Cameras and Lenses
Cheap optics, anyone tried them - any good/bad experiences
Ever been tempted by those cheap main street department store bins, or those ruby-coated 'day and night active' binoculars you see at temptingly cheap prices on Ebay? Thought I'd see what experiences people have had with cheap binoculars/scopes.
In a couple of more impulsive moments recently, I've bought a cheap pair of 'ruby' coated 10x50 bins, no manufacturer name, and a pair of 7x35 fixed focus ones, both for about the £10 mark. Both will probably be sold again soon as I have far too many pairs of binocs and hopefully going on honeymoon next month so need all the money I can get!
The fixed focus model cost £8.51, of which £8.50 made up the postage charge! (though he only spent about £2.50 on postage 
) These, perhaps unsurprisingly were rather disappointing. I'm not sure if it's because I wear glasses or simply cheapo nasty optics! Whatever I'm looking at always seems ever so slightly fuzzy or out of focus, looking through my Olympus DPS-R 8x40s resolves things a lot better, even the cheap 10x50s are better! Needless to say they're probably going back on Ebay soon!
The 10x50s aren't actually too bad! The image does have a rather blueish tinge due to the coatings, but are quite sharp and bright, despite the only coating being the red one on the objectives. Though I can't get the 'foldable' rubber eyecups to fold down! Still a pretty good field of view though.
So, anyone else succumbed to the tempation? What were your experiences? Did you find a £10 pair that worked surprisingly well, or did they take flying lessons out the nearest window? Also, ever looked at the description of one of these cheap pairs on Ebay, and had a laugh at the 'RRP' of £99, 'night active' optics or any of the other guff they come out with?
[QUOTE=sammyboy]Ever been tempted by those cheap main street department store bins, or those ruby-coated 'day and night active' binoculars you see at temptingly cheap prices on Ebay? Thought I'd see what experiences people have had with cheap binoculars/scopes.
In a couple of more impulsive moments recently, I've bought a cheap pair of 'ruby' coated 10x50 bins, no manufacturer name, and a pair of 7x35 fixed focus ones, both for about the £10 mark. Both will probably be sold again soon as I have far too many pairs of binocs and hopefully going on honeymoon next month so need all the money I can get!
The fixed focus model cost £8.51, of which £8.50 made up the postage charge! (though he only spent about £2.50 on postage ) These, perhaps unsurprisingly were rather disappointing. I'm not sure if it's because I wear glasses or simply cheapo nasty optics! Whatever I'm looking at always seems ever so slightly fuzzy or out of focus, looking through my Olympus DPS-R 8x40s resolves things a lot better, even the cheap 10x50s are better! Needless to say they're probably going back on Ebay soon!
The 10x50s aren't actually too bad! The image does have a rather blueish tinge due to the coatings, but are quite sharp and bright, despite the only coating being the red one on the objectives. Though I can't get the 'foldable' rubber eyecups to fold down! Still a pretty good field of view though.
So, anyone else succumbed to the tempation? What were your experiences? Did you find a £10 pair that worked surprisingly well, or did they take flying lessons out the nearest window? Also, ever looked at the description of one of these cheap pairs on Ebay, and had a laugh at the 'RRP' of £99, 'night active' optics or any of the other guff they come out with?[/QUOTE]
Hi
I think there are various posts regarding both Bresser and Meade 10 x 50 "cheap" Lidl binoculars on this forum and others
Basically one of the low cost supermarkets Lidl in UK have sold these at various intervals over the last year or so
Of course there is sample variation and they sell out quickly at £9.99 and £14.99 but if you can check a pair for yourself and look through them first these are very very good for the price of as few beers
The Bressers have twist up eyecups which some prefer but both models have a very sharp and relatively wide view for a 10 x
They are actually nearer a 10 x 40 as there is an internal stop in the binoculars and are fully coated in a blueish tinge
For the life of me i cannot quite understand how they perform so clearly and well in low light but i have compared both models to very high quality binoculars in different circumstances and these binoculars are not disgraced by any means image wise
They come with case,strap and all covers and though the build quality will vary and ultimately the Nikon SE's etc of the world are brighter and suffer less reflections under trying conditions these are a bargain providing you can check a pair over
I believe there are also some very good 10 x 42 waterproof roofs from 7 day shop available for just a few pounds more which some folk state are as good if not better than these porro's
Either way both variations are tremendous value being far better image wise than the usual "basement specials"
Really great as spares because at the price its not the end of the world if they are lost damaged or just fall apart after a few years
Regards
Rich
I have such ruby coated cheap "Russia" binos. I've bought them just for fun (price 30 PLN = £5). There's a sign "25x60" but I haven't discovered yet what it's describing. I've measured lenses and they have 45 mm and the exit pupil has 6.5 mm. Which means my binoculars are something like 7x45 which makes them almost night binoculars. The ruby coating gives that blueish mist everywhere. Image quality is satisfactory only in the very center of view. In something like 1/4 of it gets blurry and dark. In the edges distortion and darkening is really huge.
Those binos seems to be very light (much ligter than my roof 8x32 which have around 0.6 kg). I suppose they are made of plastic. On the front of objective lenses there is extremly stupid sign "Made In Russia" (who writes things on lenses!). These letters are made in the coatings and you cannot get rid of them. Touching oculars results in changing focus. Touching anything results in impression that those binoculars may fall into pieces in any moment.
Looking through them leaves feeling that you have squint. It's that they are not well colimated (I mean each eye is looking in slightly different direction). You can see this more clearly: while looking through them start slowly pushing them away until 20 cm. In good binoculars there is still the same image in every ocular. In bad colimated binos you get two different.
Oh, I forgot that there is a small compass. The way it works is a summary of everything. It is showing random direction as it's just kind of a plastic arrow in a water.