Does the ZRS HD have any type of water-resistant lens coatings?
Sometimes the obvious can fall of the radar. Neither the Vista or ZRS HD have repellent coatings. I just got off the phone with their head guy. They apparently tried some on the ZRS, but to get a decent quality and quality control offering, they would have had to add significantly to the price, or wait until the bugs may or may not have been worked out of the process they tried. So they decided at $210 for the 8x42 they will leave it out for now.
There are a couple of differences from a practical standpoint that will separate the two via their coatings. Yesterday it got to 10*F here. I saw the forecast coming and left several binoculars in the pickup, so they were all at about 10* themselves. The Vista fogged externally on both the objective and ocular lenses when I put it to my face. It took it a couple of minutes to clear. After that the fogged again and still took several minutes to clear. After that, they were fine. The ZRS also fogged externally, just like the Vista, but only once and the fog cleared in way less than half of the time it took the Vista to clear. It was 24*F this morning and a repeat session showed no problems with either. The ZEN ED 2 did not fog up even at the 10* level.
The coating on the ZRS seems to be what I guess I'd call "partially repellent". While it is obvious the Vista has no water repellent properties, and the ZEN ED 2 has excellent repellent properties, the ZRS is somewhere in between.
The Vista really had a stiff focus wheel at 10*. It seemed a lot better at 20* and the fog problem was mostly a non issue by the time it did hit 20* several hours later when I tried it again. The ZRS stiffened up too, but not nearly to the degree of the Vista.
