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Helios Quantum 4 15x70

A turkey sandwich

By A turkey sandwich
in Discussions - Binoculars

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A turkey sandwich

A turkey sandwich

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My new binoculars arrived on Monday, a nice pair of Helios Quantum 4 15x70 :) Haven't had much of an opportunity to use them as the weather has been less then ideal.. cloudy and rainy.. On inspection, they are really nice, a sturdily built tank like affair.. They are monsters!! Rubber armour all over, not saying tanks are made of rubber though! And they came in is own carrying case too! Really, I wanted the Apollo 15x70 but I couldn't justify the price.. There are many things I'd like to buy but not enough money..

Still.. it's really nice.. looked at the side of buildings with them.. all seem good so far, better than the Nikon 10-22x50 I have, which I have to admit, are pretty rubbish compared to these beasts..

Taking them with me to Filey in October, for a little mid week break hopefully the skies will be clear up..

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kirkster501

kirkster501

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I ordered a pair of these a couple of days ago from Microglobe, should arrive sooner or later. I'll write a review and will also compare them to Skymaster 15x70.

Looking forward to that review mate. I am looking at the same ones. What tripod are you putting them on?

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Looking forward to that review mate. I am looking at the same ones. What tripod are you putting them on?

It goes under the name "Midas", just a casual tripod for photography. Got an update from Microglobe today and they said that sent it about yesterday.

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actionman

actionman

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Am also thinking of geting the 15x70 quantum 4, from what iv researched they are the best in their price range (£50 to £150) with fully coated optics. but not read their fog proof? being nitrogen filled would mean fog proof right?. anyway am getting them with the horizon 8115 tripod wich is highly recomended and a skywatcher large bins L adaptor, has any body any good/bad info on the quantm 4.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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When did you get yours? They look interesting - and £100 odd off....

Do you need a tripod for handling 70mm bins?

Thanks, Steve

It's rather the 15X magnification that needs the tripod. Some say they can hand hold them for a while but I doubt that you can really hand hold them well enough to enjoy the resolution of which they are capable.

I certainly can't. For me 10x is the max for hand holding non-stabilmized bins.

Olly

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BinocularSky

BinocularSky

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When did you get yours?

Do you need a tripod for handling 70mm bins?

Got mine nearly a year ago. I use a monopod and trigger-grip ball-head for anything other than brief glimpses.

It's rather the 15X magnification that needs the tripod. Some say they can hand hold them for a while but I doubt that you can really hand hold them well enough to enjoy the resolution of which they are capable.

Exactly so; I can hold mine sufficiently steadily for brief periods to enable me to see more than I can in the 10x50, for example, but I see so much more when I mount it.
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I ordered my pair of binos from Microglobe, that was 27 days ago. Package tracking tells me that it has arrived in Sweden and I'm getting it tomorrow, still such a dissapointment to wait 27 days when the site said something about in stock, 3-5 days.

Still writing a review as promised, hold on :).

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I received my pair a couple of days ago, however the weather is horrible up here in Sweden so I hope that change so I could try them for real and write the review. My first thoughts however is that they feel so much more sturdy than the Skywatcher ones I held in my hands about a month ago. And they should as I payed nearly double the price. I found it alot easier to get a good sharp image too. Too bad they didn't sho up before the weekend, had some great clear skies that I would have loved to see from a binoculars point of view.

You guys that bought the apollo one, isn't it heavy, I mean really heavy to just hold in your hands if you bought the 15x version? Is it tripod only or is it managable?

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BinocularSky

BinocularSky

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You guys that bought the apollo one, isn't it heavy, I mean really heavy to just hold in your hands if you bought the 15x version? Is it tripod only or is it managable?
Yes, it is heavy. It's sort-of-usable hand-held. I can hold it more steadily than the kg-lighter budget 15x70, but not as long. I think its a balance and inertia thing. I put mine on a monopod. I generally only use it hand-held if I'm having a quick cast around the sky before going to bed, or if I'm using it to scan the sky to get orientated in star-fields before putting the telescope on what I want to look at
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  • 2 weeks later...
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Clear skies tonight, will be freezing my butt off but it'll be worth it. Managed to catch a glimse of the moon yesterday, it really crisp and clear and made me smile. So far these binos amaze me and I'll write a couple of words or two tomorrow.

At4wi.jpg

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Helios Quantum 4 Review

jVB08.jpg

Ezy0S.jpg

At4wi.jpg

Helios Quantum 4 15x70 ~ 160€

Celestron Skymaster 15x70 ~ 80€

I actually have the oppurtunity to compare the Helios to the Celestron 15x70, the latter is really popular amongst amature astronomers starting out. As you can tell by looking at figure.1, the binoculars arrive in a really sturdy aluminium case. When my Celestron pair of binos arrived in just a cardboard box and a carrying bag, there was a hole in the plastic that seemed to be getting worse by time and that's exactly why you want a ridiculously big case - to protect those expensive optics.

Just holding them you'd notice there's a big difference, the Helios pair feels like a quality pair but there's also a 0,5kg extra weight. The 15x70 binoculars are managable to hold by hand for a short period of time, that's one reason why I chose the Quantum 4 over the Apollo (there's also an economical reason to that) but you might want to consider the Celestron especially if you're not going to have a tripod at all. Just remember the Quantum 4 are water proof and have induvidual focusers and has a much better overall feel to it.

I may be wrong but I found the Quantum 4 much sharper and alot easier to focus and I don't mean in the small way, I mean in the big way. I never managed to get a nice sharp view of the moon with the Skywatcher bins and either my eyes are deceive me, or quality optics makes a really big difference.

Last night I got out and caught the full moon, it's amazing to see all the defects, the craters. It made me think that about 400 years ago, Galileo pointed his scope to the sky and to his surprise the moon wasn't a perfect spherical object as everyone had thought, but instead he saw its violent past and present. I also got a glimse of Jupiter and its moons, in my binos its just a big light blob and I felt like a tripod would've made a big difference, but it was there and it was beautiful. Pleiades is so far my favourite through bins, really amazing. Overall the real magic with binouclars is just pointing them at a black spot in the sky and suddenly you see stars, stars and more stars - I'm living in a light poluted area and this is heaven sent.

Go for the Helios ones if you got the money, I think the quality of the picture is alot better and the case will protect it from damaging the optics if you're ordering it. However the Celestrons are pretty okayish, if you don't plan to get a tripod any time soon they might do the job better as they're half a kilo lighter and half the price.

Clear skies!

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