Monocular 35x magnification

[blindman]

Need thoughts / experience, anyone have with monocular (made in China)
35x magnification, lens 50.
Is it any good, or waste of money (to view the sky on your vacation)?
On Ebay price around 30$.
Thanks for any comments

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

My honest opinion is:

You are asking a lot from a $30 bit of kit, especially with your astro experience. You would be better served with binos than this monocular. Even an 80mm f/5 achro would swamp the monocular. I imagine you are considering this monocular to save luggage space, and a few bucks in not taking better astro gear. I really think you'll be disappointed with it. It won't be like you are trying to look through a brick, but for $30, I can't see it being real flash.

A link to one of these monoculars would be a help too.

Is it like one of these?

35X50 Monocular from Ebay

Look at the actual aperture - 42mm, not 50!

Its field of view rating makes no sense at all either. It's claiming a 5degree TFOV at 35X. You can't get that with most 15X50 binos!

[csb (Craig)]

35X is very high magnification for this type of equipment. Expensive binoculars are usually only 20X or 25X.

At that magnification you probably would need a mount.

I bought an 8 X 30mm Russian monocular for about $20. I was on holiday in Sth Korea, 2004, and I wanted something to use as a zoom on my compact camera. It did the job. Made of glass and metal too.

I didn't use it much for visual. It was good for looking at ships in the harbour. Now it only comes out fir kids to use.

[julianh72 (Julian)]

I assume the OP is referring to any one of the myriads that come up when you search for "35 x 50 monocular" on eBay - such as this one:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-35x50...AAAOSwT6pV1YtJ

The descriptions can be very misleading:

"Night Vision" - well, yes, you can use them at night, but "night vision" usually refers to electronically amplified devices, which these most certainly are not!
"35x50" should mean 35x magnification, with a 50 mm aperture objective, but further down it shows them as having 42 mm aperture.
It also talks about "Adjustable zoom ... Magnification 35x50", so maybe they mean they have 35 to 50 x magnification? (Possibly, but I can't see a Zoom lever on the images.)
"Exit pupil diameter: 3 mm" - so that would make them 42/3 = 14x magnification?
"Field of view: 250 feet / 1000 yards @ 35x magnification" - so that is an Actual Field of View of 4.8 degrees, or an Apparent Field of View of 35 x 4.8 = 167 degrees Wow! That is some eyepiece they've fitted!

If they are REALLY 35x magnification, they would be pretty much unusable for handheld use. (And as for 50x magnification ...)

I suspect they are really something like 8x42 - 10x42 devices, with an Apparent Field of View of around 50 degrees. I've got an 8x42 monocular which is very light and compact (clips onto a belt or fits in a small backpack easily), and I take it for bush-walking and mountain biking etc, but they don't give anywhere near the view that I get from my 10x50 binoculars with 65 degree Apparent Field of View.

As mental4astro says - get yourself a pair of binoculars (8x42 - 10x50 say) - they won't cost much more, but they'll be much better value! (And there's a chance that they'll actually do what the specs claim! )

[glend (Glen)]

I can not comment on the quality but monoculars can be very useful to people with vision problems affecting one eye, whether cataracts or macular degeneration. Binos can just make a vision problem worse for these people. I just bought a monocular, lower power but it works fine. The point being they are not always a poor choice.

[blindman]

Thank you for your thoughts, you are right, it is waste of money and pain for the eyes.

[N1 (Mirko)]

If you want a good value monocular consider a Zenitsa:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/271875159306?

My dad has one, and at 24x setting I can see the rings of Saturn.
Narrowish AFOV but what it shows, it shows well.
Not made anymore unfortunately.

[blindman]

Originally Posted by N1

If you want a good value monocular consider a Zenitsa:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/271875159306?

My dad has one, and at 24x setting I can see the rings of Saturn.
Narrowish AFOV but what it shows, it shows well.
Not made anymore unfortunately.

Hvala Mirko,

unfortunately sold and AU is on the black list for shipping.
Maybe I found Turist for few $, but waiting for reply in regards lens,
meaning are they clean :-)

[aughte (Stephen Berke)]

Thanks for the info. I had some questions regarding optics, and was hoping for some input from you guys. I am going to add an additional optic to my bag, and was torn between getting a set of quality binos, or just going the mono route. I'll admit that I'm leaning toward the mono option simply for space and weight concerns, but getting digital binoculars with HD recording features, like these by ATN Corp, might also be an option to consider. What are your recommendations for a nice pair of binoculars that would be a useful addition to a telescope and providing wide field views of the sky?

[dimithri86 (Dimithri)]

I carry my 7x40 Nikons around everywhere. Pretty good for travelling, sports games. I spend alot of time letting people look through them, because they love the enchanced 3d effect during day time.

I have 25x100, but I think its too big to take on my overseas trip next week, since I wont have space for a mount.

EDIT: In regards to that link you posted, its probably not worth it, a phone can do alot of those things.