Helios Stellar Observation Binoculars

[starscy]

Has anyone purchased any Helios Stellar Observation Binoculars recently? These are apparently the only binoculars under the Helios brand that are not made in China. I was able to find some reviews for binoculars purchased some years ago, but chances are these have been improved now. Any information would be appreciated.

[FLO]

This might not carry a lot of weight coming from a dealer but coincidentally I recently checked a Helios Stellar 15x70 that was destined for Finland and was impressed. It is noticeably better optically than the cheaper Celestron 15x70 and similar, build quality is also in a different league. If it had twist-up eye-cups and pull-up shields for the objectives they'd be fantastic but I guess that would be unfair criticism considering their price.

HTH

[starscy]

I noticed that the Helios Stellar 11x80 have been discontinued and that the 15x70 are not currently available. Should I assume that the optical quality of the 20x60 and the 20x80 will be similar?

[starscy]

I read that there used to be issues like short eyerelief, narrow TFOV and chromatic abberation with these binoculars made a few years ago. Have the binoculars been improved now and any of these issues have been resolved?

[johninderby]

I realise it may be out of your budget, but if you could afford an extra £80.00 or so the Pentax 20x60 PCF WP II are really exceptional and have built in field flatteners. The best 20x60's I've ever used. You'd have to move up to to some of really high end binos that go for ridiculous prices to do better.

John

[starscy]

The Pentax 20x60 PCF WP II are not out of my budget, but I am not in the UK and First Light Optics does not ship here. Are there any other reliable dealers that sell these binoculars?

[johninderby]

Which country are you in? I believe that FLO does ship to Europe.

You could check Pentax's website to find a local dealer in your country.

http://www.pentax.com/subsidiary.html

The following dealer in the UK does ship outside of the UK so you could try them.

http://www.binoculars-uk.co.uk/binoculars_uk_info.html

John

[fmeireso]

I owned one , bought i years ago.

I wonder too if the specimens sold today are updated or not.

I wrote a comparison between the Helios Stellar 20x80 ns

[fmeireso]

Starscy

I wrote a little comparaison between the Helios Stellar 20x80 and the BA8 15x70 .

Telescope Reviews: Helios Stellar 20x80 versus TS Marine 15x70

Maybe you've read this allready

I wonder too if the nowadays stellar has been updated or not.

Short eyerelief seems still 'not updated'

Japanse or not, if it's still thesame it's a bit surpassed by the Chinese quality thesedays.

It sure sells for a lot less now that a the time i bought it.

But build quality and baffling were quite good on my model.

[starscy]

I am aware of Binoculars UK Ltd and I asked for opinions about them before, but it seems that nobody has experience with them.

[FLO]

... First Light Optics does not ship here.

Where are you?

[starscy]

Cyprus

[FLO]

Ah, I see what you mean. I am not sure what Fedex have against Cyprus. I'll have a chat with them Monday to see whether something can be arranged.

[tinvek]

you may have to say which part of cyprus as they may have some loyalty to one or the other

[starscy]

This should not be a "loyalty" issue as we are talking about the Republic of Cyprus which is a member of the EU. If Fedex is not willing to ship here (even if Cyprus is listed on their website) it's their problem and a problem of companies doing business with them as they are loosing customers. Other couriers (e.g. TNT, UPS, DHL) do ship here.