with a very
bright floodlight shining toward the city. (It's too far away to interfere with
night vision and it is kind of a good local landmark.) It's about 10 miles from
my house and makes a very good stationary "point source" target for testing.
Looking at the tram light over the top of the binos and then quickly looking
through the binos i always saw two images, one above the other, that takes a
half second or so to merge. Once i became aware of this vertical offset it
started to drive me nuts. Two pair of Fujinons in a row out of alignment. I
couldn't believe it. I sent these back for a refund as well.

I was really starting to think the problem was with my eyes. OTOH, none of my
other binoculars seem to give me any double images or delays in merging images.
But the eyes are so adaptable it's really hard to tell just what's going on.

Monday i placed a third order with a third online company. I requested 3 day
delivery but they arrived in 2 days! (Hurray for FedEx!) I tested this third
pair under the stars last night. What a difference! No merging or image fusing
delay at all. My "tramway" test was spot on. No dual images at all. No delay in
merging images. I can move my head back from the binos over a foot and still see
a single star through each eyepiece. (With the other 2 pairs i could barely move
back a couple inches without the images drifting.)

Persistence, and being picky, DOES pay off. I feel vindicated. It wasn't me
after all. And now i have a pair of Fujinon 16x70mm FMT-SX that i'm proud of!
;-)

-Florian
http://www.stargazing.com/