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787 Review
32 Karma

Review on 🔍 High-Performance 10X42 Binoculars with Smartphone Adapter: Waterproof, Low-Light Vision for Bird Watching, Hunting, Concerts, and Travel by Jim Cox

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Mud is inexpensive, fairly sharp, but field of view is greater than 3°, uncoated internal prisms

The numbers for this product vary slightly. The lens is actually about 48mm in size. The claimed field of view is 5.5°, but it's also advertised as 367 feet/1000 yards, which is about 7°(!). Finally, when you actually get the binoculars, it says right on the box that the field of view is 154 feet/1000 yards (about 3°). From my observations, this is the exact number. So actually even HALF of the promised field of view. (Note: The binoculars ALSO say "99m/1000m" which is approximately 5.6° or 297ft/1000yd, which is inaccurate and ALSO different from the product listing and other number PRINTED on the binoculars.) fully multi-coated, only the objective lens and the eyepieces, no prisms (you can see white light reflections if you look through the lens and honestly you can unscrew the lens pretty easily to make sure there are no internal coatings). I tried to contact the seller and answered these questions but never received a reply. So TL; DR, the field of view is actually closer to 3°, 154 feet / 1000 yards, and the internal prisms are not covered. I paid about $15 for it with a 20% off coupon from Revain, which is admittedly very cheap for what are, after all, reasonably sharp adjustable optics. For the price, they're still worth it (I use them for both stargazing and ground-based observations, and you can definitely see what you'd expect from 10x50 binoculars). It's just annoying that the field of view and coverage info is completely inconsistent with what you actually get. I wonder if I had spent $30 on a SkyGenius I would have gotten the specs promised (although it looks exactly like this model in the photos).

Pros
  • High score for grip and durability from testers
Cons
  • Not as thick as other picks