syousef
18-06-2012, 11:19 PM
I own the following cheap binoculars and tested them hand held tonight looking at Omega Centauri, The Jewel Box cluster and the Theta Carinae cluster (a nice little cluster that reminds me of a dog's paw). My results were surprising.
The binoculars are:
1) Andrews Communications 10x50 WA - which look very similar to Saxon 10x50 BFWA marked as FC. $49 current price. Marked as 122m@1000m
2) Dick Smith Digitor 10x50, marked as FMC. $40 current price. Marked as 122m@1000m
3) Binoculars marked and boxed as Bushnell 20x50 Powerview but which have a field of view I'd expect from 10x50. Marked as 69m@1000m but they fit the Southern Cross in so this is just plain incorrect. No idea if these are "fake" branded, factory seconds or what's happening here.
4) "Winner" branded 7x50 bought in about year 2000 for more money than they were worth from a Disposal store.
5) Unbranded 7x50 bought at Homeart around 2005 or 2006 marked as Coated. $25 at the time.
6) 6x21 Bresser children's binoculars.
All use BK7 glass. Only 4 was over $50.
I tested in my back yard which has reasonable darkness for suburban Sydney, and my front yard, which unfortunatetly as a street light right in front of it (however I usually stand in the shade of the trunk of a palm tree....obviously not ideal).
None of the binoculars were spectacular. None were truly terrible. The Andrews binoculars were suprisingly hard to focus precisely, but once focused held it well. I expected these to be best, but at least in this suburban backyard they weren't.
The surprise was that the DSE Digitors did quite well, especially in the front yard. They were excellent for both contrast and sharpness and easy to focus. They were not quite as bright as the Andrews or the Bushnells. However the clarity for fainter stars was wonderful. For example I could make out HIP 52799 and HIP 52736 in Theta more easily with the Digitors. The Jewel Box had more definition and did not require as much use of averted vision. Omega Centauri was much better defined and stood out better against the sky. HIP 65373 near Omega Cen was easier to see without averted vision. I suspected the claim of FMC may not have been correct, but after this session I wonder if it is true. The Digitors had the narrowest field. Where I'd have to use averted vision to see fainter stars around the targets I listed for the other Binocs, I did not need to or needed to less with the Dick Smiths.
Call me crazy but at least in my own backyard if I had to pick 1 pair it would be the Digitors. Please don't mistake me for some sort of shill. I'm not a huge fan of Dick Smith. I've bought some bargains, some okay things and some things that to put it nicely did not work out for me from there. Sometimes their prices are great other times they're ridiculously overpriced.
Between the 7x50s the cheap $25 Homeart ones are slightly crisper. It's a real pity I've never seen these binocs sold there before nor since the day I bought these. They really are quite good for sub $100, let alone $25.
Another surprise was that there were significant differences in the "feel" of the view. Each had very different contrast. Where they weren't 100% sharp they were "mushy" in different ways.
The other difference was that despite all the 7s and 10s supposedly having similar or identical field of view, there were differences in how large the field was. The Dick Smiths didn't quite fit the Southern Cross in. The 20x50s just did (wrong!), as did the Andrews 10x50. But so did the 6x21 kids binoculars!???
The binoculars are:
1) Andrews Communications 10x50 WA - which look very similar to Saxon 10x50 BFWA marked as FC. $49 current price. Marked as 122m@1000m
2) Dick Smith Digitor 10x50, marked as FMC. $40 current price. Marked as 122m@1000m
3) Binoculars marked and boxed as Bushnell 20x50 Powerview but which have a field of view I'd expect from 10x50. Marked as 69m@1000m but they fit the Southern Cross in so this is just plain incorrect. No idea if these are "fake" branded, factory seconds or what's happening here.
4) "Winner" branded 7x50 bought in about year 2000 for more money than they were worth from a Disposal store.
5) Unbranded 7x50 bought at Homeart around 2005 or 2006 marked as Coated. $25 at the time.
6) 6x21 Bresser children's binoculars.
All use BK7 glass. Only 4 was over $50.
I tested in my back yard which has reasonable darkness for suburban Sydney, and my front yard, which unfortunatetly as a street light right in front of it (however I usually stand in the shade of the trunk of a palm tree....obviously not ideal).
None of the binoculars were spectacular. None were truly terrible. The Andrews binoculars were suprisingly hard to focus precisely, but once focused held it well. I expected these to be best, but at least in this suburban backyard they weren't.
The surprise was that the DSE Digitors did quite well, especially in the front yard. They were excellent for both contrast and sharpness and easy to focus. They were not quite as bright as the Andrews or the Bushnells. However the clarity for fainter stars was wonderful. For example I could make out HIP 52799 and HIP 52736 in Theta more easily with the Digitors. The Jewel Box had more definition and did not require as much use of averted vision. Omega Centauri was much better defined and stood out better against the sky. HIP 65373 near Omega Cen was easier to see without averted vision. I suspected the claim of FMC may not have been correct, but after this session I wonder if it is true. The Digitors had the narrowest field. Where I'd have to use averted vision to see fainter stars around the targets I listed for the other Binocs, I did not need to or needed to less with the Dick Smiths.
Call me crazy but at least in my own backyard if I had to pick 1 pair it would be the Digitors. Please don't mistake me for some sort of shill. I'm not a huge fan of Dick Smith. I've bought some bargains, some okay things and some things that to put it nicely did not work out for me from there. Sometimes their prices are great other times they're ridiculously overpriced.
Between the 7x50s the cheap $25 Homeart ones are slightly crisper. It's a real pity I've never seen these binocs sold there before nor since the day I bought these. They really are quite good for sub $100, let alone $25.
Another surprise was that there were significant differences in the "feel" of the view. Each had very different contrast. Where they weren't 100% sharp they were "mushy" in different ways.
The other difference was that despite all the 7s and 10s supposedly having similar or identical field of view, there were differences in how large the field was. The Dick Smiths didn't quite fit the Southern Cross in. The 20x50s just did (wrong!), as did the Andrews 10x50. But so did the 6x21 kids binoculars!???