Nikon 7x50 Oceanpro CF-WP ? (1 Viewer)

[KorHaan]

Good morning everyone,

I just happened to find the above mentioned porro model in a store yesterday, but I didn't have time to try them out. I searched the Nikon forum threads all the way back, but apart from one short thread on the Oceanpro Compass 7x50 I was unable to find out more info on the one without compass.

These are big porro's; the Nikon website states them as having a 7.2 * field of view ( 126 m/1000m), and weighing 1100 gram. They are not for allround use, but they might be interesting for low light dusk/dawn birding and owling.
I currently have Canon 10x30 IS and 18x50 IS bins, good enough for daytime birding, but I'm looking for some quality bins with an easy view at night.
I wouldn't want to go any higher than 7x mag; the body mass/low mag combination means the most stable view without IS.

The close focus of 10 meters is not very good, but I could live with that.
Has anybody used or owned this particular pair of bins?
How is the optical quality?
What is the current price?

All answers would be very welcome, thank you.

Kind regards,

Ronald

 

[KorHaan]

No one?

I'll check the Cloudy Nights forum then, as these bins are probably being used more frequently by astronomers.

Cheers,

Ronald

 

[chris lewis]

Sorry just lost my review on them which tok me 1 hour to do ! I will get around to it again when not so angry with myself !

Chris

 

[chris lewis]

Hi. I have the Nikon Ocean Pro 7x50 CF-WP. It is a good but not excellent Marine binocular.
Ergonomically it is comfortable to hold and use. It feels robustly built but at no stage does it feel heavy at 38 oz /1100 gms. The eye relief is a generous 22 mm. It has softish fold down rubber eyecups, the eye bridge is firm with no noticeable movement. It has a 7.1 mm exit pupil. The Tfov is 7.2 degrees - slightly more then the average 7.1. The Afov at 50.4 degrees does not feel restrictive as the overall image is very usable. Close focus is 10 mtrs. / 33 ft.
The view is bright and contrasty and primarily flat. Color fidelity is good. DOF is average. On axis resolution is good. Stars are pin point at night. There is very mild pin cushioning. There is no noticeable barrel effect when panning. Curvature of field occurs from about 90% out. There is mild lateral CA noticed on bright contrasty day time image but this is not distracting.
There are minimal internal reflections and secondary ghostings. These Nikons have very good F.M.C lens. They are relaxing to view through.
There are no other noticeable aberrations or distortions as one would expect in a medium entry good quality 7x50 marine binocular.
There some negatives - mainly around the focuser - it is not ultra smooth and the actual focuser is small and at times awkward to use. Also the bright yellow float neck strap is uncomfortable to use - this is easily resolved however.
These Nikons are Chinese sourced. The more expensive and optically superior Nikon 'Sports and Marine' 7x50's are Japanese sourced. Those versions are optically excellent and provide a flat and very contrasty image. They are noticeable more expensive. The Nikon Ocean Pros are superior to the Tasco Off Shore's, the Barska Deep Sea's, the Steiner Commander and Observer's and the Bushnell H2O Marines. They are also clearly superior to the Fujinon Marine XL-WP - these surprisingly displayed excessive aberrations and distortions. I also prefer these Nikons to the Action AE W.P. 7x50's - they have a more restrictive 6.4 degrees Tfov and 'only' multi coated lens. The higher end Fujinons are superior but again more expensive.
These Nikons cost approx. 300 Euros equivalent in New Zealand - not inexpensive. These particular ones I have cost me approx. 140 Euros as they were slightly used demo models.

In summary these Nikon Ocean Pros are good but not excellent Marine binoculars. They make good day time and low light binoculars. The make good very dark sky binoculars as it makes good use of there 7.1 mm exit pupils. They are not good birding binoculars.
These binoculars are recommended esp. if you can get them at discounted price [naturally !].


Chris

 

[KorHaan]

Thanks, Chris!

It happened to me also, writing a review and then apparently pushing the wrong button -
resulting in a blank page! Understandably you are angry, I appreciate your further efforts to get it straightened.

Great review! I think I'm going to try these Oceanpro's, the price is less than what I thought it would be. My aim is to use them for owling/low light/dusk and dawn situations,
and they might be good for this.
The waterproofing is nice, but the focuser not being smooth as a result of this, might make them less attractive for me using them. Especially on cold nights, I wouldn't want to have problems with a stiff focusing mechanism. With an average depth of field this would become an issue I couldn't live with.

I will give them a try, though, and holding them I can see for myself if they are worth it.
Thank you very much for the elaborate review, much appreciated!

Kind regards.

Ronald

 

[ronh]

Very nice review, Chris.

I've never used that binocular, just a comment that it is true that the 7x50 is a "night glass". A lot of people, including myself, often make do with something like an 8x42 for deep twilight, and sure it will show a lot, and sure, beats a 32mm. But, depending on how much your eyes open to see at least part of the difference between a 5.25 and a 7.1mm exit pupil, a 7x50 can be quite impressive.

My eyes go about 6.5mm. I went out to stargaze a bit by moonlight last night, but it had clouded up, so I just skulked around the yard with my 7x50 Fujinon and 8x42 Zeiss FL. While the 8x42 would arguably show everything the 7x50 would as far as scrutinizing for detail, the 7x50 was just obviously much brighter. Both binoculars are highly, and about equally, transmissive, so the difference mush be the size of the exit pupil. It was easier to see through the 7x50, and enjoyable because you didn't have to strain the eyes so, is the best way I know to say it. Such a binocular is a heavy burden to deal with, but certainly has a place in the "complete arsenal".
Ron

 

[KorHaan]

An exit pupil of 7 mm makes viewing a lot easier at night, yes. It's long ago since I owned a 7 mm EP bin, an inexpensive green rubber armoured 7x50 porro from the military dump store. Comparison with my regular birding bins at the time, Eschenbach 9x63 roofs,
showed that the 7x50 porro's were much brighter than the Eschenbachs at night. The roofs were not phase coated. I gave them away but afterwards I felt some regrets about getting rid of the porro.
However, on my crepuscular trips I feel I have to have a pair of bins with that same view again. The Zeiss 8x56 Classics would be nice but these I can't afford to buy.

Regards,

Ronald

 

[KorHaan]

Today I went back to the store and tried the Nikon 7x50 Oceanpro CF-WP. They felt noticeably less heavy in my hands than my Canon 18x50 IS's that I had with me ( just been out birding and happening to be in the store neighborhood - not that anyone thinks I'm a geek who wears his bins on ANY occasion! ).

The view through them was quite relaxing and pin sharp, and with my biggish frame glasses I could see the entire FOV. It was a very dull, grey day with lots of drizzle. I compared them to my Canons and those seemed as bright. Must be the size of my eye pupils at daytime.

Optically they were nice; ergonomically I liked the big, wide housing, it gave me a good, firm grip. The binocular eyelets, the attachments for the strap, were placed on the side, so when wearing the bins they should lie flat on the chest. Good thinking, this.
The close focus distance was surprisingly NOT the stated 10 meters minimum, but about 6 meters, was my guess.

I never got around to finding out how the strap was, because all the time I was playing with the bins I was trying to turn the focus wheel. It was dreadful, like it had been glued or something, it needed considerable force to work on it. It was tiny too, almost completely absorbed between the big tubes, so a good grip on it with two fingers was an impossibility.

I gave up my efforts and left the store. I never asked the price, but really, I wouldn't want these bins even with a record discount on the price. It's a shame, though, because optically they were quite good. Trying to focus made the handshaking so severe, I couldn't hold them steady for even a moment; the views through my stabilized 18x Canons were in comparison a great relief, tack sharp too AND steady.

Seems I have to look for an other pair of good owling bins.
Maybe 15x50 IS Canons next year.

Regards,

Ronald

 

[ronh]

Well, golly, glad you tried the focus wheel. Traditionally, Porro and WP is not a very good marriage, there are just too many inches of circumference around the sliding eyepieces to seal up without it feeling like, well, it's sealed up.

A WP CF 7x50 that gets rave reviews, however, is the Vixen Foresta. It's lightweight too, but as a consequence of the smaller prisms has a bit less FOV than a big marine glass. But BobinKy here has extensively compared it with a Fujinon FMT-SX, and liked it better for terrestial viewing in low light, although preferring the FMT for stargazing, this based on mounted use, and image quality alone. Also over on CN, forum czar EdZ, and also member Mary, whose other binocular is a Fujinon 10x70, had nothing but praise for it. No bad words have I read for that binocular, about $300 I think.
Ron

 

[KorHaan]

Hi Ron,

Thank you! I've read something about the Vixen Foresta 7x50's on a Dutch internet site, and I'll be looking into it again to find out where I can try these. I think it was somewhere on a Dutch version - so to speak - of the Cloudy Nights forum.

The Vixen Foresta 7x50's are definitely interesting for me; and for that price, too!
I want to try them in a store, because nothing compares to the actual feeling them in one's hands.
I may be old fashioned, but I never order bins over the internet. It's much more fun to play with them in a store.

Best regards,

Ronald

 

[chris lewis]

Glad to know that my Ocean Pros was not the only one with a small and difficult focuser. It will be inherent with this particular Nikon model. I recently used a small amount of light machine oil on the focuser and both barrels to 'free' it up a bit. It helped only slightly. Nikon - who are know as a quality bino maker - should really do better and make the focuser larger and smoother.
I use mine mainly for astro use even with its 7mm exilt pupils as the optics are good and it does give a bright and easy to use image. I just leave the focuser in a 'fixed' position. One other issue - I wrote incorrectly above in my first post that they are F.M.C. - they are not - there are 'Multi Coated'. The prisms appear to be only single coated which prevents them from being labeled F.M.C. The Nikon catalogue also lists them as multi coated. Having said that the apparent light transmission is still very good. Full F.M.C. however would reduce the moderate internal sedondary reflections seen on bright night time objects.
On some International markets Nikon sell two higher end I.F. Marine versions - the slightly more expensive 7.5 degree 7x50 'Sports and Marine' IF WP and the much more expensive 7.3 degree 7x50 IF HP WP 'Topicals' - these are FMC and Japanese made. On some markets the very expensive and highly regarded Astronomical version 7x50 IF SP WP [USA 'Prostars']- with the red rings on the objectives - is also available. Nikon model and numbering is very confusing as they vary on different International markets.


Chris

 

[KorHaan]

Thanks for that, Chris.
Haha, yes, machine oil! I tried that on too many bins with less than fluid focus wheels,
but mostly ended up with oil oozing out for days after. Everything about the binoculars became slippery, but not the focus wheel. I just don't think there's an easy cure without taking the bins apart, and I wouldn't dare do that.
I simply avoid them, even if they are good quality bins, optically.

Regards,

Ronald