Meade Instruments 15x70 Astro Binocular - Black (125080)

I love using binoculars and have used them all my working life. Choosing a pair for my wife to increase her vision from 10x to above was difficult as you just can't 'test' different brands and have to rely on customer reviews like this.They are superb. We have Leica, Swift and Zeiss (10x) and needed more reach. Reviews of Nikon, Pentax, Celestron etc etc were sketchy and there were some negatives regarding collimating, focus and quality. Too many negatives allied to reports of multiple returns to risk vast sums of money 'chancing it'.We have Meade telescopes and I stumbled on an American review for the Meade 15x70 and saw they were on offer in Amazon UK and took the risk. I am glad I did.The multi-coatings do not impact on the colour of distant objects or anything else. I had concerns with the red tint of the objective lens but no, no negatives at all.If you look off centre you can induce slight chromatic aberration (colour fringing) but there is nothing if you set the optic spacing correctly.They can be hand held. Yes they can, we are old and we can do it. Of course there is some movement, no more than we get from our 10x but. The but being, mounting them on a fluid tripod head - wow.Aircraft. We love playing what airline is it and where we are they are all above 27,000 feet and often many miles away. Some of the vapour trails as so far away you can't see (with the naked eye) that there is a plane making them. With out 10x you can see the aircraft, with these Meade binoculars you can see the markings. The visble size differential is vast.Other manufacturers have negative comments about lens caps. No criticism here. They fit, they don't drop off they protect the lenses, they are great.There is no hard case, I am sure that is because of the cost factor. The case is a 'will do' but at this price, come on.The front lenses are huge and my petite wife looks like some kind of military commander on the bridge of warship but even she finds that they are manageable.If they had been all metal construction I doubt either of us would have been able to pick them up, hold them for long or use them effectively. No they are not carbon fibre, again cost factor. I had concerns about the robust nature of the construction but hey, I am mindful that everything is plastic these days and whilst I can't guarantee it I suppose there will be a GRP content to some extent (I can wish).The primary priority of a pair of binoculars is that the images they produce are sharp, clear, bright and don't induce eye fatigue. On all those points these get a huge tick. They are brighter than our 10x50's, brighter than our Leica's. With a 4.7mm exit pupil, well, just check out the competitors.The second set of priorities is that they have to be useable and are able to be held and focussed rapidly. There is no 'slop' in the focus assembly, the pivots are firm and the balance of the instrument is perfect. Held by the lens tube they sit comfortably against the head and do not induce any fatigue.I cannot recommend these enough if you are looking to move into this form of viewing. As a first step they are brilliant, as an upgrade that is exactly what they are. No they are not waterproof but who wants to stand in the pouring rain birding (apologies to twitchers who stand in the pouring rain twitching).So no, they are not waterproof but, only one of our pairs is and we have never had a problem with ingress or fogging in any of the others so I don't anticipate difficulties here.The rubber coating (everything is rubber coated these days) was a concern (as it is for everything) as some coatings do break down over time and become sticky. (I found a product called 'rubber stick' that solves that) This rubber feels 'different' and I suspect and hope we won't have that problem but accept we won't know about that for three or four years (as we wouldn't with premier marques as well).The bright images bode well for sky viewing and first trials hold great promise. We haven't seen the moon yet and once we get a good night I will update the review. As for stars and planets, the image is crisp and tight.They are highly recommended both for newbies and those 'getting on' a bit who want more reach and a manageable instrument.Thank you Amazon...

I have just come in from using these in the garden. I live in London so a very light polluted area. I bought these as I didn't want to invest in a telescope just yet.They're binoculars (obviously) so very easy to use, once you have adjusted them to your eyes you are all ready to go. They're heavy, so difficult to hand hold them but looking South I clearly viewed the smudge of the Orion Nebula, the Moon looked beautiful. You definitely need to mount these on a tripod to make best use of them.The neck strap is poor and I'm not sure I will trust it for long, probably dig out an old camera strap to replace it and the case isn't great either but these are small things.

BINO 15X70..OTIMO BINOCULO ..UM POUCO DE ABERRAÇÃÕ CROMATICA NAS BORDAS.MÁS EU GOSTEI E RECOMENDO ..VALE O PREÇO COBRADO..O PROBLEMA É QUANTO MAIS VEMOSMÁS QUEREMOS VER.,,PODEM COMPRAR VCS VAÕ FICAR SATISFEITOS COMO EU FIQUEI.

Binocolo entry level si , ma dal buon rapporto qualità-prezzo. Solido, resa abbastanza nitida delle immagini, .Consiglio l'uso di un cavalletto per lunghe osservazioni e per ridurre le vibrazioni dovute dall'ingrandimento importante di 15x .

Image is clear. Very good build quality. Focus needs more carefull adjustment compared to 10x50 binoculars. Depth of field is less compared to lower power binoculars like 10x50, which is natural. Craters on the moon can be seen clearly.

Meade Instruments Company has been around for a long time and has always produced exceptional optical products. That's why I chose to buy a Meade product when looking for a pair of large binoculars for astronomy use. I was not disappointed. The images are sharp and clear. No, you aren't going to see the rings of Saturn in detail. You will need a telescope for that, but binoculars have a wider field of view that can take in an entire view of a star cluster, or the Andromeda Galaxy, for example. One point I want to make is that you will absolutely need a good tripod when using them because of their weight, and at 15 magnification the image will be impossible to keep a viewable image steady. But, this is true for ANY large aperture binocular. Can you get better binoculars then these? Sure. The range of excellent binoculars is very wide, with the price ranging into thousands of dollars. I don't have that kind of money.I really like these binoculars and recommend them to anyone getting into the amateur astronomy hobby.

Nach nun mehr zwei Versuchen mit dem Celestron Skymaster 15x70, welche beide komplett unjustiert bei mir ankamen, habe ich mich entschlossen, der Fa. Meade eine Chance zu geben und mir deren Astro 15x70 bestellt. Mit diesem bin ich bisher sehr zufrieden. Nicht nur, dass es sich wertiger anfühlt, auch ist es ab Werk sauber justiert, wie ich es eigentlich auch erwarte. Daher eine klare Kaufempfehlung, wenn man denn auf der Suche nach einem 15x70 ist.