Bargain Bino's or Bollocks?

[areyouabus (Pauly)]

Hey everyone, i've been looking into getting some good binoculars and have been scouring websites, comparing prices, review, comments and specs. I thought i had found the perfect pair in an AOE 15x70 for $149 until i then read that AOE seem to have gone under. Now it seems the Andrews MB Ultra 15x70's are my next best option (albiet more than double the price)
unless there are views to the contrary
Anyway back to the title, this reminded me of some binoculars that i had picked up from Tandy for all of about $30 and had forgotten about. I got them out and looked at the specs printed on them - they seem to good to be true. 10 x 50 Wide Angle, 122m/1000m, Fully Multi Coated.
That makes them about 8 deg FOV right? I can just see Rigil Kentaurus and Hadar in the same field of view (although the edges are a bit blurry)
What do you think? Bargain or Bollocks?

[Robh (Rob)]

Originally Posted by areyouabus

Anyway back to the title, this reminded me of some binoculars that i had picked up from Tandy for all of about $30 and had forgotten about. I got them out and looked at the specs printed on them - they seem to good to be true. 10 x 50 Wide Angle, 122m/1000m, Fully Multi Coated.
That makes them about 8 deg FOV right? I can just see Rigil Kentaurus and Hadar in the same field of view (although the edges are a bit blurry)
What do you think? Bargain or Bollocks?

How old are they? Decent binoculars today have better coatings and prisms. I suspect they are probably pretty average to mediocre. 122m at 1000m is about 7 degrees. I have a pair of 7 x 50mm with this field of view. My Orion 9 x 63mm has a field of view around 5 degrees. Rigil K and Hadar are about 4.4 degrees apart. So, I would say at 10x they are probably closer to 4.5 degrees.
As for the quality, do the stars from the left and right views merge to give a clean single field. How well do they focus from centre to the edge of the field? Is there any colour fringing (chromatic aberration) around the stars.
You need to compare them to a good pair of binoculars with say BAK-4 prisms to get an idea of the light transmission. You will see more stars and detail in better binoculars.

Regards, Rob

[dannat (Daniel)]

rob is right about the fov..if you divide 122m/17.5 = ~7 deg FOV.

the 15x70 ultras are very good binos & worth the money - a tripod is a must. if you unsure though the 15x70 basics at andrews would probably be identical to the aoe 15x70 for $149 (same price)

10x50 & 15x70 are very different binocular items - the 10x50 give wide views for scanning the sky- hand held. The 15x70 should be mounted & i use for lookig at specific clusters or dso's

you should decide what you want to use them for