But other than these minor points, I would say that as you would expect of any Nikon product, they look pretty well made and considering that they have a plastic shell, they still feel fairly solid and robust and in terms of build quality are as good as any compact porro prisms found in this price range.

It is only very lightly padded and so whilst it will protect the instrument inside from scratching, dust etc, it will not help with heavier impacts. At 8x Magnification: All binoculars with an 8x magnification and 25mm objective lenses have an Exit Pupil of 3.13 (25/8) and a Twilight Factor of 14.1, which if you compare them to a full size 8x42 binocular, which has an exit pupil of 5.25 and a twilight factor of 18.3, it shows that the increased objective lens diameter of the 8x42 binoculars will gather more light and make it possible for the binoculars to transmit more light to your eyes. This is the main compromise to using a compact over a larger pair of optics, but having said that in reasonably good lighting conditions like during the day, where your eye pupil size is only about 2 to 3mm, this will not be much of a factor, it is just at twilight and under poor light where you can really notice the difference. You must also remember that having a good pair of compacts even in poor light is still much better than having no binoculars at all! 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. As to be expected, in good light conditions, there was no real noticeable difference in image brightness between these and a couple of other lower costing 8x and 10x compacts that I have with me that I compared them against when I had the magnification adjusted to the lower levels. Indeed good light, you only really notice the drop off in image brightness once you get close to the maximum magnification settings. For a zoom binocular the optical stats a more complicated than your typical fixed magnification instrument as the field of view, close focus distance and they eye-relief will all vary as you adjust the power and thus you need to consider they whole range and only compare them to other fixed binoculars when you have them set at the same magnification.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: I doubt if this very thin rubber armouring would protect the optics very much from damage, but it does make a nice grippy surface to hold onto and is well placed for this. I measured these to have a length of 10.4cm, a width of 10.2cm (with the hinge open) and a depth of 4.5cm (with the hinge open). 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. At 16x Magnification:When you increase their magnification to 16x their Exit Pupil reduces to 1.56 (25/16) which means that even less light will be getting to your eyes.

These binoculars are described as fully multi-coated which is good as it means that every single glass surface throughout the entire optical system has multiple layers of an anti-reflection coating. 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. You should be under no illusions - these are far from being the best binoculars in the world, but having said that these Nikon EagleView Zoom binoculars are far, far cheaper than the top of the range compacts and to be fair to them they are not at all bad and I would say easily outperform their price tag. If you can live with their weak points and are looking for a cheap pair of zoom binoculars then the Nikon EagleView Zoom 8-24x25 CF maybe just for you. What I can say is that these use reverse porro prisms to turn the image upright. Whilst this design may not be the most compact design, it is both relatively cheap and simple to make as you do not need the same level of tolerances or the extra coatings to produce the same level of optical performance as that of a roof prism which is why it is a popular and usually the best choice for a cheap binocular. Whilst I would not expect a low cost binocular like these to have the same build quality as a top of the range pair that costs ten times as much, but I still want them to be tough enough to handle most normal bumps and scrapes and still want them to feel like you have a good quality optical instrument in your hands and not just a toy.

By improving the level of light transmittance and reducing unwanted reflections that can cause negative effects like ghosting, the level of Anti-Reflection Lens Coatings is one of the most important things to look for when buying binoculars. The diopter adjustment like most binoculars is a ring located on the right barrel just under the eyecup and is used to correctly set up and focus the binoculars to your particular eyesight and only really needs to be done once when use them for the first time, unless the setting is moved accidentally or you share your binoculars with someone who's setting is not the same as yours. An important thing to consider when looking at the size of a compact binocular is how small they are when they are folded. When you are are looking through them, just how small they are is not that important, but size is far more important when you carrying them around with you. Different designs of compacts fold up in different ways and this can make a big difference is their size.