Binocollector
Well-known member
Hi guys and gals,
my Prostaff P7 came with UPS today. (Package seemed to have taken some abuse but luckily they used enough bubble wrap so the cardboard Nikon box was undamaged.)
First impressions -- it is very light, very plasticky (not a single metal part in sight anywhere -- compared to it my Canon 8x32WP feels like a tank -- but weighs as much, too and the Nikon P7 has a much bigger FoV -- the good old Canon has only 7.5° compared to the 8.7° of the Nikon). Guess you cannot have everything. After all it is an entry level model.
Image seems very nice, good sweetspot (but my eyes adjust pretty well so I can never tell how anyone else might feel about it and taking pics with my cheap phone is pretty useless -- I did it anyway).
It seems to me like it has a very slight compression at the edge of the field -- like a barrel distortion, definitely not a pincushion distortion which would have been optically better. This seems very similar to the Kowa BDII which to me is the direct competitor for the P7 with its 8.8° FoV.
Eyecups have 3 positions. And it DOES NOT work with glasses for me -- the eyepiece lenses are recessed too much and eye relief is too short for me -- image is cut off so much that the wide FoV makes no sense at all. Compared to my Kowa 6.5x32 the eye relief is horrible on the Prostaff. On the Kowa I get maybe at least 90% of the FoV compared to wearing no glasses.
Sounds like I am trashing it but I otherwise it is very nice, feels good in the hand, focuser works nicely, optics seem to be really good -- even though the FoV is still no match for any of my vintage wide angle 8x30s.
CA is controlled very well in the center but it has some off-axis CA. No tripod-adapter screw. Locking diopter ring. The rainguards and objective covers are, like on all Nikons I own, a bad joke. I might get some Opticron lense covers for them later on.
It is too early of course to really come up with a fair judgement. But for 219€ (way cheaper in the US) I'd have expected a bit more. You get what you pay for. The Kowa 8x32 would still be way better quality and has better eye relief, too but also costs almost twice as much (at least in Germany -- Kowa BDII 8x32 is 419€).
The optics seem to be the flavor of the day for China made binos -- not much pincushion distortion (to me that is a good thing but I suspect others might have problems with the globe effect -- similar to the Kowa BDII) a slight "compression" or less magnification at the edge which looks still very different to my eyes from a "normal" field curvature like on vintage porros.
Some more details: it takes 1.5 turns to get from closest focusing distance to infinity and about one turn to get from closest focus point (roughly 2m) to about 300m out.
Overall quality is not bad, no major flaws that I can see -- just a little plasticky compared to a Kowa or my Canon (I compared it to the Canon because that is the only relatively modern 8x bino I have and it's a roof prism -- all my other 8x binos are either vintage or porros - edit: completely forgot about my Kite Cervus 8x56).
I'll update the thread after I have used it for some time.
And I took a lot of pictures -- but keep in mind that I didn't use a tripod.
Vintage wide angle 8x30 to compare:
Here you can see the recessed lenses of the eyepieces - which further reduces eye relief. A real bummer for all who need glasses to observe. I also took a pic of me with glasses -- so you get an impression of how close my glasses fit.
Next pic was to "force out" some CA. But I guess it is too blurry. I cannot see CA in the center -- and the sweetspot seems smaller on the cellphone pics which is either the crappy lense or maybe my eyes are so good at adjusting that the sweetspot looks just much larger to my eyes. I think that is something everybody has to find out for himself. Best to test in a store first.
Close view of the garden -- around 6 m.
my Prostaff P7 came with UPS today. (Package seemed to have taken some abuse but luckily they used enough bubble wrap so the cardboard Nikon box was undamaged.)
First impressions -- it is very light, very plasticky (not a single metal part in sight anywhere -- compared to it my Canon 8x32WP feels like a tank -- but weighs as much, too and the Nikon P7 has a much bigger FoV -- the good old Canon has only 7.5° compared to the 8.7° of the Nikon). Guess you cannot have everything. After all it is an entry level model.
Image seems very nice, good sweetspot (but my eyes adjust pretty well so I can never tell how anyone else might feel about it and taking pics with my cheap phone is pretty useless -- I did it anyway).
It seems to me like it has a very slight compression at the edge of the field -- like a barrel distortion, definitely not a pincushion distortion which would have been optically better. This seems very similar to the Kowa BDII which to me is the direct competitor for the P7 with its 8.8° FoV.
Eyecups have 3 positions. And it DOES NOT work with glasses for me -- the eyepiece lenses are recessed too much and eye relief is too short for me -- image is cut off so much that the wide FoV makes no sense at all. Compared to my Kowa 6.5x32 the eye relief is horrible on the Prostaff. On the Kowa I get maybe at least 90% of the FoV compared to wearing no glasses.
Sounds like I am trashing it but I otherwise it is very nice, feels good in the hand, focuser works nicely, optics seem to be really good -- even though the FoV is still no match for any of my vintage wide angle 8x30s.
CA is controlled very well in the center but it has some off-axis CA. No tripod-adapter screw. Locking diopter ring. The rainguards and objective covers are, like on all Nikons I own, a bad joke. I might get some Opticron lense covers for them later on.
It is too early of course to really come up with a fair judgement. But for 219€ (way cheaper in the US) I'd have expected a bit more. You get what you pay for. The Kowa 8x32 would still be way better quality and has better eye relief, too but also costs almost twice as much (at least in Germany -- Kowa BDII 8x32 is 419€).
The optics seem to be the flavor of the day for China made binos -- not much pincushion distortion (to me that is a good thing but I suspect others might have problems with the globe effect -- similar to the Kowa BDII) a slight "compression" or less magnification at the edge which looks still very different to my eyes from a "normal" field curvature like on vintage porros.
Some more details: it takes 1.5 turns to get from closest focusing distance to infinity and about one turn to get from closest focus point (roughly 2m) to about 300m out.
Overall quality is not bad, no major flaws that I can see -- just a little plasticky compared to a Kowa or my Canon (I compared it to the Canon because that is the only relatively modern 8x bino I have and it's a roof prism -- all my other 8x binos are either vintage or porros - edit: completely forgot about my Kite Cervus 8x56).
I'll update the thread after I have used it for some time.
And I took a lot of pictures -- but keep in mind that I didn't use a tripod.
Vintage wide angle 8x30 to compare:
Here you can see the recessed lenses of the eyepieces - which further reduces eye relief. A real bummer for all who need glasses to observe. I also took a pic of me with glasses -- so you get an impression of how close my glasses fit.
Next pic was to "force out" some CA. But I guess it is too blurry. I cannot see CA in the center -- and the sweetspot seems smaller on the cellphone pics which is either the crappy lense or maybe my eyes are so good at adjusting that the sweetspot looks just much larger to my eyes. I think that is something everybody has to find out for himself. Best to test in a store first.
Close view of the garden -- around 6 m.
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