There are two buttons on top for the two types of image stabilisation. The buttons feel different, so it’s easy to find the right one with your finger without looking. The Stabiliser mode eliminates shake; then, when you’ve found your subject, use the Powered IS mode to also eliminate bigger movements. The life of the (two AA) batteries varies dramatically: around 10 hours at 23°C but only around 1 hour at -10°C.

This model is the ideal companion when spectating sports events, nature-watching or pursuing other outdoor activities. You should be under no illusions - these are far from being the best binoculars in the world, but having said that these Nikon EagleView Zoom binoculars are far, far cheaper than the top of the range compacts and to be fair to them they are not at all bad and I would say easily outperform their price tag. If you can live with their weak points and are looking for a cheap pair of zoom binoculars then the Nikon EagleView Zoom 8-24x25 CF maybe just for you.As with other small binoculars, they come with a strap and a case (but the case doesn’t have its own strap). The case is simple but functional. The eyepiece cap is attached to the strap so you can’t lose it. While the objective lens caps flip down so you can’t lose them either. Weak points? Their very narrow field of view, even at 8x magnification is really noticeable and their rather distant minimum focusing distance are definite weak points. The amount of eye-relief will also be disappointing to those of you who want to use them with glasses on. The fact that they are neither water or fogproof is also a shame, especially for those that like to use their optics in all weather conditions.

Canon offers a good range of image stabilised binoculars but higher magnifications are where you’ll benefit from it the most. Two caveats though: the high magnification makes for a narrow field of view (you see less at any given time) so it’s harder to spot the bird, star, whatever in the first place. And combined with the 32mm objective lenses, they don’t gather enough light for low light use at dusk. However, they’re great for shake-free stargazing and a delight for detailed moon gazing. You must remember that as well as the Exit Pupil, the performance of a pair of optics in poor light also depends a lot on the quality of the glass and optical coatings and not just the exit pupil and twilight factor formula. Good coatings on the lenses and the prisms can double the amount of light that gets through the binocular, when compared to those that have none or poor quality coatings. Another downside to them not being fully covered in rubber is that there is more chance of them making a louder sound if something like your watch or more commonly a ring on your finger strikes against them. Rubber armour dampens down the sound and helps to ensure that you don't frighten away easily spooked animals like birds or deer. At 8x magnification, I was also really impressed by just how little softening of the image on the periphery of the view there was and you can only just notice it by really looking for it. At higher magnification levels the amount of softening increases and becomes much more noticeable at 24x. At 350g (12.3oz), it must be said they are on the heavy end of the scale when compared to most other compacts, they do however still feel very light compared to most standard full sized binoculars.This Nikon compact has, what I think are actually two hinges (it is hard to see as they are located under a cover), with both hinges located very close to each other, meaning that they almost work like single a central hinge design. Whatever the case, the two barrels can be brought closer together or pulled further apart to match the distance between your eyes ( Inter-Pupillary Adjustment) by opening or closing the hinges. This adjustment felt smooth and there was the right amount of friction to prevent them from opening or closing too easily, but not too much so as to make moving them difficult. The minimum distance between the centers of the two eye-piece lenses that can be achieved is 56mm when fully folded and the maximum is 72mm when full opened. They’re lovely to use with a bright image that’s well magnified. They’re great outdoorsy all-rounders. A close focus range of just 1.9m means you can magnify even quite near objects. All lenses and prisms are multilayer-coated for brighter views and the body is a light-weight of only 305g. The twist-up eyecups look to be made from a very hard plastic that have a very thin rubber coating on them. The ocular lens has a diameter of 11mm and the eyecup has an external diameter of 37mm, which are both considerably smaller than what you find on most full sized binoculars, but is about average for a compact. This smaller size and very thin rubber covering mean that they are not the most comfortable eyecups that I have ever used, but any discomfort is only really noticeable when you push them quite firmly against your face. To see this in action, you can hold these binoculars up at arm's length and look at the eyepiece lenses, where you can clearly see the circle of light in the eyepieces, this represents the exit pupil. As you increase the magnification you can actually see this circle of light in each eyepiece getting smaller and smaller - see my series of photos below that I took to demonstrate this:

Specs-wise, it boasts superior optics and coatings and its Porro prisms are made with BaK-4 Barium Crown glass, considered the best prism material available. The exterior is rubberised and lens caps flip down. Accessories include a rugged carry bag with a strap and both regular and flared eyecups. As you increase the magnification level and zoom in on an object, the FOV reduces even further. However this is not as big a problem as I would suggest the best way to use these zoom binoculars is to have them set at 8x to locate the object that you want to observe and the once you have it in your field of view, you can then zoom into it to get a more detailed view. Thankfully these aren’t just for night manoeuvres, offering a nicely detailed and bright image during the day, although you’ll need a tripod for the best results.

To minimize reflection on the lens surfaces and ensure clear, sharp images, anti-reflective coatings are often applied. These anti-reflection coatings are very important as part of the light that passes through any lens is reflected by the front (incident light) and rear (exiting light) surfaces. This reduces the amount of light passing through the lens and if this transmittance is very bad, the image you see will be darker than on binoculars that transmit more light. Also, the reflected light may cause ghosting and flaring, affecting image contrast.

TOKYO - Nikon Vision Co., Ltd., (Nikon Vision), a subsidiary of Nikon Corporation (Nikon), is pleased to announce the release of a new binocular model, the Sportstar Zoom 8-24x25. The Sportstar Zoom 8-24x25 binoculars feature a portable and compact body, and employ a zoom lever on the top of the body which enables smooth 8-24x zooming. The focusing ring can be operated while looking through the binoculars during observation. All lenses and prisms are multilayer-coated for brighter images and the body is a lightweight 305 g/10.8 oz. Slightly more manageable as an option for birders is the retro-looking Celestron Up Close G2 10-30x50 binocular, though it’s still heavy compared with what we have here due to that extra zoom power and larger objective lens. If weight is an issue, a zoom monocular is another alternative. Here Nikon’s arch-rival Canon provides one in its PowerShot Zoom Monocular, on which a minimum 100mm focus setting is adjustable to a 800mm equivalent. It can even capture stills and videos to microSD card too, though requires a battery to power it. An important thing to consider when looking at the size of a compact binocular is how small they are when they are folded. When you are are looking through them, just how small they are is not that important, but size is far more important when you carrying them around with you. Different designs of compacts fold up in different ways and this can make a big difference is their size.

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Some cheap optics use coatings on the lenses to artificially tint the view, for example you find many cheap binoculars with ruby coated lenses which are used to filter red to compensate for their poor-quality optics that do not properly converge the color spectrum. Thankfully this is not the case with these and I thought that the colors that are produced by the EagleView look and feel natural, but with possibly a tiny bit less saturation than on my control binoculars. Comparing a low cost binocular like these with other binoculars that are far more expensive may seem a little unfair at first, but as long as you keep in mind the price difference, it does throw up a few interesting points and can highlight a few of their relative strengths and weaknesses and show where some of your money goes if you choose a more expensive pair of binoculars. I doubt if this very thin rubber armouring would protect the optics very much from damage, but it does make a nice grippy surface to hold onto and is well placed for this.