Boat Forum / Sailing / July 2008

Don't know, but if you were to buy a pair, you could let the rest of us
know.

Dennis

Bought a pair yesterday. They're 7x25, which is a good spec (in my view)
for use at sea.

Optically they're good and bright - although the lenses aren't lavishly
coated, as far as I can see. Perhaps that's an advantage, given the
amount of salt spray they're inevitably going to pick up. I keep a
special pair of all-glass specs just for sailing, for the same reason.

They have a built-in compass, visible through the right eye. It's not a
flux-gate device, but mechanical and well-damped. I cannot (yet) vouch
for its accuracy. There's a press-button red LED that illuminates the
compass scale effectively for night viewing.

The right eye is also offered a horizontal and vertical scale in mils,
from which it is supposed to be possible to work out either distance
off, or size of object, if the other quantity is known. Pah! That's not
for me...

The focusing is unusual (in my limited experience). I guess the
assumption is that you're almost always going to need to be focused at
(or near) infinity. So they have dispensed with the usual coupled
focusing that moves both tubes together. Instead, you are supposed to
focus each eye separately (once and for all) with the rings around the
respective eyepieces, and then leave them alone. The drawback might be
some fuss in refocusing if you want to read something considerably
nearer (the name on a buoy or boat, perhaps, or that sign at the harbour
entrance). But the depth of field is probably enough to cope with this.

The eyepieces are 'high relief' in design. In other words, your eye
needs to be a fair distance away from the eyepiece lens. There are ample
rubber eye-cups to achieve this. The result is that it's easy to keep
your prescription specs on while using the binoculars. Hoorah, in my
case.

The supplied lens caps are practical, with firm attachments so they
ought not to get lost, and there's a 'floating strap' to go round your
neck. But the binoculars are fairly heavy, and it doesn't feel to me as
though the strap would be buoyant enough for the whole kit to float. I
haven't tested this, of course...

All in all, not a bad buy, at first sight. I haven't yet taken them to
sea, however.

HTH.

Gareth.