Aldi Binoculars

[philsail1]

I have just looked through two pairs of the latest offerings in Binoculars from "Aldi."

There are two sizes on offer (both at £12.99p). Both have a "zoom" capability. One size is 8 to 24 x 50 and the larger size is 10 to 30 x 60.

I tried the larger of the pair first. They felt awkward to hold - as if they've been constructed "upside down." The Barrels felt too close together to hold comfortably. I then looked through them - first at arms length from Objective end. Good clear view through the barrels. Nothing obstructing them. Nice and dark inside the barrels. And the anti reflection coatings look good. Looked through the eyepiece end (at arms length) Again a good sized "exit pupil" could be seen. However, when I "zoomed" the power to 30x the exit pupil almost disappeared. The big disappointment came when I looked through them. First thing that jumped out at me was the tiny, tiny field of view (I think it is printed on the binocular body as 63ft at 1,000ft). Looking through the binoculars, it seems much, much smaller. And what is more, it hardly made any difference when I zoomed them back out to 10x. (zoom mechanism felt smooth and easy to use though). The binoculars lost focus at either end of the zooming process. Also I found it difficult to adjust the right eyepiece to get both eyepieces to give a uniform clear view. When I looked at the focus wheel and twin eyepiece tubes whilst working the focus wheel (which was nice and smooth). I could see that there was quite a bit of movement in the arms connecting the eyepiece tubes to the central focusing mechanism. All, in all I was disappointed with this 10 to 30 x 60 pair. I carefully put back the lens caps on, put the binoculars back in their plastic bag (with ubiquitous little bag of "silica gel"), thenin their soft fabric case, and put the whole lot back in their box.

I next tried the 8 to 24 x 50 zoom pair. My first impressions of these were that they would be good. They looked and felt much more comfortable (and lighter) to hold. Did the same inital tests of looking through either end at arms length. Again both barrels were clean, no protruding bits of prism. Nicely blacked inside the barrels. Good exit pupil at 8x. Very small exit pupil at 24x. Testing the optics proved OK. Very bright, and crisp, (almost to outer edge of field of view), and with little distortion. Zoomed smoothly to 24x. Again a good crisp and clear view - if considerably darker (but acceptable in the bright lights of the store!). However, again, I found the field of view, very, very small - even at 8x. (As far as I can remember, this size was advertised as having a 78ft at 1,000ft field of view). Checked out the focusing mechanism. Better than the larger model, but still displayed some play in the eyepiece tubes - they did not move until a fraction of a second after I had started to turn the focus wheel. Also (as in the other larger model) I could quite easily move the barrels in and out with only light pressure of my fingers).

Both these models were made by an unknown german maker - I cannot remember the name. They did not have any name on the barrels (like the Meade and Bresser models that Lidl sell).

I might have bought an 8 to 24 x 50 pair if they had proved to be of better construction, and with a much wider field of view. The image in these was lovely and clear, crisp and bright (at 8x mag). I would think that this model might be OK as a present for a child, but for serious viewing (esp Astro) I do think that neither model would be of much use - especially with the field of view being so small.

Well, that's only my view of course!

Take a look for yourself and see what you think - the 8's are worth a look. (If you do buy, just ensure that you ask if you can return them if not satisfied!).

Regards,

philsail1

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[russ]

Hi Phil,

I can't remember which review site it was (CN or Astromart) but their slogon for binoculars was:

ALWAYS SAY NO TO ZOOM

[binman]

8x with a 50mm objective should seem bright with a 6+mm exit pupil. i looked at these last year please if you want cheap bins try lidl's 10x50's out monday 15th dec for £12.70 they are much better and have a much much wider field of view 114m at 1000m.

i'v yet to find a good zoom bin and the ones at aldis are no exception, please avoid.