Thanks, Turaco. Your account of all these problems makes me wary, especially as these binoculars aren't available locally to try first. Most importantly the Celestron TrailSeeker 8x42 impresses in daylight, with clean, clear and colourful views guaranteed. It also proved really useful to be able to focus on birds close to us while using them in a garden. In these situations, I found that the Celestron Trailseeker 8x42 ED binoculars were equal to my alpha level benchmarks and noticeably brighter than the mid-range benchmark.

Celestron TrailSeeker 8x42 binocular review | Space

Used when calibrating your binoculars to compensate for any variances between the vision in your left an right eyes, the diopter adjustment is made by turning the ring near the right eye-piece. Described as 'tripod adaptable', all you need to do is unscrew the cover on the front hinge. This reveals a standard ¼ inch thread that will accept just about any standard tripod adapter, which are specifically designed to fit onto most tripod heads. This is more important than you may at first think because this is also the area on a binocular that gets damaged most often and so not only are these far more robust, but the whole twist-up and down mechanism is far superior and without any free play or undesired movement.

The Viking Badger binoculars provide excellent quality at an affordable price. This is exactly why they have become so popular within the Viking brand. The combination of multi-coated lenses with the durable build design makes them incredibly versatile. If you are looking for the perfect introductory binoculars, then certainly look no further. Grip: This design leaves more of the barrels exposed which like the open-bridged bodies, gives you more surface area to hold onto for a better grip. This can really help when carrying them one handed for example. A short explanation for those who may not be familiar with kidney beaning: The term refers to dark shadows entering your FOV from the side. It is usually the result of not centring the eyepiece-lenses well with your eyes, but the problem depends much on the bino, too. High eye point (or long eye-relief, which is the same thing) tends to favour kidney-beaning, so be careful with binos that feature unusually long eye relief. On the other hand, sufficient eye relief is important if you're wearing glasses, but also if you are viewing in a cold environment (short eye relief invariably leads to external fogging up of the eyepiece lenses, as soon as you put your binos to your face). An eye relief of 17 mm is usually sufficient, but it may depend on your glasses. The Celestron TrailSeeker 8x42 is a good choice for anyone wanting to go stargazing, but they’re particularly well suited to anyone wanting to travel to dark skies. Astro-travel is best done as lightly as possible, with the TrailSeeker 8x42’s minimalist design making them a hugely more attractive option than large and heavy deep-sky astronomy-centric binoculars (such as the tempting, but very heavy Celestron SkyMaster 25x100) or a telescope.

Celestron 71404 TrailSeeker 8x42mm Roof Binoculars with

As impressive its low weight is that for an 8x42mm binocular, these are relatively compact. Indeed they are really not that much larger than some "mid-sized" binoculars that I have come across in the past. The Trailseeker's image has a very slight yellowish hue. I don't think you'd ever notice it without making a conscious comparison, so it's not a big issue. But if you do compare, the little yellowish tint is clearly visible, at least if you are looking at blues or whites. Rubberized metal for the Trailseeker, rubberized plastic for the Monarch. Four stops, they could be more marked in both binos; probably the Monarch's eyecups will get loose sooner than the Trailseeker's, because of the plastic and because of the way the stops are constructed. The rubber doesn't leave any traces on your glasses. Both binos are good to look through. If getting a big, bright and sharp image is your priority when you're looking for the best binoculars for birdwatching, Nikon's Action EX 12x50 is a strong contender. With large 50mm objective lenses and 12x magnification, they provide killer views in all conditions and at a very reasonable price; however, the trade-off for this performance is weight. Coming in at a whole kilogram, these binos are big and heavy, and if you're not blessed with rippling biceps, you'll probably want to use them with a tripod (and an L-shaped adapter).Remember as well as water, a fully sealed binocular is also protected from dust entering, which for many users is the more likely scenario.