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Helios Fieldmaster vs Naturesport - both 8x40WA


Space Kat

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Hi all, looks like it’s time for my annual post! 🥳

I got into a “discussion” with my astronomy friend who’s an astronomy equipment “connoisseur” (read that as you wish) and I’m curious what others have to say. Long story short, I was buying the Helios Fieldmaster 8x40s as a Christmas present for a friend who is not massively into astro, but did rather enjoy glimpses though my SkyMaster 8x56 (which I LOVE. Dropped them, needed recollimating, now not as sharp but they are still ok for what I use them for). I got so excited by the lightness (under 700g!) of them that I self-gifted a pair to myself too, mostly for travelling. According to my astro-friend, the Fieldmasters are sh*t, and he claims I should’ve gone for Naturesport. I do not claim to be knowledgable on the subject of binoculars at all, but I thought I know enough to make a decision. Both of these binos are wide angle, 8x40, multi-coated BaK-4 porros. The only differences are the eyecup mechanism (fold vs twist), and the FOV (6* vs 8*). I tried the FMs tonight and they seem pretty decent to me, they are razor-sharp; the sharpness does drop off at the edges but they were £40 and so I’m not expecting miracles. My questions are:

- is the 2* wider FOV on NS making an actual game-changing difference? 
- what other - if any - differences are there between FM and NS?

Thank you as always!

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I like wide apparent fields (approximately equal to the true field of view times the magnification).  The field difference will be definitely noticable, the latter giving a much wide apparent field (64degrees gs 48degrees). Of course unless you spend real money (read >£500) the edges will always get fuzzy, but you’ll spend most time looking in the middle and the peripheral views help provide context and help you spot birds and other stuff. 
I’d search for agreement of online reviews and go with them. 

I have been buying old second hand Porro binoculars from auction sites mainly, so am not able to provide model comparison. These tend to have wide fields,  but very short eyebrelief and tend to weigh rather a lot....

surprised your “connoisseur”’friend was shocked that you’re thinking of anything other than Zeiss or Swarovski.....

The Nikon Aculon get regular mention on some forums for good low cost performance.

Peter

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Thanks Peter!

The edge blurring is not bothering me, I’m aware that this is down to the optics being ££ or even £££, not ££££ and beyond.

I’d love to try out a pair of Naturesports for comparison, but glad to know that so far, it seems that the only difference is really the FOV.

Hehe he’s against Swarovski, says they are overpriced. I can’t comment since I really am just a person who gets excited by the skies (the Pleiades and Perseus in particular), and enjoys the scanning rather than the spotting, if you know what I mean. He absolutely despises my 8x56 because the only way to go is 10x50, naturally 🤭

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I would probably agree, you find different “tribes” of borders with different branded kit....
I was lucky to look through some Nikon 10x50WX once, it’s fun to see what PERFECTION looks like (you can look up the list price).

Wonder what your friend uses.... ?!

I have some Nikon 8x30E2 which are pretty darn good and a good deal cheaper than the new fangled roof prisms..... 

8x56 will do better under really dark skies, 10x50 are a “default” recommendation. Really wide 7x50 would be better, but they’re like unicorns...!

 For 10x50 I hope your friend has either the Fuji FMT or APM ED models (the latter being significantly less ££££, but just as good optically).

At the end of the day any optics is better than none and if you are happy with the views then who’s to complain? I once had a look through some chaps binoculars that looked like someone had let a smoke grenade off inside them.... he seemed to like the views.... didn’t let him look though mine... might have lead to wallet damage.

PEter

 

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13 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Wonder what your friend uses.... ?

The man has dozens of binoculars and telescopes. Walking into the room where he keeps his arsenal is like walking into a well-stocked astro shop. He’s all about perfection though and nothing else can do! I had a good look through some of the ££££ binos that he has and yes, they are incredible, but equally I get excited by simply being able to see more than with the naked eye. I really have simple needs 😂 I wanted a cheap-but-good pair for travelling and the Fieldmaster will serve the purpose well.

I have been eyeing up 7x50s for some time, but my next *planned* purchase is a parallelogram so I can stop fiddling with the tripod for my mega-binos. However, even I wouldn’t hold myself to this...

The 8x56s do well in Surrey (just outside of Guildford). I haven’t actually had the opportunity to use them with really dark skies yet.

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I tried big 100mm bins on a tripod years ago and ended up selling them. I got some smaller 45degree free angled ones more recently and they work well on a tripod (bought for daytime mainly). Parallelograms are hard to find, costly, takes up lots of space and I wasn’t hugely impressed the only time I’ve tried one. 

your friend has more than I do... I have only just run out of fingers to count mine 😉 Once you can spot “defects” in the image you are on a slippery slope from which there is no real escape!

Binocularsky’s cheap monopod and trigger ball head suggestion works well for any binocukars, standing or reclining in a seat... makes a stable view of easier to obtain. The steadier the image the better the views.  

Near Guildford... not too far away from me under my SW London urban light pollution haze!

PEter

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Binoculars are very personal things, it seems. I used to have a Naturesport (10x50) - just didn't get on with it at all (I preferred the Fieldmaster), And I'm not a great fan of the Nikon Aculon either. But other people love both. I've also heard that some people like dew-and-debris magnets (aka mirror-mounts) as well 🙂 .

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 30/11/2020 at 13:56, BinocularSky said:

Binoculars are very personal things, it seems. I used to have a Naturesport (10x50) - just didn't get on with it at all (I preferred the Fieldmaster), And I'm not a great fan of the Nikon Aculon either. But other people love both. I've also heard that some people like dew-and-debris magnets (aka mirror-mounts) as well 🙂 .

Indeed. I'm now eyeing up 7x50 Naturesport. I got really hooked on smaller mag and ease of handholdability (not a word, should be one though). I seem to have no middle ground, it's either 7x or 8x, or I had to physically stop myself from buying APM 100mm binocular beast last month. Have little observing space though, so they would be wasted on me for the timebing.

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On 26/12/2020 at 14:56, Space Kat said:

Indeed. I'm now eyeing up 7x50 Naturesport. I got really hooked on smaller mag and ease of handholdability (not a word, should be one though). I seem to have no middle ground, it's either 7x or 8x, or I had to physically stop myself from buying APM 100mm binocular beast last month. Have little observing space though, so they would be wasted on me for the timebing.

I keep having to resist the urge to finance the big APMs (but I'd really like the Fujinon 40x150 - forever out of my budget, I think)

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On 31/12/2020 at 14:51, BinocularSky said:

I keep having to resist the urge to finance the big APMs (but I'd really like the Fujinon 40x150 - forever out of my budget, I think)

Yeah these are slightly more than my budget would be, ever. However, who knows, maybe I'll decide that I don't really need two kidneys or we can live in a shipment container. Who knows what the future holds!

I bought Naturesport 7x50. The aforementioned friend disapproves. Naturally ;) 

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