Customer Reviews

Meade Travel View 14-70X27 Zoom Compact High Power Prism Binocular

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

 

 

This binocular has the power of magnification I'd expect to find in heavy and bulky units. I was fooled by its weight and size and thought it was weak before I even looked through it. I was amazed at the power and clarity this binoclar provides even at high power. It comes with a neat belt carrying case and weighs absolutely nothing and at times I forgot I had it with me. I recommend it to anyone who wants a high power binocular in a very small package.

Compact and light but 27mm objectives limit useful power to around 30x, anything higher requires a tripod anyway. Still,for brilliant days it's nice to have the potential. If price is a factor this is a good choice.

I'm not an expert on binoculars - I just needed some for watching wildlife, sporting events, and babes at the beach. I wanted something compact, but I figured that unless these things were the size of telescopes you didn't get very good magnification. It turns out I was wrong! This binocular has excellent optics and magnification. It blows away some other larger units I've tried. I highly recommend it for anyone who hikes, goes to ballgames, or has a boat.

well, i have used the product and found its magnification and the resolution satisfactory..yes because of the 27" lenses the amount of light capture is less and could have been better..
Still good product for the price

I went for these binocs after reading so many favorable reviews, but I would not recommend them... For these Meade's you need tremendous light and they have a narrow field of view. At the maximum zoom they are worthless and even at the minimum zoom they are marginal.

High magnification and small lens diameter should warn you to expect very low light. Indeed it is so when you look through these binoculars. To be able to see anything, stay at minimal magnification. Higher mag just means much less light, more blurriness, worse jitter, much smaller field of view. What is the point of above 20x capability when these problems make you switch to lower values anyway??

This being said, there are some good things about these binoculars:
1. At minimal mag, still get 14x and very clear image.
2. Amazingly small size and weight, especially in view of #1. You can just attach the case to your belt!
3. Nice grip and feel, especially for smaller hands (women, children).

I gave three stars because while having some nice features, this unit is a bit expensive, has badly thought out design, and is definitely overadvertised for its capabilities. I would have given four, if the price were lower and the advertising warned about the problems better.

As long as you have realistic expectations concerning the amount of light available from a 27mm lens at over 30x you won't be disappointed, especially for the [high] price. I have a number of other fixed power, modestly priced 25mm binoculars and monoculars. I've read lots of criticism about the poor quality of zoom binoculars, but frankly, ever since I've gotten my 14-70 zoom Travelviews all of my other small binoculars and monoculars sit unused in a drawer. For the money these TravelViews have a decent quality lens and clear focus, they're light and small enough to actually carry around, and they zoom to power seldom if ever found in even much larger binoculars. Granted that you won't be using high power (40x-70x) very often because the image is so dim and the shaking of the hands so distracting. But the image at 70x is still acceptably clear and focused. In cloudy daylight was able to easily read the top letters on a license plate (less than 1 inch high) over a block away on high power. IMO these binoculars are a good deal for the money because of the high power zoom. The fairly small size and the high power zoom feature offers flexibility only found in a very few other competing models.

I have received an email notice that this item is in stock, but when I go to the screen, it says it is not. I definitely want to order it, but don't know how to do so when there is no shopping cart on that page!!