Keith Reeder
Watch the birdie...
About a week ago, my curiosity got the better of me.
7Dayshop have been selling these roof prism binoculars for a long time now, and they get glowing reviews from nearly everyone who has bought them, so I ordered a pair.
I know: you're thinking "how good does a pair of bins have to be, to be £18 well spent, eh?"
Well mine were delivered this morning and I spent a few hours with them in dull grey weather and in woodland: a fairly tough first test for any bins.
And they're really, very, very good!
I've owned a pair of Leica 8x32 BAs for several years now, so I'm familiar with what it's like to look through quality binoculars - and these cheapies do a damn' good job of challenging the idea that you have to pay big bucks for real quality.
In fact it would be fair to say that I'm gobsmacked.
OK, they don't "snap" into focus in quite the way the top bins do, but once I'd got the dioptre set I had no problem with getting onto birds quickly and accurately.
Colour rendition was very accurate, with CA/fringing only present in high contrast situations, like viewing a crow against the sky - but it was by no means obtrusive.
The image was honestly as bright, sharp and as pleasing as any I've seen from bins costing much more - you simply don't feel like you're looking through budget binoculars, and I had no problem getting a steady image.
I'm not a fan of the captive objective lens covers, but the rain guard at the eyepiece end is fine.
The eyecups are solid, and twist up and down smoothly and easily.
Close focus isn't really up to much - I've measured it tonight at 8 yards/7.27 metres - but come on!
Field Of View (FOV) is apparently 6deg/105m @ 1000m and they seemed fine in this regard.
A relatively shallow Depth Of Field (DOF) means that you'll be refocussing a wee bit more than with the top bins, but the focus wheel is smooth and backlash free, so it's really not a problem.
They're pleasantly lightweight and easy to handle, and they do actually handle very well - no rough or pointy bits to get in the way or make life less pleasant - and they're advertised as nitrogen purged and fully waterproof.
I don't doubt it - they're very well put together, with rubberised armour which is pleasant to the touch.
I could, if I was being hyper-critical, mention that by shining a light into the objectives I can see a bit of dust on one of the internal glass elements, but it isn't visible in use, and the internals look very clean and tidy otherwise, with the barrels painted matt black to suppress unwanted reflections.
I think that the best thing I can say about these binoculars is that although I was out today ostensibly to take photographs, I found myself looking for excuses to get these binoculars out of the bag - my Leicas are always in the bag with my camera, but they didn't see daylight today...
I had a great time using these things, and I am so impressed (you can tell, I guess!). If I was heading out for a day and accidentally picked these up instead of the Leicas, I can honestly say that I wouldn't feel bad about it at all - and I love my Leicas.
You owe it to yourself to buy a pair of these binoculars.
7Dayshop have been selling these roof prism binoculars for a long time now, and they get glowing reviews from nearly everyone who has bought them, so I ordered a pair.
I know: you're thinking "how good does a pair of bins have to be, to be £18 well spent, eh?"
Well mine were delivered this morning and I spent a few hours with them in dull grey weather and in woodland: a fairly tough first test for any bins.
And they're really, very, very good!
I've owned a pair of Leica 8x32 BAs for several years now, so I'm familiar with what it's like to look through quality binoculars - and these cheapies do a damn' good job of challenging the idea that you have to pay big bucks for real quality.
In fact it would be fair to say that I'm gobsmacked.
OK, they don't "snap" into focus in quite the way the top bins do, but once I'd got the dioptre set I had no problem with getting onto birds quickly and accurately.
Colour rendition was very accurate, with CA/fringing only present in high contrast situations, like viewing a crow against the sky - but it was by no means obtrusive.
The image was honestly as bright, sharp and as pleasing as any I've seen from bins costing much more - you simply don't feel like you're looking through budget binoculars, and I had no problem getting a steady image.
I'm not a fan of the captive objective lens covers, but the rain guard at the eyepiece end is fine.
The eyecups are solid, and twist up and down smoothly and easily.
Close focus isn't really up to much - I've measured it tonight at 8 yards/7.27 metres - but come on!
Field Of View (FOV) is apparently 6deg/105m @ 1000m and they seemed fine in this regard.
A relatively shallow Depth Of Field (DOF) means that you'll be refocussing a wee bit more than with the top bins, but the focus wheel is smooth and backlash free, so it's really not a problem.
They're pleasantly lightweight and easy to handle, and they do actually handle very well - no rough or pointy bits to get in the way or make life less pleasant - and they're advertised as nitrogen purged and fully waterproof.
I don't doubt it - they're very well put together, with rubberised armour which is pleasant to the touch.
I could, if I was being hyper-critical, mention that by shining a light into the objectives I can see a bit of dust on one of the internal glass elements, but it isn't visible in use, and the internals look very clean and tidy otherwise, with the barrels painted matt black to suppress unwanted reflections.
I think that the best thing I can say about these binoculars is that although I was out today ostensibly to take photographs, I found myself looking for excuses to get these binoculars out of the bag - my Leicas are always in the bag with my camera, but they didn't see daylight today...
I had a great time using these things, and I am so impressed (you can tell, I guess!). If I was heading out for a day and accidentally picked these up instead of the Leicas, I can honestly say that I wouldn't feel bad about it at all - and I love my Leicas.
You owe it to yourself to buy a pair of these binoculars.
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