Tiny binoculars

[Brian Nordstrom]

Hi , I was in the local camping store yesterday looking for a few things as we are planning a trip away this weekend , nice .

Anyway on a shelf above the teller were a few pairs of bino's and the price of one pair caught my eye ,, only $40au.

I asked for a look thru and took them out side for a look and woaw ! the views were really bright and sharp , so I grabbed them.

They are 'Bushnell' 16x32mm roof prisim binoculars and for the $40 price I was immeadiatly impressed by the build quality .

They come with a leatherette case , strap , full right eye and centre focus , rubber armoured with rough non slip grips , fully multi-coated optics , 12mm eye relief , 3mm exit pupil and lo and behold instructions in easy to read English ( not the usual Chinglish that comes with some products ) .

I got up this morning at 2am and looked at M42 first , nice and bright ( about like a 60mm refractor ) with the trapezium stars hinted at , at 16x they were a little hard to hold steady until I leaned against a post .

Both Magellanic clouds looked nice , the Trantula nebula was nice as was 47Tuc ( globular ) beside the small cloud it looked like a cotton ball .

M45 was nicely framed with a flat field and stars in focus right across the field , looked really nice ..

M41 beside Sirius contrasted well beside the brightest star in the sky with a tiny amount of CA seen in Sirius .

Stars looked like stars , not sea-gulls or comets .

Jupiters moons easily seen but no banding was seen .

All in all I like these little beauties and they will be great for keeping in the cars glove box for the times I am out at night and don't have a scope with me , plenty of magnification with great quality lenses and build , sweet little binoculars .

Here are a few photos .

Brian.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

They look nice, and Bushnell have a good reputation. I must say at that aperture I would prefer 8x magnification.

[ollypenrice]

They look nice, and Bushnell have a good reputation. I must say at that aperture I would prefer 8x magnification.

So would I. I have some 10x25 Leicas and I wish I'd chosen the smaller ones to have 8x. I find it hard to hold small bins still enough since I guess they don't have the same inertia as larger ones. However, they are optically stunning and can show objects like M27 - just!  Always nice to have bins handy. I used to cycle tour with them and use them for things like reading distant road signs, admiring architecture including inside, watching wildlife and even a bit of astronomy.

Olly

[NGC404]

I have some high quality fully multi-coated 6x18 binoculars.

Its quite remarkable how good they are for general star sweeping, considering the aperture

[Brian Nordstrom]

Yes me to Olly, I will use the when I cycle ride as well in my back pack and in the car's glove box .

But us beggers cant be choosers and $40aud is only about 18 British pounds , so I aint complaining with that as the build quality is worth much , much more .

Not Leica quality likeyours but still very nice li'l binos , so cute .

Brian.

So would I. I have some 10x25 Leicas and I wish I'd chosen the smaller ones to have 8x. I find it hard to hold small bins still enough since I guess they don't have the same inertia as larger ones. However, they are optically stunning and can show objects like M27 - just!  Always nice to have bins handy. I used to cycle tour with them and use them for things like reading distant road signs, admiring architecture including inside, watching wildlife and even a bit of astronomy.

 

Olly

[Brian Nordstrom]

You are right , these li'l binos show plenty and these are my first ever tiny binos that I have owned and are quite smitten by them . Good for day time views as well as night .

Brian.

I have some high quality fully multi-coated 6x18 binoculars.

Its quite remarkable how good they are for general star sweeping, considering the aperture

[melsky]

I also have had Leica 10x25 bino's in the past and found them difficult to hold steady, my current small binoculars are the Ultravid 8x20 which are fantastic even indoors (good for lectures). Good glass will always keep it's value, I recently upgraded some 8x32 Ultravids which I'd had for 5 years and got £40 less than what I paid for them, that works out at a cost of just over 15p a week

Mel

[David55]

I have a pair of 6.5x21 Pentax Papillio close focus binoculars which I mostly use for wildlife watching, but give me great views of brighter objects at night. They are very light, have low magnification so I can keep the view very steady and, above all, give a really crisp image. Great for a quick 'look-see'. I also have a pair of a Opticron 8x42, which are my real night time bins. The image I get from these at night is much brighter of course, so I can pick up clusters well, but I'm no good at keeping them very steady, so examining an object in detail is beyond me without moving over to a telescope.