I had a chance to try these out briefly indoors at my local RSPB reserve and I have to say I was impressed. I'm not easily impressed.
I liked the bright wide field with a large "sweet spot". CA was well corrected and I tested for flare against a low sun and found it very well suppressed. I compared it against the 8x32 Trinovid for flare, a step up in price and the Trinovid performed worse.
The close focus was impressive too, at least as good as my old Nikon 8x32 HG/LX's and maybe less than the specified 2m. and I didn't notice any problems merging the image at close range.
Of course being a Nikon it focusses clockwise to infinity and whilst not as fast as my HG's they were fast enough for birding purposes. The focus wheel itself was smooth with no slop and did not draw attention to itself.
My only gripes were the central hinge which was a little too loose for my tastes and the strap lug position which is a little too low but actually as the barrels are so slim don't really interfere with the hold. I seem to have a thing about strap lugs digging in to my hands where they shouldn't but these would be passable.
It seems we do live in something of a golden age for binoculars. At £499 these aren't cheap but to my eyes they compare well to binoculars above their price range.
Overall a very solid effort by Nikon, great for birding and due to their compact shape as a travel binocular too.
I liked the bright wide field with a large "sweet spot". CA was well corrected and I tested for flare against a low sun and found it very well suppressed. I compared it against the 8x32 Trinovid for flare, a step up in price and the Trinovid performed worse.
The close focus was impressive too, at least as good as my old Nikon 8x32 HG/LX's and maybe less than the specified 2m. and I didn't notice any problems merging the image at close range.
Of course being a Nikon it focusses clockwise to infinity and whilst not as fast as my HG's they were fast enough for birding purposes. The focus wheel itself was smooth with no slop and did not draw attention to itself.
My only gripes were the central hinge which was a little too loose for my tastes and the strap lug position which is a little too low but actually as the barrels are so slim don't really interfere with the hold. I seem to have a thing about strap lugs digging in to my hands where they shouldn't but these would be passable.
It seems we do live in something of a golden age for binoculars. At £499 these aren't cheap but to my eyes they compare well to binoculars above their price range.
Overall a very solid effort by Nikon, great for birding and due to their compact shape as a travel binocular too.
