These are easy to hold for you are more compact and more expensive than porro prism binoculars. This is a reflecting prism.
Porro prisms in binoculars.
Porro or roof prism. Porro prisms are easy to manufacture and have the advantage that they consume little space inside the tubes of the binoculars. It consists of a block of glass shaped as a right geometric prism with right angled triangular end faces. Binoculars with porro prisms can be recognized by their broad construction.
Below explains the path of light and internal prisms for each one. They may be overkill if you are just a recreational user who is looking at cool things from your deck chair. In a porro prism device the eyepiece is not in line with the objective lens so the prism must jag the light sideways in its path across the two prisms.
Porro prisms named for italian inventor ignazio porro consist of two right angled prisms facing each other. Porro prism binoculars were standard until the 1960s when the zeiss and leitz companies introduced roof prism binoculars whose objective lenses were straight in line with the eyepieces. First the technological basics.
Roof prism binoculars were compact light and comfortable to hold. Contain 2 prisms called dach or dachkanten prism and derive their name from abbe koenig ak prism design. If you seek to buy roof binoculars be prepared to spend more money.
All surfaces in a porro prism binocular are completely internally reflective. This means if optical coatings and light transmission are the best there will be no light loss. A porro prism is a right angle triangular shaped glass prism.
If a company put all its resources into a porro prism binocular it would be at least as good as a roof prism if not better. With components and labor efforts being equal porro prisms are superior. But it would be bulkier.
Porro prism binoculars however do not need these coatings to reflect the same amount of light and so can match the better quality roof prisms at a lower cost. Therefore at the cheaper end of the market they can often outperform a roof prism of the same price because to save money the will use less layers or lower quality mirror coatings. In optics a porro prism named for its inventor ignazio porro is a type of reflection prism used in optical instruments to alter the orientation of an image.
Roof prism binocular is more streamlined as the glasses are in line with one another. Porro prism or roof prism refers to the type and configuration of the internal prisms used to magnify and transmit light through the binocular to the eye. Porro prisms incorporate an optical path that directs light in a z or zig zag like pattern.
But like most things in life the reality is all things arent equal. Roof binoculars are in a higher general price category than porro prism binoculars and represent a class of more powerful viewing instruments.
