Lidl Rocktail, 10-30X60, £14.99 (Note the caveat, variable mag)

[bsf]

Hello,

Once again Lidl are doing those binoculars. There is plenty on the forums about these. Possibly may not be top quality but good second pair.

However these have variable magnification from 10x to 30x. I am aware that for Astronomy variable magnification should be avoided. However I’m thinking they may be ok has a pair lying around for quick views rather than observations.

Cheers

Bobby

PS;

Merry Xmas to all and a happy new year

[brantuk]

For the price they are great value for money and the quality ain't bad at all if you get a well collimated pair. I use mine for quick looks, and also for pinpointing where objects are before pointing the scope.

[Peter Drew]

I reviewed a pair for a purchaser on the night sky and to be honest I couldn't recommend them even at that ridiculously low price. In fairness, the collimation was spot on at 10x and the colour correction on the Moon was good. However, the left hand side gave a distorted stellar image at best focus, the collimation was significantly out by the time it was zoomed to 30x and the internal reflections were intolerable. If only they had made a 10x60 non zoom to the same standard as the 10x50 model it would have been the binocular bargain of the year. This of course was an only sample, but my past experience with zoom binoculars leads me to suspect that you would have to try several pairs to avoid all or any of the problems mentioned.

[Sam]

If they're anything like the 10X50s then you have to take quite a few out of the box to have a good look.

[Sierra Golf Mike]

For £14.99 I thought I'd go for it. Had a look at the moon and the Orion Nebula and they were pretty good. I don't profess to be an expert but when focussed the views were good, albeit that the focussing band is very small at maximum magnification. They were much better at 25x than 30x and during the day excellent for bird watching.

[bamus]

up to 20x views are quite good. m45, m42 was nicely visible, focus works good, only downside is small FOV and reflections when watching Jupiter. I am not experienced bino observer, so I guess other ones could give you better quality, but for this price, you can not go wrong

[BazMark]

Having an excellent pair of Rocktrail 10x50s from lidl's I decided to try their zoom binos. The first pair were badly in need of collimation. They were way off at all mags. I took them back and got them replaced and the second pair were only slightly off. At 10x my eyes pulled the images together - not ideal I know - but at 30x they were significantly off. Also at 30x the dioptre adjustment on the right eyepiece is not very good as you have to have it turned up to the stop and even then it's not quite right.

I dicided to have a go at collimating them myself using the prism adjustment screws under the rubber jacket. I did this using a the stars in the 'handle' of 'Ursa Major' as the target and at max mag.

Once completed these binos were not bad. The are not the best by a mile but for £15 l have a reasonably good pair of 10-20x zoom binos. 30x is not so good largely due to the dioptre problem mentioned above.

[BazMark]

An addition to my last post!

These binoculars have now been returned as after leaving them atop a wall unit for a few days the collimation was way off again when I next went to use them.

I would not recommend them!