Why binoculars? Because as an astronomy beginner I spend a lot of time in all manner of contortions looking through the 9x50
Why Olympus? Well, truth is I considered other options such as the much-praised Nikon Aculons and Celestron offerings among others, but I find review explorations tedious and mostly anecdotal. Back in 1995 a friend at Olympus presented me with a tiny 8x22 binocular set that I still use to this day and are surprisingly bright, easy to focus and carry. I'm sure the Nikons and Celestrons in my budget range would be fine for my needs but I've had a good run with Olympus and they explicitly offer UV coatings which others might not so Olympus it is.
Ergonomics: My two concerns when I ordered the Troopers where bulk and weight. Would my hands shake and arms tire after a few seconds/minutes to make them unusable? The short answer is no, they happily aren't too big or heavy. But anything bigger would have been too much for me so I lucked out. See size and other specs below. Obviously, using a tripod or monopod steadies the view and I can easily attach them to my old Manfrotto photography tripod with a Barska binocular adapter. https://www.barska.com/slr-digiscoping- ... -2908.html
Focus with the right lens diopter adjustment and the center knob is excellent. I wear glasses and my right eye is worse than my left one so the adjustment is handy. The rubber cups on the proximal eyepieces are soft and comfortable allowing ample room for eyelashes. As you can see from the attached images, the carrying case is a manpurse fashion statement of the sort that elicits mostly swipe-left reactions from the Tinder crowd but it is waterproof and thick enough to protect the binoculars out in the field.
Get to the point Parrot, how good are they? I have no idea. That's not true actually. They arrived four days ago but the entire North American continent is under cloud cover since early March and so far I've only used them twice to look at Ursa Major and the half moon between fast moving clouds. The moon was very clear and bright with craters and Mares crisply visible. Mizar, Alkaid, and 24CVn were easily found in UM but I will NOT claim I saw the Whirpool with its whispy spirals and subtle hues. My eyes are not that good and clouds were rolling by.
The attached images of an airplane wndjammer atop a shed were taken with my shaky phone but as you can see, the Troopers do a decent job bringing objects closer.
Conclusion: I'll let others with proper optics knowledge discuss the engineering merits and shortcomings of the Olympus 10X50 DPS binoculars. As far as I'm concerned, this is a much better way of planning and exploring constellations than using the
The specs according to Olympus:
Product Series Trooper
Prism Type BK-7 Porro
Field of View at 1,000 yds 342 ft (104.2 m)
Close Focus Distance 19.7 ft (6.0 m)
Eye Relief 0.5" (12 mm)
Relative Brightness 25
Waterproof No
Weight 30.2 oz (855 g)
Dimensions: L x W x H 7.0" x 7.5" x 2.5" (178 mm x 191 mm x 63 mm)
