Customer Reviews

Vivitar 7 x 50 Binoculars

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Purchased because of very low price and 7x50 spec. I didn't expect great quality at this price, but did expect them to be useable. First one produced double vision. Took it back to Walgreens for another. The 2nd one has single vision but focus was so poor that I couldn't read a small distant sign that was absolutely clear with my other brand (low cost) 7x50.

Vivitar should be ashamed of themselves for selling such low grade trash. If you are tempted to buy these, go to a store where you can test a few and pick the best one.

Oh man, these are trash. I picked up a pair at the local drugstore on a radical discount, just to see. They were so far out of alignment that even when I could get the images to merge, convex objects looked concave. Guaranteed to induce headaches. Then there's the mushy focusing, and the chromatic aberration on bright objects. Finally, the view is noticeably dimmer than in my 7x35s, which shouldn't happen with double the light-gathering area on the objective lenses (pi*35*35=3846 square mm; pi*50*50=7850 square mm). My guess is that the manufacturer should have passed on the "UV coating" and added some coatings to enhance light transmission, like you find on decent binoculars. If they'd done that, though, these would sell for more than the cost of a movie ticket (hint: don't pay any more than that for them!).

So I disassembled one side. Now I have a 7x50 monocular with all of the problems listed above except the misalignment, plus a cheap eyepiece for my travel telescope, two cool prisms to play with, and one lousy lens that I have no idea what to do with. So as a bag of parts to tinker with, this was a good buy *at the ridiculous discount I got*, but at anything more than that, or as a functional piece of optics that you can use for more than two minutes without getting a migraine, these should be avoided.

I purchased and returned this product twice and then gave up and got a refund. In my opinion, either the product is defective or is packaged poorly. Both times the binoculars exhibited double vision. I was surprised that a Vivitar product would perform so poorly.

didn't know what bad binocs were, until I tried these. My 8x42 has a far wider view. This 7x50 is very difficult to use for me due to collimation issues. Color problems and very small views. Someone might be able to find its $10 Walgreens price valuable.

My 8 year old son got this product as a present from a friend for his birthday. While they look very impressive at a first glance, I have never seen and could not have imagined that binoculars can be as bad in both material quality and construction design. We've owned this for less than a day and the plastic frame has already got two small cracks in it - even though they have not been dropped and were handled VERY carefully. This is the worst quality plastic normally reserved for cheap chinese toys. Furthermore, both eyepieces are fixed via a loose screw in the middle and their wobble disrupts focus first and collinearity second. No adjustment of the screw helps since eyepieces are bigger diameter than the tubes they're fit on anyways. The focus adjustment is not smooth and when I try to adjust the single eyepiece focus, the eyepiece just unscrews and falls out.
Bacically, DON'T EVER BUY THESE BINOCULARS!!! They're not a bargain but a waste of your money.

My assessment after only ten minutes:

I was able to get a very clear, focussed image rather easily. However, it's VERY poorly constructed! The left eyepiece came loose and cannot be secured again, and the "eyecup" to which the manual refers is non-existent (eyeglass wearers are supposed to be able to roll them down for better field of view). All four lens covers were so loose as to fall off easily (thus could easily get lost), and the strap was thin, cheap, and already frayed. And a small cap was missing entirely - the one that covers the pivoting screw for the eyepieces.

A piece of junk....

I knew going into Walgreens that these were not going to be the best quality, so I don't feel to bad that I only spent $9.99 on them. Vivitar is not know for any great quality. They work fine for just general viewing during the day and evening. The quality is subpar. They are hard to focus since the focus adjustment seems to stick and they use plastic parts on them. The carry strap is so cheap that it was frayed on the ends and the strap keepers do not work. I like the pouch and the feel of the optics. These are fine to keep in your car, tool box, take to a ball game etc...If you dont care about price or if they get banged around, these are for you.

These look great from a distance but the eyepiece mechanism is poorly designed and held on with a single screw (that was loose on mine.) Once tightened they worked good enough but the eyepieces were not level so focus was off on one or other eye. They do have two big bright 50mm lenses to bring in lots of light for use at night. If you want something to last spend $30 on some better built 7 x 50's. Mine were $10 at Walgreens so didnt expect much.

This "thing" it's not worth a single dollar.
I got for US$ 9.99 but the price should've been .99 cents. and free shipping.
If you can believe, EVEN the lint free cloth to clean the lens has a LOT of lint on it.
At least to say something positive, THE PLASTIC/RUBBER IS BLACK.

Stay away from any of these rubber binoculars. I ordered the Vivitar, got Emerson instead, but they all look the same. These binoculars have coated lenses. That's the dumbest thing I ever heard of. You get 50 mm binoculars instead of 35 mm to get more light, for use in astronomy or low light conditions. Making dark glasses out of the lenses defeats that purpose. ALSO, I found I cannot focus these. Since shipping costs almost as the product, I am not returning them, but will put them in the recycle bin. First, and now last, thing I've bought from Amazon in a long time.