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TOKYO - Nikon Vision Co., Ltd., (Nikon Vision), a subsidiary of Nikon Corporation (Nikon), is pleased to announce the release of a new binocular model, the Sportstar Zoom 8-24x25. The Sportstar Zoom 8-24x25 binoculars feature a portable and compact body, and employ a zoom lever on the top of the body which enables smooth 8-24x zooming. The focusing ring can be operated while looking through the binoculars during observation. Below is a table comparing this Nikon EagleView Zoom with a selection of other compact binoculars. The very top of the range Swarovski 8x20B compact binoculars as well as a few others like the Pentax 9x28 DCF, Minox 10x25 BV BRW's, Kowa 8x25 BD and the Steiner 8.5x26 Wildlife Pro. 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. Magnification: 7x | Objective lens diameter: 21mm | Prism: Roof | Field of view: 7.7° | Weight: 250g
The dioptre adjustment is unusual. Rather than a dial on the eyepiece, it’s in the centre where you focus. So you focus your left eye, then pop out the dial and adjust it slightly for your right. 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: These Nikons are marketed as sports binoculars but they’d also be good as modern-day opera glasses – good for the theatre and big concerts. With their eye-cups fully retracted, they have a length of 11.9cm (4.7in), this increases to 12.4cm (4.9n) when you fully twist out the eyecups. Fully folded, the width of the binocular is 9.2cm (3.6in), fully opened it is 11cm (4.3in). Their height is 6.3cm (2.5in), which once again all on the larger end of the scale for a full compact binocular but nothing excessively so.
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Nikon Sportstar Zoom 8-24x25 binoculars come in a portable and compact body, and employ a zoom lever on the top of the body which gives a smooth 8-24x zooming experience. The focusing ring can be operated while looking through the binoculars during observation. 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:
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. Another downside to them not being fully covered in rubber is that there is more chance of them making a louder sound if something like your watch or more commonly a ring on your finger strikes against them. Rubber armour dampens down the sound and helps to ensure that you don't frighten away easily spooked animals like birds or deer. Specs-wise, it boasts superior optics and coatings and its Porro prisms are made with BaK-4 Barium Crown glass, considered the best prism material available. The exterior is rubberised and lens caps flip down. Accessories include a rugged carry bag with a strap and both regular and flared eyecups. 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.
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.
These are quite hard parameters to judge and very subjective, but I thought that the contrast of the image produced was good and once you have correctly focussed on an object the image is pin sharp. They’re lovely to use with a bright image that’s well magnified. They’re great outdoorsy all-rounders. A close focus range of just 1.9m means you can magnify even quite near objects. Even with two hands, the 20x magnification makes for a wobbly image. There’s an integral tripod mount (on a rail, so you can adjust balance) which is much better. If you’re using them handheld at home, it’s worth leaning them against the doorframe for a steadier picture.
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Despite the glossy plastic exterior to the Nikon Sportstar Zoom 8-24x25 binocular, there’s enough weight and heft that we found it easy enough to hold them steady when observing. Inevitiably though, the further we went up the magnification range amplified any exterior hand wobble, with resultant image judder. At 350g (12.3oz), it must be said they are on the heavy end of the scale when compared to most other compacts, they do however still feel very light compared to most standard full sized binoculars.
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