At Somerset Cameras we specialise in supplying Hawke Binoculars due to their fantastic value for money. Hawke offer an impressive and comprehensive range of binoculars including both traditional Porro Prism binoculars and Roof Prism binoculars. The range features compact travel binoculars, bright long distance binoculars and also a range of zoom binoculars.
Hawke binoculars are aimed at active outdoor recreation with a particular emphasis on wildlife watching. They offer a terrific combination of optical performance and rugged outdoor build quality to fulfil the requirements of the most demanding users. Their use of ETE (Edge to Edge) fully multi-coated lenses ensures the sharpest detail and fantastic colour and contrast throughout.
Hawke binoculars are designed to be robust and rugged, standing up to the very worst of our English summertime. Nitrogen purged bodies offer anti-fogging throughout the range and a combination of die-cast aluminum and armoured rubber bodies provides waterproofing and protection to the optics.
Porro Prism Binoculars
The traditional Porro Prism design is
recognised simply by their angled shape. If you stand them on their
lens barrels they form an M shape as you look at them. They fold the
optical path by using a double prism Z-shaped configuration to erect
the image. Porros focus by controlling an external focus wheel that
moves the eyepieces forward or backward along an external centre barrel.
Porro
Prism binoculars are wider, with objective lenses that are separated
but offset from the eyepieces. As they fold the optical path they
reduce the physical length of the binoculars. This tends to result in a
better sense of depth to the viewing image.
Roof Prism Binoculars
Roof
Prism binoculars are much narrower and compact than Porro Prism's.
They are shaped as an H with the focusing mechanism enclosed and with
objective lenses that are approximately in line with the eyepieces.
Focusing is adjusted with an external focusing wheel.
Roof-prism binoculars do cost more to manufacture
and therefore tend to
be more expensive to buy than their Porro Prism counterparts. The main
advantage of these binoculars is the improvement in handling due to
having fewer external moving parts. This makes them generally more
durable and rugged, additionally they tend to provide a larger image
making them the preferred choice for birdwatchers.
Porro Prism vs. Roof Prisms
Apart from the difference in price and size where the Roof Prism
design is more compact but typically more expensive these two designs
technically have effects on image quality. Porro Prism binoculars will
inherently produce a brighter image then Roof Prism's of the same
magnification due to the increased sizes of their objective lenses and
the minimized light absorbed by the reduced length of the lens barrels
compared to the barrels of Roof Prism's.
However due to advancements
in optical technologhy namely through coating processes Roof Prisms are
now comparable to the very best Porro Prism binoculars. As a result of
these advancements and there advantages in size and handling Roof Prism
binoculars tend to be preferred and recommended despite their
marginally higher costs.
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