Oberwerk 20x80 Deluxe III?

[Alfian]

Hi all, I'm chewing over the purchase of a bigger 20x binocular (still). The Oberwerk 20x80 deluxe III

http://www.bigbinoculars.com/2080t.htm

is I am led to believe a United Optics BA10, and it cerrtainly looks like one.

 http://www.united-optics.com/products/binoculars/Giant_Binoculars/BA10_Series/BA10_Series.html  

The prism housings look right. The prisms/housings are meant to be an improvement on the BA3 20x80 binos. A CN review quite rates them.

There is no outlet in the UK selling the Obies, as far as I know, so it would mean importing them - which does not sit so easily and when I first looked at shipping costs of $95 I immediately dismiised the idea. However the Obies are $310; the shipping is $95 which = $405. Current conversion (from google) works out at £240. That is, give or take, the cost of the the BA3 Helios Q4 20x80s in the UK . Arghhh - import duties. Again a quick search/calculator gives this at about £60 making the whole thing about £300. Yes I could get some Apollo 15x70s (which I gather are again in short supply) but its an interesting idea to play with.

[Space Dragon]

One thing you will get with Oberwerk is great CS from Kevin. I would say he'd check them before sending them overseas, whether they'd hold their collimation after the journey is another thing.

I had a similar pair of triplet 20x80s and optically they were great but had to go on a tripod which I didn't get on with, so I now use the BA8 15x70s on a monopod.

There must be a European dealer for them, have you tried TS ?

[Alfian]

Hi Spacedragon. I've looked at TS. The 20x80s as shown on their site are a tad confusing. They do an "astro" version of their  20x80 triplets that has nebula filters - but on the web page (and there are other similar examples on the TS site) they show what is obviously two different binoculars. I think both the normal 20x80 triplet and the astro (looking at the prism housings) are BA3s. The BA10 prism housings are distinctly different. I did query it with TS and they replied promptly as ever, but my interpretation of the reply was that they were as per the illustration on the web site which did not tell me anything.

Anyway - good to hear reassuring words about Oberwerk although I am some way off convincing myself that this id the way to go - but its an idea that won't go away!