Celestron Skymaster 25x70 (1 Viewer)

[Bencw]

Hi, I have noticed these are dropping in price now, to around £75, I have been tempted to get one for a bit of sky watching, but if anyone owns or has used one be grateful for any opinions on how they perform. I have a couple of vintage bins I use now and then, a Ross 16x and Hilkinson 20x, they are not bad, but I think I would be expecting the Skymaster with newer coatings and glass to be markedly better than those.

Ben

 

[Binastro]

. Dear Ben,
don't waste your money.
I was more or less desperate to get the 25×70 skymaster, although I think I paid less than you mention.
Firstly, I told the well-known shop to pack it well. The salesman assured me it would be.
It arrived completely loose in the box rattling around.
Knowing how fragile the 70 mm cheapies are I feared the worse. But somehow it survived unmarked and in collimation.
However, it was immediately apparent that at least the one I had was a great disappointment.
It has a lot of false colour and it is just not very good.
I have tested at least half a dozen 15×70 Revelation from telescope house and these are very much better. Although I haven't looked through the equivalent 15×70 sky master. In general, I think that the Revelation have better coatings and some of them are multicoated even on the prisms giving supposedly 92% transmission. Although some of them clearly don't have coated prisms even though the Seller thinks they do have.
I think that the Chinese factories don't know themselves what they are making. Or at least they are not consistent. Even to the same importer.

Anyway, even if my 25 x 70 sky master is poorer than most I wouldn't recommend that you get one of these. it should work but it doesn't. I think that they could have made a much better job of it.

Stick with your 20 x 70 Japanese binocular. It is probably much better
there may be a good 25×70 but I don't know of one.
Best wishes.

 

[Bencw]

Dear Binastro,
Many thanks, comments much appreciated, I did feel a bit dubious about them anyway so will take your advice.

 

[Binastro]

. Dear Ben,
although I said I don't know of a good 25×70 binocular perhaps you should look out for the Russian 26 x 70.
I'm not sure if this was made earlier in a Soviet version, which is likely to be better if it exists.
I think that the 26 x 70 is basically the 20×60 binocular with longer focus and larger objectives. The F ratio is probably longer than the 60 mm as a straight swap would be about 23 x 70. This may mean that the image quality is surprisingly good.

Anyway I suspect that the 26 x 70 is better than the skymaster 25 x 70 although quite a lot heavier and larger.

I have never actually seen one although I would have bought one in the past but now it is probably too heavy for me to use hand-held.
However, on a tripod it should give good views. If it is Russian then you should check it if possible as they vary more than the older Soviet optics.

 

[Bencw]

Thanks Binastro,
I cant recall having seen a 26x70, unusual, but I will look out, weight is not an issue as they will be used with a tripod anyway, and I suspect infrequently. Russian bins and old soviet bins have in my experience been pretty good optically. I have also seen a Japanese Swift observation binocular 20x80, not much knowledge of that model, I know Swift are pretty good mostly, the Audubon and Saratoga are excellent but I also have a couple like the Belmont and Ascot which are pretty moderate.

 

[Binastro]

. Hi Ben,
I think there are at least two main swift 20×80. One is handholdable and the other is a long focus tripod mounted version.
I think that in the American TV series Baywatch the tripod mounted long focus binocular may be the swift 20×80.
There is also a vixen 20×80, I think, that is very similar.
I think these are all Japanese and good quality.
There also may be Opticron good quality Japanese 20×80 as well as Steiner fairly lightweight which are expensive. the Steiner may actually be 78 mm aperture.
I had a 30×80 Japanese binocular that I bought for a third of the normal price new from Park cameras many moons ago. The problem was that the eye relief was minimal although the resolution was good. they had three and I tested them carefully across the park outside their shop and bought the best one for £50 or less.

 

[Bencw]

Hi Binastro,

Less than £50 sounds good !
The Swift is the big long focus model, not for hand holding, you would need a tripod, I will keep an eye on it and see what it goes for. I have seen an used Opticron 20x80 but it's over £200, sounds a tad steep to me.
In my dreams I find a mint Zeiss 20x60 Image Stabilised binocular going for a song at a boot fair.

 

[MPeoples]

Ben,
The 15x70 are better than the 25x70. Look at the Vixen 80mm Giant Binoculars they make them in 20x, 30x and now in a zoom 16-40x.

Mike

 

[Bencw]

Thanks Mike,
Will take a look.