Bresser Montana 8.5x45 ED Binocular 1701000

An Alpha performer at less than half the price!

Optical Performance:

Just looking at the specs on paper I wasn’t sure what to expect when looking through this binocular. It is an 8.5x model so I wasn’t sure how that was going to influence my perception. On top of that the true field of view specs are notably narrower than what I prefer and/or am accustomed to. The apparent field of view (easy method versus ISO) of approximately 55 degrees is wider than at least one or two models I have reviewed/owned recently but not necessarily at the 60 degree minimum that I tend to gravitate towards for most of my models.

So what strikes me when I first look through them?

…the apparent brightness. Again, I use the word apparent because what we perceive as brightness is usually the result of the level of contrast and color bias. Still, using the binocular under a variety of lighting conditions I cannot find any situation where I did not feel impressed by the level of light that these binoculars allow to reach your eyes. I am guessing that this is the end result of a combination of factors not limited to the quality of anti-reflective coatings and glass, dielectric prism coating and the 45 mm objective diameter.

The apparent contrast level is excellent. Blacks are truly black and whites are truly white. Objects have that certain sense of “pop” to them that almost makes them appear “3D” in representation. Furthermore, the contrast level when coupled with the apparent brightness and apparent sharpness almost gives the impression that objects “float” within the field of view. It is difficult to describe no matter how I attempt to represent it.

Apparent sharpness is excellent. In fact this is one roof prism binocular whose level of apparent sharpness equals that of any of the porros that I have owned and/or handled. I have always felt that my venerable Nikon 7x35 Widefield Action offered the highest level of apparent sharpness. It does but now I have a second model that is capable of pulling the finest detail no matter what I observe. There are some differences but I am going to leave that part out for the “nitpick” section of the review.

Color bias is neutral to almost “blue-green” in representation. In this area they remind me quite a bit of the Zeiss FLs that I owned for many years. The difference with the Bressers though, is that I don’t get any of the “washed out” effect that I occasionally did with the Zeiss. Contrast levels are very good and don’t change, for my eyes, under any evaluation condition.

Chromatic aberration control is a bit of a difficult situation to describe. The easy answer is that longitudinal color is well-controlled within the sweet spot. I don’t see any of this type of CA. Lateral color is displayed more notably as one moves away from center. I would estimate that it begins approximately half way out from center and becomes readily visible on the edges. The bands are wider and of less intensity on the edges as opposed to the thinner, more intense bands displayed by some models. Overall I would rate this model at “very good” but not quite excellent in CA control over the entire image.

So, I did bring up the sweet spot. How big is it? Pretty large in my opinion. In full daylight, the size of the sweet spot is really impressive. I don’t think that Bresser was going for true “edge to edge” sharpness with this model. What they did attempt to achieve was a very large sweet spot with a very gradual fall-off from the sweet spot into the area out of focus. Furthermore the area out of focus is only slightly out of focus and does not appear bothersome or distracting in regular use. In this area the performance reminds me of the Opticron Verano HD 8x32 that I recently reviewed….a very large sweet spot with only a slight loss in performance outside of the sweet spot. My estimation on sweet spot size would be 80-85%.

So, overall optical impressions are extremely pleasing. When you tie in all of the optical performance areas (contrast, brightness, sharpness, CA control and sweet spot size) you are left with an image that does not fail to impress you.

Ergonomics:

The ergonomics on this model are a bit different than what I am accustomed to. The binocular “feels” long though it isn’t any longer than the Leupold McKinley recently evaluated. I believe this to be the result of the contouring of the barrels. Because of the 45 mm objectives the objective tubes are tapered notably from the objectives to the eyepieces. My hands then tend to gravitate more towards the back end of the binocular since it is of a thinner diameter.

The texture of the rubber armor is extremely smooth and soft with only Brock’s “waffle iron” indents on the top side of the traditional hinge.
The eyepieces appear rather large and measure 25 mm of exposed glass. The eyecup diameter though seems average in use and measures 36 mm in diameter. I have no problem obtaining proper eye placement because of the ocular size and the eye relief level seems more than adequate for eyeglass wearers. The eyecups are tapered and very comfortable across the bridge of my nose.

Build Quality/Fit and Finish:

My impression of overall build quality of this binocular is very good. I am basing this on a few impressions. For one the binocular seems to have a good overall balance for its weight. It feels solid but not heavy. Second, all of the usual quality control areas that I examine are very good. No issues with the eyecup rotation, the diopter adjustment or the rubber armoring. Internally everything is dark black with no exposed areas of bright metal, glue or debris.