Opticron 12x30 IS

[Floater]

First post in this section ... because I’m looking forward to the above bins arriving tomorrow.

Mainly looking to use terrestrial but hoping they will provide a better experience than my ‘field glasses’ when scanning the night sky.

I’ve chosen these after a favourable review in Sky at Night magazine. Anybody have any experience with them?

[JeremyS]

1 minute ago, Floater said:

First post in this section ... because I’m looking forward to the above bins arriving tomorrow.

Mainly looking to use terrestrial but hoping they will provide a better experience than my ‘field glasses’ when scanning the night sky.

I’ve chosen these after a favourable review in Sky at Night magazine. Anybody have any experience with them?

Really interested to hear how you get on Gordon.

I wondered about these for ages.

[Ciaran Meier]

Good luck with those bins.  Looking forward to your first light update 😀 .

[Floater]

UPDATE:

Well they arrived as promised, which is always a good start!

The summary is that I like them.

To be fair, the clouds had rolled in before I opened the box but, of course, new kit = clouds whichever way. So only daylight trials. For me it was like using a magic wand - so I would endorse the ‘imagic’ brand name. The view just snaps steady. I was hanging over a fence looking at wildfowl on the reservoir and struggling to keep the bins still and then I flicked the rocker switch to activate stabilisation and said ‘wow’ out loud.

I’m not knowledgable enough to report on technical stuff like light scatter or curvature thingies. But I can say the view was crisp and certainly just as good as my two Nikon bins. The Opticron bins are a good bit heavier than the Nikon Travelites i normally walk with but not enough to make it a chore.

Having said all that Mrs Floater was a bit underwhelmed when I asked to try them. Her hand is certainly steadier than mine so maybe not such a big difference for her. (I have very shaky hands; neck operation, long story.) But for me they do exactly what I hoped they would. The stabilisation works very well.

According to my local forecast it may be some time before I get to try the bins on the night sky but from what I’ve seen so far I’m pretty sure I’m going to be happy. At 12x30 there will be no miracles but scouring the Moon and some rich field views is all I hope for.

Canon seem to have the cachet for IS bins but they live in a higher price bracket. However, I wonder if their push button activation system is perhaps better than the Opticron toggle switch. No doubt my fingers will learn and switching will be smoother in time.

👍🤗