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Real front lens diameter	Left:   31.7+/- 0.05 mm Right:  31.6+/- 0.05 mm	6.5 / 8.0 pkt
Real magnification	8.03+/- 0.05x	3/3.0
Transmission	79.7+/- 1%	9/25.0
Chromatic aberration	In the centre and on the edge the aberration is a bit higher than medium.	4/10.0
Astigmatism	The stars sparkle a bit. Quite good result for this price segment.	7/10.0
Distortion	The distance of the first curved line from the field centre compared to the field of view radius: 43% +/- 3%	4/10.0
Coma	Appears more or less in ¾ of the field of view. On the very edge a star turns into a huge coma.	6.5/10.0
Blurring at the edge of the FOV	The blur occurs in the distance of 70% +/- 3% from the field of vision centre.	3/10.0
Darkening at the edge the FOV	Noticeable but not bothersome.	3.8/5.0
Whiteness of the image	A yellowish-brownish gray picture. The difference between red and blue colour transmission amounts to over 10%.	3.2/5.0
Collimation	Perfect.	5/5.0
Internal reflections	Left: Right: Very sensible results for this price segment.	3.5/5.0
Housing	Comfortable to hold and to look through. Seems very solid. Greenish grained rubber padding with a nice smell. Nothing creaks under pressure, the rubber doesn’t stick out. Eyecups made of hard rubber, with click stops at three different heights.	7.7/8.0
Focusing	Huge and comfortable central screw with handy ribs. It moves smoothly and evenly. The full turn takes as many as 740 degrees. Comfortable, big, rubber-padded and ribbed manual focus ring on the right objective. It moves the outer lens.	4.5/5.0
Tripod	There is a comfortable exit. All 8x32 binoculars were given an average score of 1.5 points in this category as a tripod exit is rarely used in this class of equipment.	1.5/3.0
Interpupilary distance	from 57.6 to 74.1mm	5/6.0
Closest focusing distance	1.10 m	2/2.0
Eyepieces FOV	Apparent field of view of 55.6 deg (according to simple formula) and 51.9 deg (according to tangent formula).	7/20.0
Field of view	Measured by us amounted to 6.93 +/- 0.03 degrees and it was by 0.47 of a degree narrower than in the specifications. A bit too narrow field of view for this class of equipment.	2/8.0
Quality of the interior of the barrels	Inner tubes black, slightly shiny. Bottom gray. Minimal specks of dust.	3/5.0
Vignetting	Left: Right: OL: 0.7% , OR: 0.0%	7.5/8.0
Prisms quality	Good BaK-4.	8/8.0
Antireflection coatings	Greenish on eyepieces and objectives. Blue on prisms. One air-to-glass surface, visible from the side of objectives, is not covered by anything. Medium intensity.	4/5.0
Warranty [years]	3	3/6.0
Final result	59.8%	113.7 / 190 pkt
Econo result		0pkt.

Summary

• surprisingly solid build quality,
• good work of all mechanisms,
• good quality BaK-4 prisms,
• low astigmatism,
• quite well corrected coma,
• almost circular exit pupils on sufficiently dark background,
• minimum focus already from 1.1 metres.

• field of view narrower than declared,
• one air-to-glass surface not covered by anything,
• image on the edge of the field should have been sharper

Roof prism binoculars costing up to 150 Euro are often full of painful compromises. When we start thinking this fact through the reasons become pretty clear. Recently a quite vivid comparison was made on our discussion forum. For a pair of glasses with glass and rims of good quality you must pay nowadays over one hundred Euro. You can hardly demand miracles from a pair of binoculars with a similar price tag, then.

The producers still try to cope with such a task but the results in most of cases are average at most. When it comes to our 8x32 binoculars’ test we dealt with the Fujinon HCF 8x32 and the Delta Optical Sport 8x32 in this price category. The first of these instruments suffered a resounding defeat, the second somehow managed to defend itself but mainly because of its low price. How the new Fomei Hunter II 8x32 fares here? Let’s check it out.

Let’s start with advantages and we surprisingly don’t lack these. The build quality of the tested lens was for us a very nice surprise indeed. The cheapest Chinese products often are characterized by smelly rubber padding which sticks out, backlashes, excess of grease, dust and bad blackening inside the inner tubes. The Fomei looks as if it came from a bit higher price segment. The barrel and the build quality are beyond reproach, the prisms are not too small and they don’t make the exit pupils truncated or distinctly egg-shaped. The pupils themselves are positioned on a quite dark background.

Now, let’s pass to those compromises; you have to start from the coatings here. Cheap and greenish MC coatings, ordinary aluminum reflection coatings on the Schmidt-Pechan prisms, one air-to-glass surface inside the binoculars not covered at all – these shortcomings make the transmission and colour rendition less than good.

In the centre of the visible spectrum the transmission reaches 80%. You get what you paid for, right? In the red part of the spectrum we have even 85% but in the blue part only 75% for a change.

Chinese factories treat the declared specifications of the cheapest instruments very liberally. The objective lenses in this pair of binoculars are a bit smaller than 32 mm and the field of vision is by 0.5 of a degree narrower than officially stated. What’s more, that small field is also burdened by visible distortion and not very sharp on the edge. In specific conditions you can observe a thin dark line in the field of view – it is a visible joint of roof prisms which are positioned on each other.

To sum up bearing in mind the fact that a roof prism pair of binoculars for about 100 Euro cannot be a perfect instrument, the Fomei Hunter II 8x32 can give you a lot of joy. It provides a decent image and its build quality is surprisingly good. The most painful compromise here seems to be a not very impressing field of view which is also rather fuzzy on edges. If you can resign yourself to it, though, at a very low price you can have an instrument which won’t fall apart after six months of intensive wear and tear.