Vixen Japan IF 7x50 Waterproof Porro's

[F15Rules]

I've owned this beautiful pair of Vixen binoculars for a while now. I bought them, in pristine, little used condition, from another SGL member, and I've used them for both daytime and night time viewing..

Known as a "B" Type Waterproof model, these bins have a nice 7.3 degree fov, and a 7mm exit pupil. I think they are c 20 -25 years old.

The lens tubes have multiple ridged grooves along them, to help control scatter, nice blue tinged coatings and Individual Focusing , (IF), making them ideal for astro use.

I do use these handheld in the day, but I mainly use them for astro viewing mounted on my trusty Amazon essentials Tripod, as they weigh well over 1 kg. They are built like a tank!

Whilst setting them up for photos this afternoon, I noticed the moon already climbing in the east..

I have reasonable Bortle 4 skies here, so the 7mm exit pupil doesn't hamper my almost 68 year old eyes noticeably.

Stars focus down to tight small round points, with great background contrast, and colours on stars such as Betelgeuse, Aldebaran etc showing very well. CA is almost non existent.

These binoculars excel on lower power, wide views of clusters such as the Pleiades, Double Cluster in Perseus etc. The Milky Way is stunning!

Highly recommended, should you see a pair up for grabs!

Clear skies,

Dave

Edited January 18 by F15Rules
Typo and additional text

[Franklin]

Glad you're enjoying the IF 7x50's Dave, I thought they were stunning. I believe Vixen produced a 10x70 version as well back in the 90's but I've never managed to pick a sample up. These 7x50's were Vixens answer to a marine binocular back in the day and have superb optics and a very robust build quality. As you say, a touch on the heavy side but built to last, which they have. Look after those, they're special👍.

[F15Rules]

 

26 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Glad you're enjoying the IF 7x50's Dave, I thought they were stunning. I believe Vixen produced a 10x70 version as well back in the 90's but I've never managed to pick a sample up. These 7x50's were Vixens answer to a marine binocular back in the day and have superb optics and a very robust build quality. As you say, a touch on the heavy side but built to last, which they have. Look after those, they're special👍.

Thanks, Tim 👍

A 10x70 pair of these would be awesome! 

As you know, I also have a nice pair of Vixen Apex Pro 8x32 wide angle Roof prism bins, which I also use quite a lot. 

The bigger IF 7x50s go that bit deeper, while the lighter 8x32s show even wider vistas and can be handheld for much longer..so, between them they give me the best of both worlds!

Dave

Edited January 18 by F15Rules