Bresser 10x50 binoculars at Lidl (7/04-9/04/14)

[trynda1701]

I see that Lidl has a set of Bresser 10x50 binoculars advertised again from Monday 7th April for £16.99.

http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/SID-237614D2-2D81AC2A/www_lidl_uk/hs.xsl/our-offers-2491.htm?action=showDetail&id=11445&ar=11

Can anyone say if they are the same model mentioned here on the forum before?

Just thought I would get people's thoughts again in case any newcomers are thinking about purchasing them.

Mark

[hobsey]

Can anyone say if they are the same model mentioned here on the forum before?

There has been a lot of buzz of the forum for the past few days with regards to these going back on sale so I can only assume that they are the same ones.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Good offer, but do check collimation before buying!

[trynda1701]

Over on the Society for Popular Astronomy forum, I posted a similar thread...

http://www.forum.popastro.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=18763

Someone there stated that Lidl offered a Meade 10x50 set in the past that seemed identical to the Bresser set. He mentioned that the Meade set measured out at 42mm effective aperture.

Mark

[Reeny]

I have just bought mine this morning.

The lens measurement is 48mm (= 50mm minus the 1mm retaining collar)

They seem to be OK.

But a word of caution - you need to open the box and check them before you buy.

And you may need to test a few before finding a good pair.

The first pair I tried had dodgy coatings (or smears) on the lenses.

Tipping the bins up and down revealed what looked like a water stain, right in the line of sight.

They were clean on the outside - so the damage must have been internal when they were manufactured.

The next pair I picked up had one of the velcro pads falling off the carry case flap.

Excellent I thought - the optics should be good on this pair, they are here because of a damaged / factory reject carry bag.

An easy fix, so I am well chuffed.

[BinocularSky]

The lens measurement is 48mm

 Now try this: hold an LED (e.g. phone camera flash) 15cm or more behind the eyepiece and measure the diameter of the cylinder of light that emerges from the objective. 42mm?

[Reeny]

Yep - it is 43mm when projected onto a sheet of white paper.

I also tried this on the Revelation 15x 70's, which measure in at 68mm.

For daytime use the Lidl's Bresser bins seem to be OK.

These will be a back up pair for hoildays and occasional use.

[BritAngler]

Went and bought a pair this morning too, then had to return them because one of the prisms was out of alignment giving a double-image. Tested the next pair in the shop and that one is fine

[Peter Drew]

I also bought a Bresser this morning out of curiosity. The first one I picked up and tried in the shop seemed OK (I would never buy one unseen). I've just been trying it out terrestrially and it appears excellent for the price. I have an early Bresser 10X50, also bought from Lidl at a similar price, the original seems a little more robust, has better eye relief and larger eye lenses, apart from that the differences are minimal. Despite the slight short changing on the 50mm aperture I would say that the current offerings represent good value.

[Sandraj]

I just bought a pair, mine were fine, will do nicely to sit on the window sill for a quick look at the birds and foxes over the fields.

[BrixtonAstronomer]

Got a pair this morning. But I don't see how you guys managed to try before buying. The ones I saw were sealed and opening them before buying would have attracted a bit of suspicion from the staff!

The pair I got were OK (the collimation is not quite perfect but no catseye/double image) . The lens caps are useless though - keep falling off. Image quality is surprisingly good.

I'm toying with getting a second pair as a present, maybe I'll be braver and brazenly cut open the box this time.

[Crebles]

Yup - got me a pair today too. Had a quick try this afternoon. First impressions: cheap, cheerful and worth every penny of the £16.99. LIght enough to hold steady, while not feeling flimsy. I compared and contrasted half a dozen pairs, and five our of six were great optically, with the sixth being a bit meh on the collimation.

Thanks Mark for posting the heads up.

[NGC404]

Collimating a budget set of binoculars like these to a usable standard takes just a 

few minutes to do.

I guess in theory, you could find a set in the shop way out of collimation. Ask to see 

the floor manager..Let him/her try them.. Then offer a tenner to "take them of his hands"

as you would like them for spares 

[Peter Drew]

Did that last time they were available, got them half price. Took a couple of minutes to fix. 

[101nut]

Got a couple of pairs of these. As has been said earlier, the mechanical quality - especially of the eyepiece bridge - has dropped significantly, however the optics are good enough for the price.

Good enough to chuck in the car, share with strangers and not worry when the kids snot on them ...

AndyG

[Peter Drew]

Just tried mine out on the night sky. No complaints for the price, contrasty on the Moon and well collimated on star tests. Left hand side shows very minor flare but the other side good. I have to press my eyes against the rubber eye cups to get the full field as they don't roll down, I would probably remove them if they were keepers. I purchased them to pass on at cost to any  visitor that needed a binocular of tested quality. 

[Reeny]

Got a pair this morning. But I don't see how you guys managed to try before buying. The ones I saw were sealed and opening them before buying would have attracted a bit of suspicion from the staff!

I hope no-one from Lidl's is reading this

It was easy at 8am,in an empty shop, with the staff busy with other things.

I opened the box, took them out, and focused in on the crisps and fizzy drinks section.

If I was challenged - I had a good enough excuse (the ones I opened were faulty)

If they had been OK, I would have bought those anyway, and taken the opened box away with me.

I needed to use a car key to cut through the seal.

It was an unusually strong bit of plastic.

It's a shame that they didn't use the same QA people who test the packaging, to test the optics before release.

[Crebles]

I've since given mine away to a potential stargazer. They're great value for £16.99, and moon and stars are far and away more improved compared to naked eye, but not cutting the mustard for more serious stargazing.