Received my Athlon Cronus G2 UHD 10x42 today. Bought them as a backup “reach for” glass to keep in the truck. Here are my initial impressions:
Packaging - These binoculars sell ~$500 street price (MSRP is higher) so I wasn’t expecting very much. But first impressions mean a lot and I was taken by the very professionally done packaging. High definition image of the binocular on the outside as well as specific logo designs for each of the major features - Ex-low Dispersion Glass, Dielectric Coatings, Edge to Edge System, etc; and a catchy marketing phrase on the side of the box “SHARP, TIGHT, AND PRICED JUST RIGHT.” Upon opening the box found it is magnetically closed. Inside are the binocular with attached ocular and eyepiece covers, a very nice padded codura case, manual and cleaning cloth.
The body of this center-hinge binocular appears to be made from magnesium with a fairly hard rubber coating. It looks rugged. Interestingly both barrels have a rather stylish stippling, which significantly enhances the grip. The center focus knob also appears to be rubber coated and works well with no play that I could see.
The only thing I found a bit unusual was the locking diopter adjustment which works with a spring loaded plastic button. Press the button and adjust, release to lock. The jury is out on how rugged this mechanism is. If it somehow managed to break would it just no longer lock or would the diopter remain permanently locked where it is?
Someone had mentioned the eyecups in the previous generation being a bit short. I found no issues at all with the multi-position eye cups.
Optics - this is just a first impression but I had them out twice today. First was lunchtime. Pretty much the same initial reaction that I had to the packaging - wow! For a glass in this price class I was not expecting optical performance at this level. The image was very crisp and I could pick out a lot of detail at distance. One thing I love doing is looking deep into shadows at distance and here it didn’t disappoint either. If there was a piece of a Muley visible behind that bush 300 yards away I would have found it.
The FOV is 338ft/1000 and is noticeably a tad wider than standard 10x. The image was very bright, the colors were fairly neutral and true. For a ~$500 glass they had near edge-to-edge clarity, and I could see the slightest bit of CA. The depth of field was also very good. No single optical feature was truly exceptional, but combined it was a nicely detailed and satisfying image.
I picked them up again just after 5pm when the sun was just setting and compared them to my old Zeiss Classic 10x40 T*. To my surprise they were holding their own with just about everything except brightness and handling. So, I quickly brought out my Zeiss Victory SFs - then the Athlons were obviously outclassed. The SFs were better in every category (but at 5x the price they should be). Most notably was brightness and handling as the SFs are simply a spectacular Alpha Glass. Where the Cronus showed most favorably (but the SFs were still clearly better) were resolution, ease of focus, depth of field, and for a ~$500 glass the edge to edge clarity surprised me.
Overall, I’m initially very impressed with the Athlon Cronus G2s. They appear very well constructed with a fairly detailed and satisfying image. I was hoping the Cronus G2s would make an acceptable knock-around glass to keep in the truck. In my opinion their build quality and optical performance are more typical of a glass well beyond their price point.
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