Lidl 30x60 Binoculars?

[Bizibilder]

Only 14.99 and on sale in a few days according to their website. Not much use (?) as they are (too much magnification), but how about removing the objectives and making a couple of 60mm finder / guide scopes from the bits? Maybe a cheepy for you DIY types?

I reckon on getting a pair just for the lenses - you never know, you know!!

[russ]

Not for my area by the looks of it I have a silly night vision scope for £99 at my store

[Keiran]

Russ, I saw a pair of these in my one near me last week, but thought i would pass now i have my 20x50 and 15 x 70

[lukebl]

These seem to be the 10-30 zooms. Never trust zoom bins, although they might be worth a punt at that price.

[spaceboy]

I have this weeks shop leaflet and they are Zoom. From what I hear zoom are only good for terrestrial viewing as the extra glass etc makes it too much work for reasonably dull light of stars to pass through. This said at this price you can't go wrong as they would make for good spotting binoculars to see if any neighbors are putting up spot lights in the garden

[russ]

There's also problems with the zoom and focus on Zoom binos, they rarely work in tandom. Even the expensive models have problems. Best to avoid.

[cathalferris]

If these are the same as a pair that I bought from Lidl last year, they are like looking down the carboard tube from kitchen roll. The FOV on my pair is about 30-50 degrees, and there was a mismatch between the halves - focus perfectly for both eyes at min power, and I had to refocus both with the centre wheel and with the eyepiece diopter adjust when more than halfway. They also had quite the lateral chromatic abberation as well.

[cathalferris]

I have a silly night vision scope for £99 at my store

It's a recording of the sky using one of those "nightvision" monoculars.

It looks as though it can go down to about 8.7 to 9.0 magnitude, for the 50mm lens on it. I wonder what an EE could do with it for exposure time or cooling, it may be cheaper to go with a MallinCam?

Still ,for the price it looks as though the quality isn't that bad especially if one was planning on stacking the frames from it.

[lukebl]

I've always thought those night vision scopes are somewhat suspect. Obviously people claim they're for watching nocturnal wildlife, or burglars. But I have a nagging suspicion that they're used for more suspect purposes.

[cathalferris]

After seeing that youtube clip, I'm tempted to get one for disassembly and either putting a 1.25" nosepiece on it and attaching to my 8" Newt, or swapping the objective for a nice wide open camera lens, and aiming for live mag 10 stars..

[spaceboy]

I had both GEN 2 night vision rifle scope and monocular and you have to be very careful using them. The sensors blow if too much light enters so they have a pin hole in the lens cap for using during the day or full moon nights. Even then the slightest error and kiss your money good bye. Both my NV equipment bust. Thankfully the £680 rifle scope was fixed under warranty but the £150 monocular was a loss. In the end someone gave me £35 for spares & repairs. I had my scope & monocular way back when NV first became available to Joe public. Back then and still now the better GEN1 NV equipment costs the thousands of pounds so I doubt some thing being sold in Lidle will be anything more than a GEN2 design and so still susceptible to chips being fried by bright light.

If anyone decides to try one of the NV's in Lidle I would be interested to hear how you get on, but make sure if you try playing with it during the day you drop a bit of tape around the lens cap just to make sure or you could end up wasting £99

Managed to find a pic of my old BSA super 10 with the Soviet bazaar GEN2 NV scope.

[lukebl]

Just popped up to my local LIDL and had a look at these 10-30 x 60 bins.

The pair I looked through were really terrible, but what do you expect for £15. Anyway, there's still a huge pile of them at Attleborough LIDL, Norfolk, if anyone wants to risk a pair as a stocking-filler!

[russ]

I had both GEN 2 night vision rifle scope and monocular and you have to be very careful using them. The sensors blow if too much light enters so they have a pin hole in the lens cap for using during the day or full moon nights. Even then the slightest error and kiss your money good bye. Both my NV equipment bust. Thankfully the £680 rifle scope was fixed under warranty but the £150 monocular was a loss. In the end someone gave me £35 for spares & repairs. I had my scope & monocular way back when NV first became available to Joe public. Back then and still now the better GEN1 NV equipment costs the thousands of pounds so I doubt some thing being sold in Lidle will be anything more than a GEN2 design and so still susceptible to chips being fried by bright light.

If anyone decides to try one of the NV's in Lidle I would be interested to hear how you get on, but make sure if you try playing with it during the day you drop a bit of tape around the lens cap just to make sure or you could end up wasting £99

Managed to find a pic of my old BSA super 10 with the Soviet bazaar GEN2 NV scope.

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Crikey, i imagine if you were seen out in public with that gun, you would start a minor crisis.

[spaceboy]

Would have be great for getting rid of any annoying neighbors lights. Irony is I had to sell all my firearms to buy my eyepieces. Maybe I should have took out the lights first.