Home > Consumer Reviews > Celestron OptiView 10x50 LPR Binoculars - 72102

These binos are for specialized viewing imo. They do a truely remarkable job of bringing out bright nebulae in urban skies. The Rosette nebula was clearly visible with the filters but without them applied it was invisible. Same for M17 in Sagittarius, and the view of M16 was also improved although it could be glimpsed without the filters. Surprisingly, I recently saw the Dumbell Nebula M27 with them. Not bad for 10x binos! Collimation was also good. It "simulates" well a dark sky.

On the minus sides, coatings on the lenses were cheap. The Moon showed numerous reflections/ghosts. These binos are on the heavy side for 50mm, due partly to the use of (heavier) BK7 prisms instead of lighter (and brighter) BAK-4 prisms (such as I have for my Orion Scenix 10x50) as well as the filter assembly. Hand holding them gets painful after awhile, so mounting them on tripod is probably a good idea. If you are not specifically into looking at bright nebulae (or don't live in light-polluted areas) then a pair of BAK-4 prism type binos would be a better choice. Easier to hand hold longer and (slightly) brighter images.

The use of built-in LPR filters in binoculars is a good idea. But it would have been an all-around better decision to use (the lighter weight) BAK-4 prisms, even if it meant raising the price somewhat. For now I'm keeping them, along with my Orion Scenix, as they both have their use for me in my urban skies.

Addendum: Apogee Inc. (http://www.apogeeinc.com) has recently come out with its own line of binoculars (that DO use BAK-4 prisms) with built-in LPR filters, so they may also be worth checking out.