Customer Reviews

Tasco 25x30mm Hand-Held Telescope

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

 

 

This is an exellent buy if this is your first brass spyglass. For being so sheap this sure is good quality, every part of it is verry accurate. I really do have seen a lot worse. People who do not CARE to examine and learn for themselves OR are not used to handle and use spyglasses may have some problem getting the focus right. In any case the focus is really sharp when you do get it right.

You need to twist the smallest tube to change the focus depth. Pracise make perfect!

Even thou its not verry big in size i found that it was as "big" and heavy as i would tolerate for easy carrying and easy use in a larp. You may carry it in a small beltbag, and it fits nicely in your palm.

The only bad thing about it was the fake-leather. I bought it to use on a Pirate LARP (Live Action Role Playing) and i had to remove the plastic "leather" and sew on a new real piece of darkbrown leather myself.
Besides this, modern brass items are often lacquerd with a special clear brass protective lacquer, witch makes it impossible to corrode. I wandted that antique feeling since im using it on larps. So in order to get that old look to it I took everything apart (total disensembling), and polished off the lacquer using a grinding machine with a verry fine polishing rondell, and reassembled it. Afer two months it looked like a movie prop, corroded (darkened) and beautiful.
However I do not recommend anyone to do this UNLESS you are a craftsman who knows how to work metals and have basic (proffessional) polishing skills. If you are going to do this anyway, be extra careful to remove the glass parts so that you dont accidentally polish them! And be careful not to grind away any metal or you may destroy it completley.

There are more than five, exactly the same, spyglasses here on Amazon.com they look exactly the same and comes with the same fake-leather carrying case. So im leaving this rating on a fiew of them. They are all manufactured in the same place, probably china, and distributed to the different vendors.


I hope my rewiew was any help to you!
Have a Good Larp!
:D

Ok guys, it is a spyglass, not a telescope.
A real pretty little piece, I bough it as a gift for friends, as some nostalgic piece to remind us that distance isn't a problem.
Very well done, classical look. Only downside: the case looks cheap.

I work on a boat and I just wanted to mess around and bring it out when the guys were watching. The spyglass actually works fine, but it has its limitations. One of which is finding what you are pointing at and the other is focusing. Once you get the hang of it it gets somewhat easier, but not much.

I bought this spyglass about 2 months ago and I LOVE IT!! I basically wanted something "pirate-esque" and this is it! It's got a great look and an even better feel. The leather on it is obviously cheap and fake, but still looks and feels great in my opinion. Whenever I look through it i genuinely feel like a real seaman or, dare i say, A PIRATE!! Actually, this things got great magnification. At 25x, I've yet to find a spyglass to come anywhere near that for this price. And it's also very easy to focus after a little practice (assuming you don't have terrible dexterity and coordination). Basically, you extend the spyglass to it's full length and if you're not in focus, you then slightly contract until it's almost clear. Then to fine tune the image, you twist the eyepiece segment until you're happy with the clarity. Really quite easy.

For anyone who has a healthy interest in sea faring, pirates, etc. or if you're just looking for a fun way to see distant objects, this thing's GREAT. It's also a great gift, be it for a kid to play with, someone to use, or just to place on the shelf as a display.

I LOVE THIS THING.

I bought 2 of these as a present for my nephews. I paid for UPS ground shipping but the vendors method was to have UPS ship it to the US Post Office nearest me and then have the postal service deliver it. Since Christmas was approaching the vendor's shipping method would have never achieve the 5 day shipping the promised because the 5 day would have fallen on the weekend and by the time Sunday went by and USPS delivered it on Monday, 7 days would have gone by. Neither Amazon or UPS could give me decent tracking info even though I offered to drive to the UPS depot and pick it up - they couldn't even tell me what depot it was going to. On the plus side the vendor reimbursed me the $11.98 for shipping and after spending hours on the phone with UPS, I finally got confirmation they were delivering the package to the post office at 5pm on friday and I rushed over to the post office and got the package just before they closed.
Now on to the product. I tested the spyglasses before wrapping them as presents. It's tricky to get the right combination of focus and telescoping - the instructions are worthless. What ever length you telescope to you have to fine tune the focus by twisting/turning the piece that comes up to your eve. Also the case is very cheaply made - not like I was expecting leather but they could have made the case out of better material and I would have paid extra for it. Magnification-wise it was ok so long as you're not expecting too much.

Ordered this for my wife, she liked it. You have to get the knack for using the focus.