Customer Reviews

Celestron UpClose 10-30x50 Binocular

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I bought this product from Digital Foto who shipped it fast. This item is wonderful after you adjust the interpupillary distance and focus. It's easy to zoom for magnified images. Compare field view of 215 ft/1000ft to barska's 195/1000. 14 mm eye relief is just enough for me, an eye glass wearer.

More than enough for birding and even good for entry-level astronomical observations. Highly recommended!

I use binoculars regularly for both terrestrial and astronomical viewing, and I was looking for something that would give me more options than a single fixed pair of binoculars. I'd read warnings from many places about zoom binoculars, but decided that I'd go ahead and give them a try since this pair are affordable and made by a reputable company, Celestron. I have a pair of fixed zoom Celestrons that I love as well.

Let me start by saying there was a crack in the left hand eyepiece lens, just off to the side. I didn't feel it was bad enough to warrant the hassle of a return, but it does exist. My advice would be to check the optics carefully whenever you purchase something like this from an internet retailer. Since this is a fairly cheap pair of binoculars, I wasn't terribly upset about it, but just something to watch for and one of the reasons I marked down a couple of stars.

If you're not familiar with Zoom binoculars let me give you a quick overview. There is a single small lever up by the eyepieces that allow you to change the zoom factor of the binoculars. This lever moves a set of lenses in the housing back and forth, and both the left and right lens must move exactly together for the image to remain in focus across multiple zoom levels. This is no easy task, and these binoculars aren't great at it. If you change the zoom level, you'll need to refocus. Also, the light gathering capability of the binoculars doesn't change, so as you zoom in things will get dimmer. That's ok if you're observing a terrestrial object during the daytime, but isn't very good for night sky observing at all. If you plan to use them for that, then just keep them zoomed out all the way. As with any zoom binoculars, the least zoomed out setting suffers from a terrible field of view, meaning you can't see as much... there's more black space around the actual visible image. Zooming in abates this problem, but you trade off field of view for brightness. In addition, getting the binoculars to focus at maximum zoom is... an art. Focusing while zoomed all the way out is a snap, but zooming in reduces the margin of error for focusing, making pinpoint images much harder to obtain. In addition, since the lenses move back and forth and are not fixed inside the binocular, moving or jarring the binoculars will likely cause them to lose focus, at least a little.

These problems are inherent in almost all zoom binoculars unless you're willing to spend an excessive amount of money, so none of the aforementioned issues are exclusive to the Celestrons. In fact, the Celestrons, once focused, have an incredibly sharp image throughout the available field of view almost up to maximum zoom. Unless you're lucky, however, pinpoint focusing at maximum zoom is nigh impossible. If you're willing to trade off zoom for a little bit of fuzziness, however, that's not too big of an issue.

Overall these binoculars get three stars. They certainly satisfied my curiosity about zoom binoculars and verified all I had heard. I probably would not purchase them again, opting instead for a fixed zoom pair. If I were set on getting a zoom pair again, however, I wouldn't hesitate to go with Celestron.

I've had these for some time now and they were not right from day one. They were okay at 10X but as soon as you zoomed, double vision occurred. I saw through the other one star reviews it was more than half the original cost to send them back so I opted to just use them 10X. Recently I started to look for a fix online and found a so-so one on YouTube but a comment in Amazon to one of the one-star reviews gave me a link and I was able to fix the binoculars myself... woo woo! It appears that Amazon will not allow me to post a link but if you just search "binocular collimating", some helpful sites should come up. The little adjustment screws are just under the rubber armor. There is no need to take anything apart. You will need a sturdy micro flat blade screwdriver and a lot of patience. The screws are hard to get started but they will move.

As usual, excellent Celestron optics! The telescoping mechanics seem a little stiff, but I expect that will loosen up with use. Great for birding, sports, or casual astronomy.

These binoculars are a good value. Optics are clear and bright. Zoom feature works well, at least out to about 20x (you start to lose light pretty fast when you get much higher than that). I've used them for stargazing and daylight viewing and they were more than adequate for both. Best magnification is around 12x to 14x for viewing planets because of light gathering limitations with 50mm objective lens, but when viewing objects in full daylight you can crank the magnification up quite a bit higher.

For the record, this is not a $1,000.00 pair of binoculars - don't expect them to be. But buy them for their light weight, their versatility and their low price tag (assuming that's what you are looking for) and you won't be disappointed.

I got this thinking that it can be used during vacation but this is no good. Right from the day I received this is has double vision. Dont waste your money.

There are screws under each rubber shield that let you align each side to where you can see. Turning the right side screw clockwise moves the image down and to the left. Turning the left side screw clockwise moves the image to the right and down. And vice-versa. Also, by the way, the screws are by the top back prism on each side. If you experience any problems google collimating binoculars. I do love them now!!!

Item was defective, right side does not focus, original box and everything looks fine but right side does not work, even looking only thru the well working side (left) it has a very poor quality image, using the zoom in full (30x) image loos like when viewing thru the bottom of a glass bottle.
This binoculars are a good option to waste your money.
The wrost binoculars I have ever try.

This is a great inexpensive product. Good pair of binoculars just to throw in the truck and have when you need them. The optics are good for the price, slightly blury at full zoom, but not bad at all. I would recomend this product to anyone looking for good binoculars at a great price.

This is a sturdy, awesome product. I used it to see PINK at her concert and I had nose bleed seats...I forgot about my bad seats when I was able to watch the show through my Celestron. Thank You!