Celestron 15 x 70 Binoculars

[Brewster20]

Just picked up a pair of Celestron Cometron 15 x 70 binoculars on sale at Canadian Tire for $70. regular $200. Tried them out, seem pretty good (very good for the money !) Am going to try them tonight at the moon. Does anyone have any experience with these ?

 

[Geoman]

The smaller 10x50 celestron binoculars got a fairly good review in this month’s Canadian astronomy magazine. Similar construction to the ones you bought. The review said that the smaller ones selling for $70 were a good buy at that price so you did well. They seem to be better in the centre of the lense and not as good towards the edges. I used a pair of bushnell 7x50 for astronomy for years and was happy with them. You may find that they grow heavier after a while and you shake more than with smaller binoculars. You may be able to get a tripod adapter at a reasonable price and enjoy them hands free without the weight.
If I didn’t already have a couple of pairs of Vortex binoculars I would have definitely considered these especially at the price!

 

[Potashminer]

I think you will find them very difficult to use without a support - not many (actually, not any) people I know can hand hold much past 10 power, and then thoroughly study the details in the view. It helps a bit to grasp over the beak of your ball cap, on top of those binos, to steady them. You will notice the difficulty, for example, trying to pick out a deer's hind leg, or a coyote's face in a stand of poplar trees a 1,000 yards away - have to really bear down and pick the scene apart to find that shape, and much much harder to do with the image shaking from your grip. Quality of glass (image detail) becomes more important than magnification - my brother regularly can count points on elk with his 10x Leica's that his buddies with more powerful spotting scopes can not.

 

[Brewster20]

I think you will find them very difficult to use without a support - not many (actually, not any) people I know can hand hold much past 10 power, and then thoroughly study the details in the view. It helps a bit to grasp over the beak of your ball cap, on top of those binos, to steady them. You will notice the difficulty, for example, trying to pick out a deer's hind leg, or a coyote's face in a stand of poplar trees a 1,000 yards away - have to really bear down and pick the scene apart to find that shape, and much much harder to do with the image shaking from your grip. Quality of glass (image detail) becomes more important than magnification - my brother regularly can count points on elk with his 10x Leica's that his buddies with more powerful spotting scopes can not.

All very good points, but $60 !! hard to say no. Just for backyard star gazing...ps they come with a tripod mount bracket.

 

[luckythirteen]

I just sold mine last month after running them for 5 years. The magnification was good but hard to keep steady. I was always trying to find something to lean them on for stability. Glass seemed fair for the price, $79 on sale at can tire. I can’t remember if mine came with the tripod adaptor but if it did, I realize I should have kept it. They would probably fair well on a set of legs. I did find I was missing some finer detail I couldn’t see at far distances. My dad still runs his set and he’s satisfied. Can’t go wrong on the sale price. They do let in good light but I think it’s along the lines of bigger optic for cheaper glass, comes at a cost of weight and size. I just bought a new spotting scope and binos and sold to a friend to help get him going, otherwise I would have kept them.

 

[Hunter7]

A friend of mine bought them, he thought they were pretty good but I was not impressed, I could not seem to get them in proper focus, was always getting a bit of a double image.