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Bushnell Legend Ultra HD 10x25 (1 Viewer)

rdnzl

Not Sure.
United States
This little thing showed up today. After dark, of course, so I will post my thoughts on their optical performance tomorrow. For now I can comment on the build quality.

When I first picked them up, I expected them to feel lighter in my hand because they are so small. Not heavy by any means, but there is a little heft to them that gives them a feeling of quality, or at least not an El Cheapo type of feel. Close focus is nice, and even in the house, the view looks good.

Nice case. Seems a bit large for such small binos, but it is well made, and will serve it's purpose. No lens caps. I always find it irritating when a manufacture doesn't include caps.
Really goofy fake leather neck strap that will never be installed. The binos are perfect for a quick detach wrist strap, like I use on many of my binoculars.

The focus wheel is smooth, and has a nice resistance to it, I would have preferred it was on the side of the bridge facing me, but it's fine where it is. It just forces me to use my middle or ring finger on it. On second thought, it's a little annoying, but i can live with it.

It appears to be very clean internally. Shining a flashlight into the objective reals no dust specks, or any oil or glue blobs.

Tomorrow's weather looks to be halfway decent, so I will add some daytime observations after some time with them outdoors. Here's a quick pick of the little thing.

I got these to be a go anywhere, won't cry too much if i drop them off a cliff, dont worry too much if I hand them to someone, pocketable kind of binocular.

tZvs1PF.jpg
 
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Nice sunny morning on the porch viewing hummingbirds and squirrels with them. They present very nice views. I'm not sure what the FOV specs are but it seems fairly wide for a 10x25. Nice colors on the hummingbirds, and the sharpness is good. FOV seems pretty flat and focus is good until almost the edge. Not bad for a $150 binocular. There is glare when viewing in the direction of the sun, but that's to be expected with the objectives being very close
to the end of the tubes. I noticed no CA at all.

Eye relief is almost too long. I like to jam binos into my eye sockets, to eliminate side light from getting in. When I do that, I start to get blackouts. So I must hold them more against my brow. Not a deal breaker, but I may get some 30mm rubber cups and see if they will allow me to use my preferred method. I suspect they will.

All in all, pretty nice glass. They will do exactly what I want them to do.
 
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I also have the Legend Ultra HD 10x25. Been pleased with the image quality. I got 3rd party caps from agenaastro, 30mm and 29mm. Replaced the bulky strap with a Tamrac.
 
Nice little optical instrument, @rdnzl !.... and nice photo too.... about this one, something intrigues me, lol !.... also, please, could I ask you what this wooden box on the table is, and what we see there ?... It's 'intriguing' !...
;)
 
Nice little optical instrument, @rdnzl !.... and nice photo too.... about this one, something intrigues me, lol !.... also, please, could I ask you what this wooden box on the table is, and what we see there ?... It's 'intriguing' !...
;)
It's an old candle box thing. You open the door and place a big candle on a little plate that is in there. It can be hung from a hook, or placed on a table. Right now it has a jar with some leaves in it sitting on the plate.
 
I also have the Legend Ultra HD 10x25. Been pleased with the image quality. I got 3rd party caps from agenaastro, 30mm and 29mm. Replaced the bulky strap with a Tamrac.
29mm stretchy rubber eye guards for the eyepiece and 30mm plastic caps for the objective?
 
These rubber microscope eye guards fit perfectly, very snug, and now with the cups all the way down, the eye relief is perfect. No blackouts and they completely fit my eye sockets and seal out light from all sides.

jGBk1VQ.jpg
 
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When I installed them. I thought maybe I bought them too small. But the rubber stretches and once I got them pushed down all the way, they aren't slipping or coming off unless I really pull on them. They are soft enough so that they aren't going to cause discomfort to my eye sockets. A $13 solution makes these little binos much more usable for me. No adjusting how I hold them, I just press them to my eyes and it's the same every time.
 
29mm stretchy rubber eye guards for the eyepiece and 30mm plastic caps for the objective?
The 29mm caps actually fit the objectives. I bought those and the 30mm eye covers in hard plastic. Would have gotten the rubber caps but they didn't have those sizes when I ordered. Btw, where did you purchase the microscope eye guards? What size? Thanks!
 
I received my pair of "open box" Legend Ultra HD 10x25 from Bushnell this week. I could not tell that they were previously opened. They are incredibly compact, yet have a nice feel in hand.

Some combination of the eye relief being too long and the eyecups too small makes these difficult to use for me. Resting my index fingers on top of the eyecups and putting them to my eyebrows is the only way of getting any stabilizing contact between the bins and my face. However, this makes for a stretch to reach my ring finger to the focus knob and it is difficult to focus without disturbing the view. Thanks to this thread, I have a pair of those microscope eye guards on the way and I'm hoping they will resolve this issue for me. (Update: they did.)

Optically they are quite good and this morning I did some comparisons with two of my other binoculars.

Compared to my Fuji KF 10x32s (which I consider quite sharp) the Legends are just a touch sharper. The Fujis have no ED elements and do show a touch of color fringing on high contrast targets but it is well controlled and has never bothered me. The Legends have less false color with only a bit of fringing off-axis. They are similar to my Monarch 7 8x30s in this regard.

The Fujis have colors that are a bit warmer than the Legends but saturation is similar. The Monarch 7s have similar color temperature to the Legends but colors are more saturated (the color in the Monarchs may be my favorite characteristic of those bins).

The field of view in the Legends seems bigger than the 5.4º spec'd. It's barely smaller than the Fuji, which is listed at 6.5º.

I'm not currently using a strap with these, but will probably look for a wrist strap / lanyard.

legend10x25-size.jpg
 
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Thanks to your post linking to those eye guards earlier in thread (post #11), I had actually ordered them a few days ago; they came just a few hours after I posted my impressions.

It'd be difficult to overstate the improvement in usability and ease of view that these eye guards made for me. As you say, the bins now fall perfectly in place against my eye sockets like larger binoculars do. Now the image is stable, focusing is easy, and I can really enjoy the fantastic optics. I'm thrilled that such a small binocular is also now so easy to view through, and gives such great views!
 
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