Nikon Aculon A211 7x50 binoculars are one of the best (1 Viewer)

[Jake21]

I love these for birdwatching. They seem like there the perfect balance between field of view and vision quality. There very bright, clear, and have great scanning ability. Does anyone else use these for bird watching?

 

[Roadbike]

That's great that you've gotten comfortable with them and can do some real bird watching especially in dim light.

I use what makes sense for the situation and I have at hand. Which could be a 6x30, 8x30, 10x35.

 

[OPTIC_NUT]

I don't have the Aculon 7x50s because there are so many old ones that are great.
I have looked, though. If you are OK with the bulk, it pays dividends in the view.
Going Porro still gives a boost at the low-cost range, and going 7x50 adds a lot to that.

Going to 7 and 50 naturally makes a good thing better in binoculars, getting much
better field performance with the same eyepieces than with higher powers,
having a lot of field depth (the range where things are in focus), and a huge
exit pupil so eyes are easy to place.

I tend to want a smaller thing, so I prefer 7x35.
I should make an effort to haul 7x50s around more,though.

 

[Swarovski Man]

I was excited when Nikon brought these out, but to be honest I wouldn't recommend them. I tried a couple of models in a well known retailer and thought that they were optically poor. I know that they are not particularly expensive (if you ignore the supposed MRP) but they look and feel cheap and the eye relief should be better considering that this is a new line from Nikon. You can get better value from Helios porros.

 

[brocknroller]

I was excited when Nikon brought these out, but to be honest I wouldn't recommend them. I tried a couple of models in a well known retailer and thought that they were optically poor. I know that they are not particularly expensive (if you ignore the supposed MRP) but they look and feel cheap and the eye relief should be better considering that this is a new line from Nikon. You can get better value from Helios porros.

Welcome to Birdforum, Swarovski Man! Your distant cousin, Meopta Man, also posts on these forums. You will find a lot of Swarovski fans on BF, some so devoted to the brand, I have to wonder why they didn't chose that username before you did?

I prefer the Vixen 7x50 Foresta, but if Jake is "jake" with an Aculon, he saved some money that pickier bin users would have had to spend to be satisfied.

I have the 7x35 Aculon, and it is very sharp on axis, thanks to the aspheric lenses, but has field curvature off axis, which younger eyes might be able to accommodate better than mine. Most of the edge can be refocused, but either the centerfield or the edges are sharp, not both at the same time. Of course, there's a big difference in FOV, the 7x50 Aculon only has 6.4* (same as the 7x50 Action EX) vs. 9.3* for the 7x35 model. Can't expect sharp to the edge performance from a $75 bin with an EWA.

Sounds like the advertized ER on the 7x50 Aculon is not the useable ER for eyeglass wearers? The 7x50 Aculon is supposed to have a over 17mm ER. Ditto for the 7x50 Action EX. When you detract the lens recession (usual 2-3mm) and the space the eyecup takes up sitting on top of the EP housing (another 2-3mm), you can end up with 4mm to 6mm less ER than spec since most companies measure the ER from the top of the lens to the focal point of the image.

Nikon is accurate with its ER of the Nikon SE and EII, according to experts who have done the measurements, but neither of those models have thick twist-up eyecups, though like most bins, the lenses are recessed 2-3 mm below the top of the EP housing to keep your glasses from scratching the EP lenses.

Birdman (changed my username to match my avatar)

 

[perterra]

What Brockles said.