• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

MeoStar B1.1 8x56 (1 Viewer)

simpleman19

Well-known member
Hello All,

Received a pair of MeoStar B1.1 8x56 Binoculars on Christmas Eve, and I notice there isn’t much said about them on here. So here’s my initial thoughts.

First thing I notice is the case is very well made and I like that the strap can be used on the case or binoculars interchangeably with the clips. The case is a bit snug on the binoculars, but I kind of like it that about it (I just have to check the objective covers after pulling it out to see if they are on or have been pulled off). The strap on the other hand is well pretty minimal, not much to it.

The rubber on the binoculars is nice, I did notice a place on the hinge where there’s a hollow below the rubber and you can feel it flex in (not so sure how I fee about that considering the money I spent on these binoculars). The focus wheel, diopter adjustment and tripod mount plug are all plastic and perform extremely well except the tripod mount plug is recessed in past the rubber of the binocular which makes it hard to unscrew.

The ergonomics of the binocular are exceptional... I love how it feels in the hands or hand. I also love the eye cups and how well they fit. The eye-relief on these binoculars is unreal... absolutely huge and so is the eyebox. The mid stop of the eye cups is nice and holds well. There is also no play in the eye cups.

Now my one gripe so far about these binoculars... an issue I haven’t had on the Kowa bd ii xd’s but am having on a binocular 3x the price.... FOGGING! I am wondering why these are fogging so easily. I mean it’s winter here but I haven’t had them outside yet (I’m stuck inside with a cold that has been acting up poorly when I go outside). I find they do not fog if I hold my eyes slightly off the cups, but when placed comfortably on the cups they are fogging. The fogging is only on the outside of the glass though but still, what can I do to fix this or will I just have to live with it?

Now on to the view. For some reason as seen in the picture below there appears to be a crack in the internal glass or something... I guess I will have to return these for warranty. Other than that, the view is exceptional! Almost completely clear from edge to edge (maybe 90-95% from centre to edge); there is no darkening in the last 5-10% of the field of view from centre, just a slight blur that still allows me to see individual letters 1cm in height at 20 feet. As for field of view... it feels great, not tunneled at all. The depth of field/focus is great... slightly less than my Kowa BD ii 6.5x32’s XD but not much less... the depth of field/focus is significantly more than my old diamondback 10x50’s... Better than I had expected. The close focus is about 3m. There is also absolutely no glare observed.

When I look back through the objective to the ocular, the circle is clean, and unlike my Kowa BD ii 6.5x32 XD’s I cannot see any lines in the prism or anything. Very impressive internal construction. The exit pupil as seen from the ocular side is absolutely clean as well.

I will hopefully be comparing these side by side with the Fujinons at work, my boss’s Bausch and Lomb’s, my Kowa’s and Nikon action ex’s. The side by side comparison should be written up mid January.

I expect these to do extremely well, assuming meopta warranties my sample.

I will do my best to look for CA at that time. Too bad I won’t get a chance to give them the real test til spring, seals on ice give any binocular a run for their money on CA.

I am no professional reviewer, nor do I have a lot of experience with roof prism binoculars. As a navigation officer at sea I do have a lot of experience looking through porros in all kinds of sea, ice and weather conditions. So take my review with a grain of salt, but I will put my best foot forward.
 

Attachments

  • CF743606-0019-44C2-9496-FF6249F63330.jpeg
    CF743606-0019-44C2-9496-FF6249F63330.jpeg
    30.9 KB · Views: 215
Last edited:
Thanks for the review, out of curiosity what is the humidity in your area when testing the 8X56s. Your cold might have something to do with the fogging. I had it before in the eyes, not pleasant for viewing. Hope you get over the cold soon, winter is just beginning.

Andy W.
 
Thanks for the review, out of curiosity what is the humidity in your area when testing the 8X56s. Your cold might have something to do with the fogging. I had it before in the eyes, not pleasant for viewing. Hope you get over the cold soon, winter is just beginning.

Andy W.

Thanks Andy, I hope so too, getting kind of long in the tooth now. I live in a very humid area, right next to the ocean. Temperatures are around -5 to 0 C most days now and we are seeing a many days of slight snow fall. The fogging was occurring in a house with the temperature around 22 C. Could be the cold in conjunction with the fact that these eye cups seal so well.

Hoping to get them off for warranty work soon, really annoying having that line in the field of view... I wish I could see what it is, but even when shining a light back through from the objective I cannot see it.
 
Can't be certain, but your photo suggests a bit of fiber or other detritus clinging to the edge of the eyepiece field stop. It possibly resembles a crack in glass because it's darkly silhouetted and pretty well focused within the focal plane of the eyepiece. No internal glass surface should be well enough focused to show a real crack as a finely focused line.
 
Fujinon FMTR-SX 7x50
I am looking forward to your comments on this comparison. See my comparison of the meopta 7x50 with the SLC 7x50. The meopta falls clearly behind in terms of sharpness. If you don't see the same thing comparing yours against the fujinon, then it is likely my sample is questionable
 
Can't be certain, but your photo suggests a bit of fiber or other detritus clinging to the edge of the eyepiece field stop. It possibly resembles a crack in glass because it's darkly silhouetted and pretty well focused within the focal plane of the eyepiece. No internal glass surface should be well enough focused to show a real crack as a finely focused line.

Thanks for that, I’m assuming a simple repair on meoptas part. Too bad it didn’t get noticed on their QC check.

What do you think could be causing the fogging I am experiencing? Could it be the fact they fit too well? I figured the coating would be sufficient to keep the fogging at bay.
 
Last edited:
I am looking forward to your comments on this comparison. See my comparison of the meopta 7x50 with the SLC 7x50. The meopta falls clearly behind in terms of sharpness. If you don't see the same thing comparing yours against the fujinon, then it is likely my sample is questionable

Could be, we will see. Looking forward to seeing the difference if any as well. I know up to receiving these binoculars those fujinons have been up there with the best, if not the best, that I have looked through with respect to pretty much edge to edge clarity, field of view, depth of field/focus, low light ability and so forth. If it wasn’t for their weight and size lol.
 
Meopta Meostar 10x42 B 1.1

I had two Meopta binos delivered today brand new from auth dealer, and man am I disappointed! I’m not sure what people are raving about or I just got very unlucky twice . First, the Meostar B 1.1 10x42. Felt nice, functioned HORRIBLY. the eye cups are so hard to twist up the cups unscrewed first. The two positions are “clunk clunk”. Just an awful feeling raising and lowering them. The Diopter adjustment just plain doesn’t work. I pulled out the poorly tactile knob until a red line shows, carefully turn only the diopter fully left, fully right and nothing in the barrel is resolved it is completely blurred and doesn’t change at all. I tried several times
I also received a set of Meopro 10x42 .. the diopter adjust works on this bino and the eyecups twist easily up but, there is tons of play and wiggle in the set positions in the eyecups. I was disgusted, I boxed them up and they are getting returned for a refund.
In summary Meopta isn’t doing themselves any favors in the QC department
 
Last edited:
That sounds like some pretty crap luck.

Then again, I’m experiencing some faults too... fogging in conditions where nothing else is fogging and something in my field of view. If those two items can get addressed under warranty, these binoculars will be Perfect for what I was looking for.
 
I had two Meopta binos delivered today brand new from auth dealer, and man am I disappointed! I’m not sure what people are raving about or I just got very unlucky twice . First, the Meostar B 1.1 10x42. Felt nice, functioned HORRIBLY. the eye cups are so hard to twist up the cups unscrewed first. The two positions are “clunk clunk”. Just an awful feeling raising and lowering them. The Diopter adjustment just plain doesn’t work. I pulled out the poorly tactile knob until a red line shows, carefully turn only the diopter fully left, fully right and nothing in the barrel is resolved it is completely blurred and doesn’t change at all. I tried several times
I also received a set of Meopro 10x42 .. the diopter adjust works on this bino and the eyecups twist easily up but, there is tons of play and wiggle in the set positions in the eyecups. I was disgusted, I boxed them up and they are getting returned for a refund.
In summary Meopta isn’t doing themselves any favors in the QC department

Did you spend any time checking the view through the Meostar? If you did, how was it?
 
Thanks for that, I’m assuming a simple repair on meoptas part. Too bad it didn’t get noticed on their QC check.

What do you think could be causing the fogging I am experiencing? Could it be the fact they fit too well? I figured the coating would be sufficient to keep the fogging at bay.

I agree that the the fit is probably so tight that warm humid air from you eyeball is creating a very humid micro environment within the eyecup that leads to condensation on the cooler glass.
 
I agree that the the fit is probably so tight that warm humid air from you eyeball is creating a very humid micro environment within the eyecup that leads to condensation on the cooler glass.

A blessing and a curse I guess. I guess the coatings on the oculars just aren’t sufficient to keep it from fogging.
 
A blessing and a curse I guess. I guess the coatings on the oculars just aren’t sufficient to keep it from fogging.

I don't think you can blame the coatings for this. I have walked into warm houses after hours outside in winter termperatures and Swaros, Leicas and Zeisses have fogged on the external surfaces. If you have a cold it may be that your face is extra warm from having a higher temperature than normal and your eyes are probably watering more than usual. In short there are reasons to think this problem could disappear when you recover from your cold.

Lee
 
Did you spend any time checking the view through the Meostar? If you did, how was it?

The view was horrific through the Meostar as I was unable to adjust the Diopter, it is defective, it does not work thus, my right barrel was blurry in 90 percent of the focuses
 
I don't think you can blame the coatings for this. I have walked into warm houses after hours outside in winter termperatures and Swaros, Leicas and Zeisses have fogged on the external surfaces. If you have a cold it may be that your face is extra warm from having a higher temperature than normal and your eyes are probably watering more than usual. In short there are reasons to think this problem could disappear when you recover from your cold.

Lee

I thought that too, so I pulled out the Kowa’s from the exact same place the MeoStars were stored and tried those and no sign of the slightest amount of fog when used in the exact same place and side by side.

Like I mentioned above, it must be that they fit sooo good and my cold doesn’t help.
 
I will do my best to look for CA at that time. Too bad I won’t get a chance to give them the real test til spring, seals on ice give any binocular a run for their money on CA.
Hi Simpleman, do you want to become a professional reviewer?

Stop searching for CA in broad daylight with twilight binoculars! ;)

When using twilight binoculars in broad daylight, you should first diaphragm its 56mm lenses by 2 or 3 stops. I'm not kidding, you will see much much better everything, with greater sharpness and also greater depth of field. Avoiding unnecessary disappointments and learning a new way of looking at things.

Regarding the crack of the lens, from the photo it really looks like a glass chip. Could you take it better elsewhere or more enlarged?
 
Hi Simpleman, do you want to become a professional reviewer?

Stop searching for CA in broad daylight with twilight binoculars! ;)

When using twilight binoculars in broad daylight, you should first diaphragm its 56mm lenses by 2 or 3 stops. I'm not kidding, you will see much much better everything, with greater sharpness and also greater depth of field. Avoiding unnecessary disappointments and learning a new way of looking at things.

Regarding the crack of the lens, from the photo it really looks like a glass chip. Could you take it better elsewhere or more enlarged?

Not really keen on becoming a professional reviewer, just wanted to pay back with my thoughts on the two binoculars that you all helped my decide on buying.

Thanks about the comment on the issue with my binocular, I’m still waiting on meopta getting back to us so that I can get them sent back for warranty work. Curious on what it’s going to be.
 
Rico70, post 18,
Chromatic aberration (the walking speed of red photons differs from that of blue photons in optical glass etc. ) does not change a bit with light intensity, so your advice does not help at all.
Gijs van Ginkel
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top