Nikon Prostaff 3S 10x42 - Very impressive! (1 Viewer)

On sale for $108 dollars at a Walmart I visited! Oh my goodness, I bought them with cash as soon as I saw them!

Very impressive pair of binoculars!!!!

Probally the number one attribute/perk of this binoculars is a sub $130 binocular with a Massive FOV ( 7 degrees, 367 FOV, 70 AFOV!)

Yes the FOV is massive as advertised, and it's amazing to look through.

I've been playing around with them since noon, and I estimate from my perception that the sweet spot is about 65-70%, images in the center field of view is tack sharp as my Vortex Viper 10x42!

Edge sharpness is respectable, with a little bit of dimness and distortion near the edges. Because of the wide FOV, you can hardly see the edges anyway.

Brightness is slightly less bright than a Vortex Viper 10x, but it is no slouch! It's is bright enough.


The biggest thing I'm liking now is that this binocular is just darn comfortable to look through, even with eyeglasses! The binocular is extremely well balanced and lightweight, even soo more than my Vortex Viper 10x. The ergonomics are perfect, and I would say it has a good designed eyecups + eyerelief. I would also say collimation is 100% perfect, as I can look through it many minutes on end with no eye strain or headaches. Exit pupils are nice and round.

The eyecups are perfect by the way, they twist up three steps with perfect tactile pressure.

Overall build of the binoculars feels outstanding.

Center folding action and the center focus wheel is very smooth.



Here's the cons I can see for now:


There is chromatic abberation/purple fringing near the edges when looking towards the sun.

Chromatic aberration in center FOV is slight. It appears to look the best with least chromatic aberration when your interpupillary adjustment is just right.

Color and Contrast is slighter lower than my Vortex Viper 10x42, and colors on my sample looks slightly warmer.

There is no tripod mounting threading from what I can gather.

Will report more as the sun goes down.

Welcome to the Birdforum. You have made a nice review of your new Nikon.
I really like my PS 7 8x30, it is very good.

I also agree, Nikon makes some very nice optics in this price range.

Jerry

Something I noticed while the sun was setting.

If you angle yourself against the sun a certain way, you can make out a translucent diagonal "line" that runs in the top left of the FOV. It's not a big deal though.

These binoculars are not phase coated, so is that somehow showing a symptom on non correction?

The binoculars perform well in low light, just adding.

I got a nice full noon time in the park to test these out, and I will update my major cons

-Sweet spot feels like 60% now. Distortion begins outside this area with noticable CA
-Contrast is definitely on the lower side
-Colors are indeed on the warm side
-Depth of field seems small, I have to constantly adjust the center focus to keep my views sharp


Despite these cons , they are still great bins to look through, very lightweight, balanced and ergonomic. They also are very comfortable to look through, even though their eye relief is listed @ 15.5 mm

I recommend these bins for anybody strapped for cash, and looking for a nice usable glassing companion.

I will use these as my cars glove compartment binocular to spy on things.

nacmancer said:

Something I noticed while the sun was setting.

If you angle yourself against the sun a certain way, you can make out a translucent diagonal "line" that runs in the top left of the FOV. It's not a big deal though.

These binoculars are not phase coated, so is that somehow showing a symptom on non correction?

Click to expand...

I have noticed, on occasion, diagonal lines bisecting the objectives on a couple of old, non-phase coated roof prism binoculars I have.

Bob