Customer Reviews

Nikon Action 12x50 EX Extreme ATB Binocular

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

 

 

This binocular simply fell into my hand as though it were made for me personally. Love at first feel? Yes!

I compared this binocular to several others in the same price range, here is what I found:

Fit and finish: Nikon is easily the equal of any Vixen or Pentax or Olympus (I didn't try Canon).

Feel: Nikon was by far the best.

Optics: Nikon did something clever here. First of all, they gave this one a wider field of view than, for example, the Pentax PCF. Looking through the Pentax (and, by the way, I have a high regard for Pentax and *love* their Papilio series, but that is another binocular for a different purpose) after using the Nikon, the view seemed dimmer and claustrophobic. With the Nikon, you have that wonderful feeling of actually being "out there" in the field or in the sky with your object. And everything is so bright and sharp! The Nikon really excels in sharpness at the center.

However, Nikon did another clever thing (and I checked a couple of pairs of these Nikon binos to see if this was true generally, and it was): at this price point you can't possibly have the whole field of view perfectly sharp. No binocular is perfectly sharp at the edges. Here is what Nikon did, best as I can tell: they put the sloppiest edges at the outside and top of the field of view. Wow! Think about it: if you had to compromise somewhere, you want to compromise AWAY from the center and bottom. Why? Because, the inside edge of the FOV of each barrel is where the object will be. And, most likely (especially for terrestrial viewing), the object or its environment will also be resting on or near the bottom (think of a bird in a tree or an animal on the ground) So, Nikon seems to have made sure that the bottoms and inside edge of the FOV was as sharp as possible, while allowing the far outside and top edges to be a little worse. Smart!

There is some chromatic abberation, but that, too, is unavoidable at this price. Even some very high priced camera lenses (with only one barrel to worry about) have this. The CA is not at all objectionable. A little rim of faint purple at the edges of the FOV in high contrast situations.

A very nice binocular. Not too heavy, not too big, very comfortable to use, excellent imagery, top-of-the-line sharpness-at-center, great construction. I expect to get a lifetime's enjoyment out of them.

Note updated March 2010: Amazon has now moved the reviews back into separate magnifications and is no longer combining the reviews as they did when I originally wrote this!

Note: Amazon is combining reviews for Action Extreme models with 50mm objectives; 7x50, 10x50, 12x50, 16x50 etc.

We already had the Nikon Action 8x40 which I think was reasonable quality for $60, but I was somewhat disappointed by the Action Extreme 12x50 I bought when I wanted something waterproof and with more reach. Both the Action and Action Extreme have a lot of internal reflection that causes glare around the edges during daytime viewing and from bright objects at night like the moon. This is very noticeable and I wonder why so few these reviews mention it. The glare from a blue sky really intrudes into the lower half of your view while watching animals on the ground, indicating that Nikon has skimped on the quality of the lens and prism coatings, as well as the interior blacking.

I use these mostly for bird watching on our farm, and they are good binoculars but better coatings would make them excellent. The Action Extreme is noticeably more solidly built and rugged in than the Action series we own, and more likely to survive being dropped. Both models have objective lens covers that are guaranteed to be lost if you rely on the slots that are supposed to be used to attach them to the straps. You can punch or drill a hole in the slotted tabs and then use a plastic clip or even string to keep them from falling off the strap. The twist-up adjustable eye cups work beautifully for a glasses wearer like me (and are far superior to the rubber cups that fold down on the Action model).

Brightness was sufficient, as these are not fully multi-coated so I didn't expect them to be tremendously bright, especially at 12x, but improved coatings would also enhance the brightness. The Nikon brand reputation was the deciding factor for me, but if you have an opportunity to get another decent waterproof set for less, I suggest comparing them if you can. I wish that I had. If you can afford it, the NIKON 7296 Monarch III 12x42 Binocular series promises to be substantially better than these (the Monarchs are fully multi-coated, plus they offer roof prism if you prefer that to porro). Overall, I was just a little let down on the image quality from these as the reviews on Amazon were mostly glowing.

These are good quality and will meet most peoples needs, and I would still recommend them to friends. But I definitely would shop around for comparable quality for less money. I suspect some of the waterproof Bushnells I've seen priced significantly less aren't much different. Of course, the way everything is sealed in plastic these days the opportunity to compare is severely limited unless you have a friendly camera shop nearby, or maybe a birding group whose members can let you see through their equipment.

This is the first pair of really good binoculars we have every bought. I can't believe how clear everything is. They work easily and although a little heavy, not bad. I would recommend these to anyone.

I bought these binoculars because they are waterproof and claim to be "All Terrain Binoculars", however neither is the case. Nikon designed them to be tough enough for someone who uses them outside occasionally, but if you are truly adventurous then look elsewhere for your optics. I ordered these binoculars 1/31/11, it is now 9/27/11 and they are failing miserably. They claim to be fogproof. They were for a while and then the right tube started fogging up on the inside all the time. Now the left one has started to do the same thing. They claim to be waterproof, and they are, but only for a very short amount of time. They got rained on during an excursion I took 3 weeks ago and had water dripping out of the right side for about a week after. Furthermore the metal parts have now started to corrode and even RUST! Yes, rust. All I can say now is that I'm glad these things have a 25 year warranty because they are going to need it. I am not looking forward to the process of returning, waiting around, etc. but so it goes. Shame on Nikon for making such a claim as "All terrain binocular" when they are anything but. Like I say, if you are someone who goes outside twice a year, then these may work for you, but if you are an outdoors person like myself then move along.