Customer Reviews

Celestron Oceana 7x50 Porro WP CF & RC Binocular, Black

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A close crossing with an inbound ship on the outbound side of the shipping lanes (and a mile outside of the wrong lane to boot) reminded me that it isn't enough to know where you are, and assume ships will stay in their designated lanes. Not only do you need to see them clearly from a distance, you need an accurate bearing to detect potential collision course. It was this incident that drove my decision to buy this piece of safety equipment without delay.

I was very impressed when I took these glasses out of the box, they have a solid, high-quality look and feel -- from the optics (clarity is awesome) and adjustments, all the way down to the case they come with (padded, solid closure, orange trim for visibility at night.)

Perhaps the feature that lets the Celestron Oceana stand toe-to-toe with much more expensive models, is the quality of its built-in bearing compass. Liquid dampening is a must, out on the ocean, without this a compass is nearly useless. More, I checked its accuracy against the fluxgate compass built into my GPS, it's exactly on. And its backlight is ideal, the compass is easy to read down to the degree, day or night.

I did have a tiny bit of difficulty seeing the compass at first glance, but quickly realized that the rubber eye cups and my nose were keeping the lenses a little higher than desirable. Very slight downward pressure corrects their position.

Over all I'm very pleased with the purchase, and given the Celestron no-fault lifetime warranty, I'm sure I'll be using them for years to come.

These binoculars offer a great combination of features for the price. The built-in compass is a very valuable on the water, and the backlighting works very nicely in the dark. Eyepiece adjustments worked very well for me and produced crisp viewing. The rangefinder scale is easy to use and may come in handy.

I am very happy that I bought this binocular; I bought it for our first charter trip and the binoculars provided with the boat were really bad. Compared to those, these were shining. I think they were also much better than the Bushnell 7X50 we had during sailing school. Actually with these it was the first time I could enjoy watching the world through a pair of binoculars. The image is clear and very bright. It doesn't seem to lose any brightness at all. They are not very heavy, if you hold them in a position with your arms close to your chest to provide more support you can use them for quite a while.

Now, the bad - they are not extremely well built; the rings around the lenses are stuck with some very cheap glue and they almost came off in only a week of using it. This doesn't have any effect on the optical quality, but still; I hope that the inside is built somewhat stronger, otherwise I will have to replace them too soon.
They have separate focus adjustments for each eye, which is good if you have different vision in each eye, but the correction rings are too lose and the slightest touch moves them, meaning that you have to adjust focus again.
The built in compass is fine, well visible during day or night using the red lamp included. It was also accurate, as we compared it to three other compasses and they all showed the same bearings.
The biggest issue I have with this binocular is that the extremely high eye-relief number claimed by the manufacturer, (24mm I believe) doesn't seem accurate; normally 18 is a good number, and 20 or 21, exceptional. Celestron claims that this one has 24mm; I choose this product based on the eye relief because I wear eyeglasses and I wanted to be able to use it with them on; well, not much luck, because the field of view is so drastically reduced when wearing my glasses, it's not worth bothering. Actually I think it is about 18 because this was the number on the Bushnell that I used and I have the same field of view with this one. Luckily, I realized soon that if I remove my glasses I am still able to see clearly without needing to adjust the focus, so that's what I did.
During one week of use something happened to the scale and compass window - it has somehow rotated so that the compass reading does not show through the window it is supposed to; also the distance scale is not vertical anymore, making it totally useless. I suppose I have to open the compass housing and fix it somehow, but I am not sure how and why this happened. In any case, I suppose it shouldn't have, so this takes away one star. The other is lost because of the focus adjustment rings which are too easy to move involuntarily. All in all I am happy with the purchase and would recommend it with the above mentioned caveats.

I really wanted to give these binoculars a good review being that they are from an American company right near my home but sadly I cannot. The first pair I purchased were defective when the illuminator button fell out when I opened them to first examine them. The second pair I recieved were also defective because the Illuminator did not work at all and there was a black splotch in the viewing area that was internal and could not be cleaned by me. I give up. I will save my money and buy some Steiner's now.

I just received this Celestron Oceana binoculars and I had very high hopes based some of the great reviews here. I find I have a several issues with the alignment of various components.

When I get the binoculars focused and the two circular views merged into one view I find it is distracting that the vertical reticle is not plumb (at 90 degrees to the horizon) but angled 10-15 degrees from plumb. I can make it plumb by widening (separating) the views . but I'd like it to be plumb at my optimized view.

To read the compass clearly I have to pull back from the binocular and lower them to look down at compass reading. I can't be viewing through the binoculars and see the reading at the same time. But that's the whole point of buying these. This alignment should be better.

I have been focusing these binoculars on distant rooftops in the neighborhood. There are these galvanized chimney vents on the roofs. In the bright sun, when I see these shiny roof vents, I see 2 levels of ghost images as well. This seems wrong.

Perhaps my expectations are off or maybe this particular item is a lemon, but I was hoping for more. I think I will have to return these.

Great Value!

Last year (2010) I purchased these binocs by Celestron for $118US via Amazon.com.

I have used them for a full cruising season and am quite pleased. They certainly exceed my expectations for relatively inexpensive binocs. I also have an older pair of West Marine branded binocs aboard (which have survived many years (at least 10) of marine use and not always the best treatment and are now showing their age). The West marine binocs cost about $150 more. The Oceana binocs are certainly comparable to these (even a bit better in some aspects). Optics and ergonomics are good, padded case included, backlit compass uses red light (battery included), quality of construction seems comparable to somewhat more expensive binocs. While the optics are not likely up to Steiner quality they are certainly quite adequate for typical boating use (low light performance is comparable to binocs costing a few hundred dollars more).

The Celestron Oceana 7x50 overall is a great set of binoculars.
Pros:
-Great optics
-Built tough
-Built-in Electronic Compass
-Attached Lense covers

Suggestons for improvement:
-Rangefinder scale needs better resolution (more lines)
-Documentation should include formula as to what each scale line translates to in distance or object size (such as MIL or MOA)
-Focus should have common adjustment for Left and Right eye pieces (this model requires that the Left and Right eye pieces be individually focused)

Never in my life have I looked through such crystal clear binoculars that focus so precisely on objects right in front of your face or across the valley. I have yet to figure out how to properly use the range/size finder, but that's just a matter of sitting down and reading up on it. Like some of the other reviews said, the built-in compass is a tad funky, but not enough to lessen my opinion of them!

Received these yesterday, as I have only had a slight chance to test them out I can only give first impressions.
Optical quality, very, very good, not perfect but very good especially for the price. (5 of 5 stars at this price point)
Build Quality, Fantastic, they feel very sturdy, they are covered by a rubber armor and they are completely waterproof. (5 of 5 stars)
Comfort, pretty good, a bit stiff but I expect them to loosen up over a period of use. (4 of 5 stars)
Instruction manual, with these Binoculars, there is some math involved to get the size or the distance to an object. While the instructions were adequate, they were lacking a bit. (4 of 5 stars)
Accessories (lens caps, binocular bag), This is a double edged sword, the bag is great I expected to get a very cheap case, what it came in is a well padded rigid soft case that well exceeds my expectations. The lens caps...not so much, the front caps are great, they are connected to the the body so you won't loose them. The rear cap is almost worthless. It is a single cap designed to go over both but can't be fitted securely. (4 of 5 stars because of the rear cap)
Compass, Unfamiliar with nautical compasses I was a sort of surprised not to see a N or an S or an E or a W. But after 5 seconds I was able to deal with degrees... The illumination was great and its easy to read. This is a great way to know exactly where you're looking at any time. The compass, integrated with the rangefinder is a huge plus to me. (5 of 5 stars)

I really like these binoculars, I am hoping they live up to my expectations in long term use. I'm taking them out this weekend to test out a bit more and see if the rangefinder is true in its readings and see if the optics are as good as I think they are.

I have written a long review on the Steiner 7x50 Commander V Binoculars. Much of what I wrote in that review applies to these binocs, as they are still 7x50's...... so if you are trying to decide if 7x50 is right for you, then read that review on amazon. If you want general information on selecting the right binoculars, my Canon 10x42L binocular review is more detailed and explains many of the technical issues of binoculars in general.

All visual optics are a function of their optical design, build quality, and mostly their visual experience.....then, you compare all this to the selling price. Clearly, these binocs are simply spectacular for their modest price. I could nit pick a few items, but the price / quality is so exceptional, it would be unfair to Celestron. They packed a lot of quality in these binocs for an amazingly low price, thanks to a good optical design, well executed build quality, good QA and an amazing warranty.

Are there better 7x50's? Sure..... but they are often much more expensive, $300 + and the differences in quality will not justify the price differentials to the avg person... as very small gains in image quality / features, often will increase the selling price 2x - 5x.

BTW, these binocs demonstrate to me, just how good Chinese optical manufacturing is becoming through the years. 15 years ago, these binocs could have NEVER come out of china with this much quality. Of course, some of the credit must go to Celestron for the design and the QA.

Of course, my comments are directed to the non compass version of these binocs also.