GMGold Black Wooden Picture Frame, Wood, Lot de 1 NOIR, 10x15 cm

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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. It is only very lightly padded and so whilst it will protect the instrument inside from scratching, dust etc, it will not help with heavier impacts. Whilst not at the same level as which you get from a high or even mid-to-high level 42mm binocular for example, for a low costing 25mm compact binocular, I thought that the colors produced and the level of contrast you see in the image were pretty good. this is especially true at lower magnifications where I am happy to say they easily compare with the majority of other 8x or 10x compacts that I come across at this sort of price level. As you decrease the power, this widens to a maximum of 4.6° (80m @ 1000 meters / 240ft @ 1000 yards) at 8x power, which has to be said is pretty narrow if you compare them to an average 8x binocular. This IPD (Inter-Pupillary Distance) range is very good and therefore they should be able to accommodate a wider range of faces than many, including those with closer set eyes like children and thus in this area and the fact that they are small and lightweight, it makes them a good choice of binocular for kids.

As to be expected, in good light conditions, there was no real noticeable difference in image brightness between these and a couple of other lower costing 8x and 10x compacts that I have with me that I compared them against when I had the magnification adjusted to the lower levels. Indeed good light, you only really notice the drop off in image brightness once you get close to the maximum magnification settings. These Discovery Gator 8-20x25 binoculars come with fold up/down eyecups made from rubber. For a compact in this price range this is fairly typical and whilst they are comfortable enough, this design is not as a well made twist up/down eyecup in terms of being able to accurately set up the instrument to position your eyes at the ideal distance to the ocular lens to get a full view. As you would expect, keeping the image nice and still becomes harder and harder as you increase the magnification settings. At 24x I was able to the image still enough to take in all the details of what I was looking, but I had to concentrate on staying very still as even the smallest movement has a big impact on the amount of image shake. This is fine for short bursts, when you just want to take in a bit of detail, but is definitely not something that you would want to do over longer periods. 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. Save a few minor details like the variable magnification adjustment slider near the right eyepiece, the overall body shape of this Discovery Gator is very typical to that of your typical compact porro prism binocular, which is mostly a good thing as I find this particular shape comfortable to hold in the hands when using the instrument.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: 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. A cleaning cloth is included and whist it is not a very high end microfiber one, it is still useful for cleaning the body and if you are very careful, to lightly dust off the lenses. However you will still be best off with a lens cleaning kit for safely cleaning the lenses. As you would expect on a low cost compact, these don't come with a vast array of expensive coatings and things like super high quality extra-low dispersion glass, but because they are a porro prism binocular their prisms have total internal reflection and as such they do not need some of the coatings that roof prism's do to achieve the same quality of image. This is one of the main reasons why you often get a better performance from a low cost porro prism binocular than that of a roof prism one in the same price range. I measured these to have a length of 10.4cm, a width of 10.2cm (with the hinge open) and a depth of 4.5cm (with the hinge open).

Whilst there is still certainly room for improvement, for a low cost compact zoom binocular these are as good as any that I have come across in the past at this level and the image at high power was better than I expected. The lenses on these Nikon EagleView Zooms are multilayer-coated. What this means is that they have received multiple layers of anti-reflective coatings which helps to increase light transmission, for a brighter image and therefore better low light performance. This is good, but it would have been even better if they had been fully-multi coated, which would mean that they had multiple layers of anti-reflective coatings on all air to glass surfaces and not just some of them as these are. Comparing the view through these and that of my control compact, at 8x magnification I would say that in terms of brightness, they were almost equal, which is pretty good and equal to many much more expensive binoculars in this class. As you adjust the zoom and increase the magnification, you can actually see the image produced getting darker and darker, which is to be expected (see exit pupil above). In poor lighting conditions like at sunset, this actually has quite a big impact on just how effective and useful these zoom binoculars are. It may be obvious, but it is for this reason and the fact that they have such a small field of view that you really should not consider these Nikons as an option for binoculars for astronomy. 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.

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But other than these minor points, I would say that as you would expect of any Nikon product, they look pretty well made and considering that they have a plastic shell, they still feel fairly solid and robust and in terms of build quality are as good as any compact porro prisms found in this price range. However at 20x power, it did look like I was looking down a straw, even with the eye-cups fully folded down and thus I would not recommend these should you need to wear your glasses whilst binning.

If you want a binocular that is going to offer you a brighter, better quality view at high power, then I would certainly suggest going for a larger instrument. For more, take a look at my section on High Powered, Long Distance Viewing Binoculars. Note that the ideal eye-relief also changes depending on what magnification setting you are using and thus I do feel the more adjustable twist up/down cups would have been a better option. Weight and especially size really matter in a good pair of compacts and obviously we are looking for a pair that is as small and lightweight as possible. This is because if the "compact" pair is too large to suit your specific requirements, you may as well just go and get yourself a similar quality mid or full sized pair of optics that by their very design will usually perform better, especially in low light conditions: The centimeter (symbol: cm) is a unit of length in the metric system. It is also the base unit in the centimeter-gram-second system of units. The centimeter practical unit of length for many everyday measurements. A centimeter is equal to 0.01 (or 1E-2) meter. Definition of inchIf you’re looking to add a bit of texture to the interior of your property while maintaining a neutral and sophisticated colour scheme, Bumpy White wall tiles are ideal. One of the biggest gripes I have had with low cost zoom binoculars that I have tested in the past is that at the higher magnification settings the image appears a little hazy or fuzzy, not matter how much you adjust the focus wheel.

These Discovery binoculars do have this function, but it is accomplished by turning the right eyepiece, which is a little different to most that have a separate adjustment ring. Either way, I found the diopter to work well enough and the ±3 adjustment range is pretty good for an instrument in this class. With these Nikon binoculars, the minimum distance that you can focus on an object is a 4 meters (13.1ft) away, which once again is not great and quite a bit further than the best. I consider anything under 6ft to be very good. So if you are looking for a compact binocular specifically for things like observing butterflies then I do not recommend getting these. Rather take a look at these close focusing binoculars. Most binoculars have a diopter so that you can calibrate them to allow for any differences in the vision of your left and right eyes. At 12x Magnification:When you increase the magnification on these Eagleviews to 12x their Exit Pupil reduces to 2.08 (25/12) which means that less gets to your eyes.When set to a magnification level of 8x, their field of view is 80m at 100m / 240ft at 1000 yards (4.6°) - which, for a what at this setting effectively an 8x25 binocular is not very good. To put this into context, the Steiner 8.5x26 Wildlife Pro has a FOV of 333ft at 1000 yards and the Kowa 8x25 BD has a FOV of 331ft at 1000 yards and even the Minox 10x25 BV BRW which has a magnification of 10x has a FOV of 290ft at 1000 yards.