Donic Opticon - Brief Review

Hi guys,

Remember that I have been asking you about Balsa lately.  Finally, I bought Donic Opticon.  By the way, I have to remind you that Opticon is not fully Balsa.  One of the reviewers in German forum gave this structure of construction:

Beech (0.5 mm) - Abachi (2 mm) - Balsa (2.5 mm) - Abachi (2 mm) - Beech (0.5 mm)
Total thickness = 7.5 mm

I measured mine and got the following:
Beech (~0.3 mm) - Abachi (1.5 mm) - Balsa (3.5 mm) - Abachi (1.5 mm) - Beech (0.3 mm)
Total thickness = 7.1 mm
By the way, I am sure about Balsa and Beech, but I am not sure about Abachi.  It looks like Ayous to me.

Weight is 80.5 gram but after I sealed it with 1 layer of Donic non-VOC lacquer, the weight is 81.3 (yeah, 0.8 gram difference).  Handle is normal FL (no Senso nor Dicon hollow handle) which is nice.  It fits my hand perfectly.

I put Mark V Xs Max on FH and Sriver EL 2.1 on BH.  I usually have Mark V 2.0 and Sriver EL 2.1 for testing all my blades (so I eliminate all the differences contributed by rubbers), but since the Mark V is worn out, I replaced it with Mark V Xs.

With 2 rubbers, the weight is 171 gr, which is a bit light for my taste.  But it is really balanced and not head heavy.

Playing Characteristics:  Since this is not fully balsa, it is not too springy as I first expected from various comments.  It is stiff and light, good for blocking and hitting / driving.  For looping, it still has good dwell time.  I can do fast loop and slow loop fine.  It is not fast, probably All+/Off- normally, unless you are doing hard impact shot and the spring effect raise the speed to solid Off.  It has 2nd kick during hard hit which does not come from flexibility.  This blade is stiff, so 2nd kick comes from something else.  My feeling that this blade does not behave linearly.  At high impact shot, it becomes very fast and felt stiff / firm, but at low impact shot, it becomes slow and soft.  So you must be careful during short game, because the ball can go off the table easily if you put more force.  But given the right touch (after you get familiar with the blade), I can produce very spinny push with EL on BH, much spinnier compared to my other blades.

I might be able to give a more comprehensive review later on, when I have played for let's say a month.  I just had it for no more than a week.

I hope this answers the request of a forum member (I forgot who he/she was) that asked for a review if I get the blade.

Thank you.  I frequently heard about Abachi but never know what it looks like.  I know the look of Ayous but never know that it is actually Abachi (same thing) 

Opticon RS has a little vibration. I think Option has more vibration due to thinner balsa center ply. Opticon RS is fast, has long dwell time. Control is better than Carbon Blades.