NBD Pentax SP 20x60 WP (1 Viewer)

[rdnzl]

Got them about an hour ago. My first impressions are quite good. Great ergonomics. The shape of the barrels is really good, and the thumb indents are perfect. For a large binocular, they feel well balanced in my hands. Interesting design choice by Pentax to have the armor on the barrels be not completely round. The ridge on the sides come to rest at the base of my fingers, giving a very secure feeling grasp on the binoculars. Shining a light into the objectives shows they are very clean internally, with no dust specks or oil spots.



20x really does bring things up close and personal. I can hold them fairly still and I was able to read some very fine print on a no parking sign across the street. Quite sharp, and it remains sharp across the full view. I don't get the feeling of tunnel vision I was worried about. The eye cups are huge, and with them all the way out, I get no artifacts and they rest comfortably just under my eyebrows and on my cheekbones.



The focuser is very smooth with fairly stiff action. My middle fingers rest on the wheel perfectly. Pushing the wheel towards the objectives locks it in place. An interesting feature.



Using my Rick Young binocular harness, I can hold them pretty still for terrestrial viewing, since I can rest my elbows on my chest and the stretchiness of the harness puts tension on the binos, negating most of my shakiness. I was able to watch the Robins in my yard, pulling up worms, and the detail was very good. Very accurate colors. I watched the fattest Sparrow I have ever seen, sunning himself on a stump across the street. These things really do bring things up close and personal.

They seem to me to be quite a bargain for $200.


Here are my obligatory photos.

 

[dries1]

Let us know how they are on the night sky. Do they make a 16X? by chance?

 

[rdnzl]

Looks like clouds for a few days. They make a 10x, a 12x and 20x. No 16x

 

[Binastro]

I have the 16x60 and 20x60 Pentax.

In fact a new and used 20x60 and a new 16x60.

Both the 20x60s I consider to be junk.

Very poor optics, very small field, poor mechanics.

However, I imagine with sample variation there must be some good 20x60s, although the field size is rubbish.

My selected Soviet 20x60 with almost 3.5 degree field is much better than my 20x60 Pentaxes.

My old Celestron Japanese selected 20x80 c. 1975 is way better.

I also have good Japanese 20x65 and 20x70s.
The 20x70 included a small spider inside. How it got in I know not, but he doesn't affect the view.

B.

 

[rdnzl]

I have the 16x60 and 20x60 Pentax.

In fact a new and used 20x60 and a new 16x60.

Both the 20x60s I consider to be junk.

Very poor optics, very small field, poor mechanics.

However, I imagine with sample variation there must be some good 20x60s, although the field size is rubbish.

My selected Soviet 20x60 with almost 3.5 degree field is much better than my 20x60 Pentaxes.

My old Celestron Japanese selected 20x80 c. 1975 is way better.

I also have good Japanese 20x65 and 20x70s.
The 20x70 included a small spider inside. How it got in I know not, but he doesn't affect the view.

B.

Thank you for your wonderful and thoughtful insight. But if you dislike them so much, why do you still have them? And what is wrong with the mechanics?

 

[Binastro]

I wouldn't sell junk binoculars to anybody, without telling them exactly what they are.

The only time I sold a faulty telescope it was a very old drawtube scope, maybe Ross.
I warned Jim Hysom, a master optician, that the optics were bad but he thought he could refigure the optics.
He couldn't.
I asked for the £60 it cost me.

The used 20x60 Pentax has a multi indented ring at the eyepiece field stop and it is clear that the insides are not great.

B.

 

[rdnzl]

I took these junk binoculars down to the waterfront and put them on a tripod for some ship watching. I was able to track ships out in the Sound in the shipping channel. I could see the crew members on the bridge, and I could read the letters on some containers very easily. Clouds lifted for a bit and the mountains appeared. These things brought them up real close.

Nice and sharp across the whole field. The field of view was just fine for this type of long distance viewing.

 

[Tringa45]

Unusual configuration. Porro 2 and internal focussing, or do the eyepieces move in and out?

John

 

[rdnzl]

Yes, they do move in and out.

 

[Maljunulo]

I took these junk binoculars down to the waterfront and put them on a tripod for some ship watching. I was able to track ships out in the Sound in the shipping channel. I could see the crew members on the bridge, and I could read the letters on some containers very easily. Clouds lifted for a bit and the mountains appeared. These things brought them up real close.

Nice and sharp across the whole field. The field of view was just fine for this type of long distance viewing.

Can you give us a wee teensy hint how far way the ships were?

 

[rdnzl]

Hard to say exactly, but maybe 3/4 of a mile. Maybe a mile.

 

[Binastro]

I regularly watched ships twenty miles away with the 150mm Maksutov at 95x.

What was interesting is that the ships were upside down with the right way up ships separated and just below.

I couldn't read the ships' names but could clearly make out the superstructure and general layout.

Regards,
B.

 

[rdnzl]

I've heard that those Maks are junk.

 

[Binastro]

My Maksutovs were custom made with oversize primaries.

My 127mm Skywatcher Maksutov, actually 118mm is poor.

My 100mm Soviet Maksutov c. 1950 has the best optics I have ever seen.

I looked through Horace Dall's 8 inch Maksutov through his attic worked plate glass windows at Mars at 400x and the view was unbelievably good.

The BAS 90mm Maksutov I have is poor.

The Mirador 30x-120x 70 Maksutov is exceptionally good.

The Italian brand 70mm Maksutov is complete junk.

The Zeiss 30x60mm Maksutov is good but underpowered

The Soviet Astele Maksutov is good.

The Celestron 70mm Maksutov I have is poor.

I make absolutely no apology for describing my two Pentax 20x60s as junk.

I have had many 20x60 binoculars and my two 20x60 Pentax are the worst.

I did not say your Pentax 20x60 is junk.

My Pentax 16x60 is quite good except for the field of about 2.6 degrees.

The Hensoldt 16x56 has from memory a field of about 4 degrees.
The Canon 18x50 3.85 degrees.
The Zeiss 15x60 4.4 degrees.
The Revelation 15x70 (15x63) 4.4 degrees.
The Quantam 15x70 4.4 degrees.

And so on.

However, for someone wanting a waterproof 20x60 with good eye relief, I can see the attraction of the Pentax 20x60, except for the miserly 2.2 degree field. But I suppose that keeps the weight down.

But for me after two 20x60 Pentax were bought I was not willing to try any more.

In addition, I bought from an astronomy source so called expert a Pentax 8x25 binocular.
He assured me it was better than my old fungused Pentax 8x25, which is up to Leica, Zeiss quality.
This new Pentax is dreadful. Tremendous glare and enough ghosts to be haunted.

Pentax have a proud history.
My Pentax 100mm f/12 astro refractor is essentially perfect and easily takes 300x and tests well at 400x.

Pentax lost their way when they went Chinese.

Perhaps now they have some sort of quality control and don't pass off junk optics to customers.

B.

 

[rdnzl]

And so on.

 

[Maljunulo]

Hard to say exactly, but maybe 3/4 of a mile. Maybe a mile.

Thank you.

 

[Maljunulo]

Just as a single data point, I have been able to read the large lettering on the hull of an MSC cargo ship at sea, as soon as the hull cleared the horizon, from about 100’ above the water (deck 10) on a cruise ship, using Fujinon FMT-SX 16X70.

However far away that may be.

 

[Binastro]

The horizon is 12 or 13 miles away at 100ft above the water line.

However, the target ship also has a height and if the letters are say 30ft above the sea, then they can add 6 or 7 miles,
So the distance could be up to twenty miles.

Because of waves etc. the actual distance might be 10 to 15 miles.

The best way is to identify the ship and measure the angular length of the ship and work out the distance, probably to about 10% to 15% accuracy using a reticle.

But the visible distance depends on the weather and if there are inversion layers.

At twenty miles I frequently had mirages showing the ship below and the upside down ship above.

I think that the ships were actually below the horizon.

In the arctic the sun sometimes rises three weeks before it is due because of inversion layers.

Regards,
B.

 

[Snett_dweller]

How good would the Pentax 20x60 be for looking at spoonbills across an estuary, say 1/3rd mile away? Considering getting them as a VERY cheap alternative to a spotting scope. As-new on Amazon for £141 which I would be happy paying as a punt.