Noble – mid-price roof prisms

More Information Price $277.00 List Price $457.95 Optical Type Roof Prism Field of view 6.5° Field of view 1000 yards 341' Exit Pupil 5.3mm Relative Brightness 27.56 Twilight Factor 18.33 Eye Relief 20mm Interpupillary Distance 59-74mm Close Focus 8' Weight 23 oz Height 6" Armored Yes Waterproof Yes Warranty “No-Fault” Limited Lifetime

Usable eye relief is specified at a generous 20mm for eyeglass use. Curvature of field is minimal, and astigmatism and barrel distortion are quite low. The result is images that stay usably sharp across most of the field. The sharp images combine with good color rendition and minimal chromatic aberration for a view that is easy on the eyes during extended observing sessions. Overall, this is an optically and mechanically very good binocular at a very reasonable price. It’s easy on the eyes, easy in the hands, and easy on the budget.

This Celestron has a lifetime no-fault warranty. If it breaks or becomes unusable, no matter how it happens or whose fault it is, Celestron will repair or replace the binocular for just a $25 shipping and handling charge. For full warranty details, click on the Warranty Information link at the left of this page and then click on the Celestron link.

Features of this binocular . . .

Roof prism optics. H-body roof prism design with internal center focus. BaK-4 prisms for high light transmission. Its 6" length is easy to handle, and its light 23 ounce weight won’t weigh you down during all-day carrying.

Large aperture fully multicoated optics. Large 42mm objective lenses gather substantial amounts of light for bright images in twilight or overcast conditions. The twilight factor is 18.33, well above the 17 recommended as a minimum for a low light binocular. Multilayer antireflection coatings have very good light transmission for minimum light loss in dim conditions.

Phase-coated prisms. Special phase-correcting coatings are applied to the roof prisms for peak contrast, color fidelity, and resolution. The resulting improvement is easily seen when looking for color and detail in the shadowed areas of a silhouetted or backlit bird.

Waterproof and fogproof. Dry nitrogen-filled and O-ring sealed to be waterproof and fogproof in all temperature and climate extremes. Designed to operate reliably in rainforests and deserts alike.

Armor. Ribbed black rubber armor absorbs noise and shock and provides a good grip when wet.

Twist-up eyecups. An eighth of a turn of the rubber-rimmed eyecups retracts them into the binocular body for eyeglass or sunglass use, rather than rolling down. This eliminates the possibility of the eyecups drying out and cracking with age and use, as with conventional rolldown eyecups. An eighth turn in the opposite direction extends the eyecups for non-eyeglass use.

Long eye relief. Eye relief is specified at a very long 20mm. While this is technically correct, the actual usable eye relief typically measures a mm or two less due to the recessing of the eyepieces when the eyecups are in the down position for eyeglass use. A shorter eye relief than specified is typical of all binoculars. There will be some minor vignetting of the field for eyeglass wearers.

Very close focusing. Only one and a quarter turns of the comfortably-large ribbed focus knob moves from a specified 8’ close focus out to the horizon. Celestron specifies 8’ as the close focus, but we invariably measure it at 6’ in our tests. Not everyone may be able to achieve this close a focus however, so we’ll stick to quoting Celestron’s more conservative 8’ close focus in our specifications.

Rotary diopter correction. A continuously variable diopter ring on the right eyepiece allows you to match the binocular optics precisely to your individual eyesight for a sharp image.

Wide neck strap. The comfortable wide woven neck strap makes the lightweight binocular even less of a burden to carry during all-day birding sessions.

Tripod adaptable. A standard 1/4"-20 thread socket for attaching an optional tripod adapter is located at the front end of the binocular’s center hinge. A thread-in plastic logo plate covers the tripod socket when not in use.