Hilkinson Solus 20x70 - A Keeper Or Not?

[tosh]

Hi everyone.

I'm currently using a secondhand pair of Hilkinson solus 20x70 - to be fair, they look as if they've never been used. Compared to my 10x50 AM-6 they show far more (obviously).

I tried handholding the 20x70's....result...I'm now halfway through designing my first parallelogram mount, hopefully constuction will commence shortly. I did try using a tripod, but I seemed to be either constantly having to adjust it or worse kicking it.

My question is would I see a "noticeable" jump in optical quality if I were to buy the currently affordable big aperture binoculars from the likes of Revelation, Celestron, Bresser etc etc. (15x70 / 20x80)

I've scoured the net and cannot find anything about the hilkinson's I own, I don't even know if they're Bak4 or 7's. Or even if they're multicoated or fully multicoated.

I don't plan to buy a telescope until I can actually justify the need, or until I am more familiar with the night sky. But at the same time, if the difference were to be mind blowing with the current crop of new binoculars what with their modern prisms and coatings I could be sorely tempted to treat myself.

If I'm honest the idea of using BIG binoculars 25x100 or 28x110 actually appeals more then using a conventional telescope. My area is quite light polluted but a 5 minute drive and you're totally on your own.

I Would appreciate any advice given.

Regards

Tosh

[Syntarsus]

Hi,

I haven't heard the Hilkinson name for a very long time. I used to own a Hilkinson Pancratic telescope when I was a child. This was a telescopic (ie. collapsible) hand held instrument used by plane spotters with 20x - 40x. Of the similar instruments around at the time (early 1970s) it was considered the best though it must have been fairly cheap or else I couldn't have afforded it.

I don't know about your bins and seems no else does either. I wonder how old they are?

Like you I'm also currently thinking of larger binoculars rather than a scope at this stage. These TS Optics Triplet 20x80s look good. Apart from the triplet objective lens it also has Broad band multi coatings on all optical surfaces. At less than 200 euros it sounds like a bargain, though I've not seen any reviews.

The one thing I've realised with my two binoculars is that the two numbers (eg 10x50) don't mean everything, not by a long way. My 8x40s are far better than the cheap 12x50s in every way.

[DavidOfBanff]

Strathspey are well-liked. Strathspey Binoculars

If you look at their 20x90 and compare to the TS pair you'll see they use almost exactly the same parts!

£212 delivered.

[Polar Bear]

Strathspey are well-liked. Strathspey Binoculars

If you look at their 20x90 and compare to the TS pair you'll see they use almost exactly the same parts!

£212 delivered.

I did a small review of the Strathspey 20x90's which will give you an idea of what they are capable of.

http://stargazerslounge.com/member-equipment-reviews/158493-strathspey-20x90-binoculars-part-1-first-light.html

Paul

[cantab]

Hi everyone.

I've scoured the net and cannot find anything about the hilkinson's I own, I don't even know if they're Bak4 or 7's.

This you can determine yourself. Hold the binoculars towards a light wall, or the daytime sky (away from the sun!), so you can see the exit pupils. A uniformly bright circle usually means BaK-4 prisms, while if you see a brighter diamond surrounded by greyer lunes that's BK-7 prisms. A diamond-shaped exit pupil surrounded by complete black is typically a sign of undersized prisms, while an oval or cats-eye is the result of a mess being made of the collimation.

[Syntarsus]

If you look at their 20x90 and compare to the TS pair you'll see they use almost exactly the same parts!

Are you sure?? The objectives are a different size (80mm vs 90mm) and there's no mention on the Strathspey site that they use triplets.

[DavidOfBanff]

Right enough I've got no idea what's inside them, I was looking at the available photographs.