Astronerd76

Oh, I just noticed that you can still see some parts of the JTII Japanese quality control sticker on them, too. Like on my pair but incomplete. So that means they are definitely from Japan. Which IMHO is a good thing. A large part of my collection are vintage Japanese binoculars. Optically they are often very good. Brightness of course is an issue because of the older coatings and they have no phase correction coatings. In case alignment is okay, I'd say they might be worth between 60-100 €, so slightly less in £.

No, just Binokular .

German is not much better or different when it comes to trousers. 'a pair of trousers' = 'ein Paar Hosen' but you could just say 'eine Hose', 'one trouser'. Or even 'ein paar Hosen' = 'a few trousers' since 'Paar' means two and 'paar' means few. And in German it's 'Binokular' - I guess since it's derived from Latin 'bi' = 'two' and 'oculus' = 'eye'. So there is no plural, since the Latin plural would be 'oculi', at least in German. So maybe 'binoculi' :D. But we use 'Fernglas' mostly.

I think the "UpClose"-models are not bad for the price. I have the Celestron "Solar Safe" binocular for solar observing with built in filters and it is okay -- I think it is very similar to the UpClose models. The ocular bridge is plastic however. So if you put pressure on the eyepiece it will wobble. So far the best for the money that I found are the Opticron Adventurer models but I don't know if you can get those in India. https://www.opticron.co.uk/our-products/binoculars/adventurer-t-wp-binoculars But they have no model with a higher magnification than 12x.

I would advise against the Skymaster 15x70. Quality control is non-existent. I have the Skymaster 15x70 and 20x80 and both were out of alignment when they arrived. Celestron is very hit and miss. Most (if not all) their binoculars are made in China -- some are good (like the Nature DX models and the more expensive roof prism binoculars, or the Celestron 8x30 Ultima which I just bought and which is also sold under the Opticron brand as "Adventurer") -- but others not so much. Depending on light pollution I'd prefer something like a Nikon Aculon 16x50 -- less aperture and therefore smaller exit pupil which will lead to a slightly darker sky. But I never had any issues with quality control on a Nikon Aculon -- I got the 7x35 and 16x50.

Those are almost certainly of Japanese origin. I got 3 very similar pairs. They were sold by a number of brands -- in Germany by "Beroflex", "Bob Optik", "Soligor" for instance. Here is mine in 10x40. I like them -- but mine has the focus wheel on the other side, which handles quite nicely. I saw them with the focuser in the normal position too however. Mine still has the "JTII"-sticker which was attached after quality control in Japan.

One of my nicest binos is a Ddoptics Pirschler 15x56 with Abbe-König-prisms. Got mine at a discount for 500€. Very solid magnesium construction, very good edge performance, very bright, nice to handle with the open bridge design. And lifetime warranty no matter where you bought it or if you kept the receipt (let's hope Ddoptics will be around for a long time).

Starting with the lowest mag: 6x24 Hensoldt vintage WWII 6.5x32 Opticron Adventurer 7x35 vintage Revue, 7x50 "Olympia" wide angle (9.8°), 7x35 Nikon Aculon. 8x: Komz 8x30, Luna Super 8x30 (10° -- my most impressive wide angle bino), 8x30 Bresser Everest vintage wide angle, 8x30 Raffelbach vintage wide angle, 8x30 Chinese "Baigish"-knock-off, 8x56 Kite Cervus HD, 8x56 vintage Porst Ultra, 8x40 Oberwerk Mariner, 8x30 Optolyth, 8x30 Steiner Marine, 8x25 Steiner "Ultrasharp" 9x: Porst Ultra 10x: Ddoptics Lux HR, Sotem 10x50, vintage Chinon wide angle 10x50, Bresser Hunter 10x50, vintage Revue 10x50, Fujinon KF 10x42H, Svbony SV202 10x50 12x: 12x45 Komz, 12x50 Vortex Diamondback, 12x50 Soligor wide angle, 12x50 vintave Chinon wide angle. 15x: Ddoptics Pirschler, 15x70 Celestron 16x: 16x50 Nikon Aculon 18x: 18x50IS canon 20: 20x60 Tento, Celestron 20x80 There are a couple pocket binos: 8x21, 10x25.

These look pretty cool! The huge prisms are great and the sturdy construction. I'm currently looking for something similar in 7x50. Cheers, Philipp