Nikon Aculon A211 8-18x42 Zoom Binoculars - Black

These 16x50s were purchased to complement a pair of small Nikon Aculon 8x21 roof prism binoculars. The 8x21 make a great pair of good quality pocket binoculars which can be taken anywhere with me. The Aculon 16x50 is a different piece of equipment altogether. These are porro prism binoculars (i.e. the 'classic' shape) which are therefore considerably larger and heavier. The larger objective lens, however, gives much greater light gathering which I would say is essential for the higher magnification. These provide a clear, crisp image, even on overcast and slightly misty days. e.g. Cars can easily be distinguished and I can usually tell which make and model from over 2 miles away. Colours are clear and, as far as I can tell, not altered by the lenses. The weight of these is significant and at this magnification any small hand movement or tremor is exaggerated. I have fairly steady hands, so can use these for a 5-10 mins without significant shake looking at objects 10-300m or so away. Stargazing, however, is a different matter. I find obtaining a steady image very difficult at this range with this magnification, so switch to using a tripod or monopod for this.I have recently started to enjoy stargazing. These binoculars are great if you want high magnification for bird watching and for stargazing, without progressing to a telescope. These come with a tripod mount, so you won't need to purchase one separately. I was looking for higher power, good optics and flexibility without significant compromise in quality. At this stage I feel that I have found this, without ANY perceivable compromise at all in quality. I expected good kit from Nikon, but even I was surprised.

Superb performance, ultra sharp views up until the very last edge of the maximum zoom. But with slow adjustments you finish with a sharp image.The weight of the bins are spot on and bit silly to say but feel total quality, more than impressed.

As a keen photographer of wildlife I needed a pair of binoculars to supplement the others I’ve collected over the last 50 yrs. As a longtime user of Nikon lenses, decided to go with these and not disappointed. The clarity is first class and although for longer distances a tripod or monopod steadies the shake much better, they are also very useful handheld. They are also very tactile to hold with a very comfy soft feel to the body and both main depth adjustment and right eye adjustment are precise and very easy to operate. Altogether an excellent product.

I originally bought the larger A211 Aculon 10-22x50 version several years ago... really good performance, but have now "indefinitely" lent them to a friend who has a distant sea view over the town. So looking for a replacement pair I, couldn't order again, because they were out of stock. This was very fortunate as it turned out because I bought the smaller A211 Aculon 8-18x42 instead which is suprisingly superior in many ways! This is because the smaller objective lens doesn't noticeably reduce the brightness and makes these binoculars lighter and conveniently smaller. Also of importance to me was the minimum distance to focus regarding nearby bird identification. These go down to 30ft whereas the bigger ones are 50ft. Really pleased with these new ones. Having the zoom going down to 8x instead of 10x (which is too much) is really an advantage too and I'm enjoying the ease of use and clear image quality. Finally, the max zoom of 18x is more than enough to bring distant views closer. Above this 18x , the binoculars need a tripod because if shaking image quality - also I didn't like the original larger binoculars because above 18x (up to 22x) the image suffered from abberation and clarity of image. So suprisingly, smaller is better and I would recommend these for multi-use.

Bought these as I was looking for some binoculars for watching birds in the garden. They came up on offer, so thought that a pair from Nikon at a cheap Chinese brand price would be good.Image quality is good (as in I don;t see any issues) and work well enough in low light.They are comfortable to hold, but reasonably weighty, so can tire your arms after extended use.No issues with the optics and you can adjust each eyepiece individually as well as having thew master focus.Comes complete with carry case, strap an lens caps.A great set of binos, for looking at closer objects - however, you can still see craters on the moon with them.

I have owned quite a few binoculars some of which were substantially more expensive than the Nikon Aculon 8x42's but these are my all time favourites. They have a very wide, clear, sharp and bright field of view and at 8x magnification can easily be hand-held without shaking being a problem. Focus adjustment is smooth and easy and they are quite light and compact. In my opinion, excellent value for money and a very good general purpose pair of binoculars