Binoculars

Roof binoculars remain rather compact even with a large aperture

Roof binoculars have the lens, prisms and eyepiece all along the same line. That’s why the binoculars’ design is narrower compared to that of the Porro system. This may be an important advantage for lovers of extreme sports, mountain climbers, hunters or birdmen, who move a lot with binoculars in their hands in a forest or in the mountains and appreciate their small size. The smaller size comes at a price – more sophisticated optics compared to the Porro system. A beam of light in a roof-shaped system is first broken into two, and then is again combined as one. To do that effectively and to avoid phase shift, which lowers the contrast and resolution of the final images, optical elements in the Roof system must be of superior quality. But this, of course, has its impact on the price. Roof-type binoculars that produce the image of the same quality as Porro binoculars, are 30-50% more expensive.

The only disadvantage of binoculars based on roof-prisms is a slightly less bright image compared to models based on Porro prisms in the same price range. When selecting such a device, pay particular attention to optics: The best binoculars contain roof-prisms made of high quality optical glass, and optical surfaces are coated. You will find convenient and compact binoculars based on roof-prisms for tourism, travelling and field observations here.