Lidl binoculars

Subject: Lidl binoculars
From: "Syke"
Date: 10/12/04 18:46 Romance Standard Time
Message-id:

Lidl have binoculars from Monday next at £14.99. Does anyone have any idea
what they're really like? Are the lenses glass or plastic? My local store
say customers are not supposed to open boxes to look at goods. Is this the
same country-wide? Their returns policy is quaint too; you have to apply to
head office, in writing, and they will consider it, then decide!




Hi

Several of the "cheap" stores here in France have had the same
product.(Including Lidls) I bought a pair of 7 x 50s to play with that cost
7Euros! Thats about £4
They were plastic construction but of the "rubbery" impact resistant type of
plastic.They came in a cloth box with strap and the lens had individual
attached "rubber" covers. The general appearance was quite good. The left hand
eyepiece had a reticule inserted printed on a glass disc. This was stuck into
the eyepiece mount but could be levered out.
The objective lenses were glass achromats and ruby coated on both sides. These
gave a rather blueish cast to the images. The prisms were uncoated glass and
glued into position. They were just of adequate size and there was no drastic
vignetting. The body had centre focus with eyepiece separation adjustment.
Optical alignment of each half was OK. The main main drawback was the quality
of the eyepieces. They were uncoated, simple, two lens Ramsden construction.
Not too bad on the optical axis but poor at the edge of the field. There was
not enough eye relief for spectacle wearers and insufficient, (for me at
least) range of focus to accommodate my short sight without spectacles. For
terrestrial use they work quite well so long as the subject is kept near the
centre of the field. Astronomically they are not too great. The extra light
grasp of 50mm over my old 8x30 is lost by the coatings which look pretty in
daylight but don't enhance the light transmittance at all. Definition of stars
is only adequate on the optical axis.
My conclusion is that for the price I paid they were OK. better than bottle
bottoms. At 7x they do show the lunar craters. If the ones you mention are the
same then £15 seems a bit steep for what you get. My advice is to open the box
and take a look.

Phil