I have owned one of these for several years now and thought I'd pass on some info about it. Its contrast is very good because it is coated. As far as sharpness across the field is concerned, it is not perfect. It seems to have a sweet spot and strangly enough it is not along the optical axis like cheaper loupes. Images seem to snap into focus just off axis. Its sweet spot is quite large however compared with cheaper loupes, plus when you are not in the sweet spot, the image is not nearly as degraded as with cheaper loupes. Distortion is almost zero and is probably attributable to its aspheric surfaces. I haven't seen any lateral color that is so common in cheaper loupes. For my work, 4x is not quite enough magnification, so I use other loupes as well. Overall, this loupe is very good, especially if you get one at a low price like I did. SR

-- Steve Rasmussen (srasmuss@flash.net), March 17, 2001