Home > Consumer Reviews > Olympus Tracker 10-30X25 Zoom PC Binocular

I ordered this item because I had experience with the Olympus camera line and found them to be high quality. When I received the Tracker Zoom PC Binoculars, It unfortunately did not meet my quality expectations. It looked good, but that's about all you can say for the item. The field of view was very small, the zoom lever was difficult to operate and the entire item seemed to be cheaply made. This was not an inexpensive set of binoculars even though its original price had been reduced and the binoculars certainly had very little value for my dollar paid. I looked at a number of similar items in retail stores that were much better quality for a considerably lower price. I am returning the item.

It's hard to understand why a company with Olympus' reputation would put their name on these binos. One look at the numbers should tell you why, and a glance through them will confirm it.

At low magnification they're acceptible, but zoom them to 30x and you'll get a dim, fuzzy image with little contrast and resolution. Looking at the specs it's nothard to understand why. With a magnification of 30x, but only 25mm of aperture you end up with an exit pupil of less than 1mm. That means that these binos don't transmit enough light to be usable in anything other than direct sunlight, and even then they'll deliver a less-than-ideal image.

30x is really impossible in a pair of hand-help binoculars anyways; magnifications above 10x require a tripod for any kind of viewing. If you need compacts, buy a good pair of 8x21s or 10x30s. If size isn't a factor, buy a pair of 7x50s, and enjoy the bright, sharp image.

If you think you can hold a compact set of binoculars with 30X magnification still enough to be of any value - you are wrong. Buy a fixed magnification pair of 7, 8 or 10 X and be happy. If you need more magnification, go to a full sized pair for greater image stability. Quality was poor. The plastic seemed cheap. The zoom was not smooth at all. I bought them and immediately returned them. I was very disappointed beacuse I am a loyal Olympus customer for compact 35 mm cameras and digital cameras. Thought the quality would carry over. I was wrong.

Why did they go to a 25mm lens? Requires strong light, in spite of the coated lenses. 30 mm is min acceptable.

...but a true outdoor bird enthusiast??... I tried these binoculars last spring and found that even a blue heron nearly disappeared in "gray fog" when I tried to zoom in. Besides, it's next to impossible to follow a bird in flight, the field of view is just too narrow. In general I love Olympus products, their quality is excellent, but this compact marvel just tries to pack too much of a punch for its size.