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I doubt if this very thin rubber armouring would protect the optics very much from damage, but it does make a nice grippy surface to hold onto and is well placed for this. TOKYO - Nikon Vision Co., Ltd., (Nikon Vision), a subsidiary of Nikon Corporation (Nikon), is pleased to announce the release of a new binocular model, the Sportstar Zoom 8-24x25. The Sportstar Zoom 8-24x25 binoculars feature a portable and compact body, and employ a zoom lever on the top of the body which enables smooth 8-24x zooming. The focusing ring can be operated while looking through the binoculars during observation. As you would expect on a low cost compact, these don't come with a vast array of expensive coatings and things like super high quality extra-low dispersion glass, but because they are a porro prism binocular their prisms have total internal reflection and as such they do not need some of the coatings that roof prism's do to achieve the same quality of image. This is one of the main reasons why you often get a better performance from a low cost porro prism binocular than that of a roof prism one in the same price range. All lenses and prisms are multilayer-coated for brighter images and the body is a lightweight 305 g/10.8 oz.
There are two buttons on top for the two types of image stabilisation. The buttons feel different, so it’s easy to find the right one with your finger without looking. The Stabiliser mode eliminates shake; then, when you’ve found your subject, use the Powered IS mode to also eliminate bigger movements. The life of the (two AA) batteries varies dramatically: around 10 hours at 23°C but only around 1 hour at -10°C. Slightly more manageable as an option for birders is the retro-looking Celestron Up Close G2 10-30x50 binocular, though it’s still heavy compared with what we have here due to that extra zoom power and larger objective lens. If weight is an issue, a zoom monocular is another alternative. Here Nikon’s arch-rival Canon provides one in its PowerShot Zoom Monocular, on which a minimum 100mm focus setting is adjustable to a 800mm equivalent. It can even capture stills and videos to microSD card too, though requires a battery to power it. At 24x Magnification:When you increased to their maximum level of 24x the Exit Pupil reduces to just over 1 (25/24) which means that not a lot of light that enters the binocular will reach your eyes. Weight and especially size really matter in a good pair of compacts and obviously we are looking for a pair that is as small and lightweight as possible. This is because if the "compact" pair is too large to suit your specific requirements, you may as well just go and get yourself a similar quality mid or full sized pair of optics that by their very design will usually perform better, especially in low light conditions: The diopter adjustment like most binoculars is a ring located on the right barrel just under the eyecup and is used to correctly set up and focus the binoculars to your particular eyesight and only really needs to be done once when use them for the first time, unless the setting is moved accidentally or you share your binoculars with someone who's setting is not the same as yours.At 350g (12.3oz), it must be said they are on the heavy end of the scale when compared to most other compacts, they do however still feel very light compared to most standard full sized binoculars. There is no mention in any of their marketing of them being either water or fog proof and so I must assume that they are neither. In this price range, not many binoculars are fully waterproof or fogproof and so this is fairly understandable, but it would be nice to know that they were at least a little "weather proof" - anyway I am sure that they would survive a little light rain, but to be completely safe just make sure that you don't get them really wet in very bad weather. Ideal Uses: Like most compact binoculars, these are pretty good if you are looking for a take anywhere pair of binoculars, perfect for camping... although not if you are going to get them wet! I would take them hiking with me, if spotting birds and wildlife was not my main focus as they are let down by their poor field of view. I also see them sitting in the cubbyhole of my car, or in my golf or kit bag to be used at any time. I think where they may be ideal is at a sporting event, where you can use the zoom to take in some details on the field, although once again a wider field of view would have really been appreciated here. To see this in action, you can hold these binoculars up at arm's length and look at the eyepiece lenses, where you can clearly see the circle of light in the eyepieces, this represents the exit pupil. As you increase the magnification you can actually see this circle of light in each eyepiece getting smaller and smaller - see my series of photos below that I took to demonstrate this: Despite the glossy plastic exterior to the Nikon Sportstar Zoom 8-24x25 binocular, there’s enough weight and heft that we found it easy enough to hold them steady when observing. Inevitiably though, the further we went up the magnification range amplified any exterior hand wobble, with resultant image judder.
Whilst I would not expect a low cost binocular like these to have the same build quality as a top of the range pair that costs ten times as much, but I still want them to be tough enough to handle most normal bumps and scrapes and still want them to feel like you have a good quality optical instrument in your hands and not just a toy.
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Below is a table comparing this Nikon EagleView Zoom with a selection of other compact binoculars. The very top of the range Swarovski 8x20B compact binoculars as well as a few others like the Pentax 9x28 DCF, Minox 10x25 BV BRW's, Kowa 8x25 BD and the Steiner 8.5x26 Wildlife Pro. Weak points? Their very narrow field of view, even at 8x magnification is really noticeable and their rather distant minimum focusing distance are definite weak points. The amount of eye-relief will also be disappointing to those of you who want to use them with glasses on. The fact that they are neither water or fogproof is also a shame, especially for those that like to use their optics in all weather conditions. At 16x Magnification:When you increase their magnification to 16x their Exit Pupil reduces to 1.56 (25/16) which means that even less light will be getting to your eyes. As with other small binoculars, they come with a strap and a case (but the case doesn’t have its own strap). The case is simple but functional. The eyepiece cap is attached to the strap so you can’t lose it. While the objective lens caps flip down so you can’t lose them either. The focusing mechanism is geared so that it takes a full 2 and 1/4 turns to go from infinity to it's minimum focusing distance of 13.1ft (4m).What this means is that focusing from near to far (or vise versa) takes a little longer than ones that take less turns, but it does have the slight advantage of making fine tuning your focus just that bit easier and more accurate. I think Nikon have got this about right with these as it really helps you to get the correct focus when you have the magnification at the higher settings like it's maximum of 24x.
These EagleView Zooms come with a fairly disappointing 13mm of eye-relief, which may be something to keep in mind if you want to use your optics whilst wearing glasses. Ideally and to be sure that you have enough distance to play with to enable you to see the full field of view without any vignetting when using your glasses most experts recommend that you should look for binoculars that have an eye relief of about 16mm or more. In most cases an eye relief of 14 to 15mm is adequate for most people who wear eyeglasses to be comfortable, so 13mm is a little on the short side. Most non-eyeglass wearers will just use the eyecups in the fully extended position. To minimize reflection on the lens surfaces and ensure clear, sharp images, anti-reflective coatings are often applied. These anti-reflection coatings are very important as part of the light that passes through any lens is reflected by the front (incident light) and rear (exiting light) surfaces. This reduces the amount of light passing through the lens and if this transmittance is very bad, the image you see will be darker than on binoculars that transmit more light. Also, the reflected light may cause ghosting and flaring, affecting image contrast.As you would expect, keeping the image nice and still becomes harder and harder as you increase the magnification settings. At 24x I was able to the image still enough to take in all the details of what I was looking, but I had to concentrate on staying very still as even the smallest movement has a big impact on the amount of image shake. This is fine for short bursts, when you just want to take in a bit of detail, but is definitely not something that you would want to do over longer periods. An important thing to consider when looking at the size of a compact binocular is how small they are when they are folded. When you are are looking through them, just how small they are is not that important, but size is far more important when you carrying them around with you. Different designs of compacts fold up in different ways and this can make a big difference is their size. The dioptre adjustment is unusual. Rather than a dial on the eyepiece, it’s in the centre where you focus. So you focus your left eye, then pop out the dial and adjust it slightly for your right. Stars are less exciting. The dots just become bigger dots and you really need a tripod to keep them steady. But you do see more stars. Observe one that you can see with the naked eye and you do see many other, fainter ones nearby. An optional red-dot finderscope (not included) can also be attached to the rail, to help you find objects fast, if you’re aiming for a serious, tripod-based setup.
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