Below are similar pairs of Binoculars that you may also want to have a look at: High quality optics, housed in a very lightweight, water and fogproof open bridge body, these 9x32 Pentax DCF BC binoculars are really good value for, General Price Range: (3/6) Mid Price Binoculars. This will bring a huge smile to many price conscious birders out there, indeed as you can also see below they have the exact same stats as the far more expensive Celestron Granites, which won my award for the Best Birding Binocular in 2012, which they won largely because of their superb view and also because of their incredible optical stats. In general the quality of all the accessories is better than that which you find supplied by their direct competitors, indeed they match many that are far more expensive. This is important because it shows us that the amount of light that they deliver is for the most part, more than what our eyes need and so the image you see will look nice and bright. Privacy | Cookies | Terms, While these binoculars are good, many competitors in the same price range are better. Other models in this price range manage to create a more 3D feeling image that draws you in more. However they are not all created equal and to save costs, many will use cheaper materials that have a lower reflectivity. The Celestron TrailSeeker 8x42 is a good choice for anyone wanting to go stargazing, but theyre particularly well suited to anyone wanting to travel to dark skies. This is a common plight in this very competitive price range. Obviously the bigger the image, the more you can see at once without having to move the view and thus it makes it easier to find what you are looking for. For uses like safaris and sporing events these will perform really well once there, especially considering the wide FOV, but some may prefer an even more compact product that is easier to pack and carry in a bag. I love the way as you twist them up and down that they confidently click into the two intermediate stops (four stops in total if you include fully extended and retracted), with a light but reassuringly metallic sound. Used when calibrating your binoculars to compensate for any variances between the vision in your left an right eyes, the diopter adjustment is made by turning the ring near the right eye-piece. Which if you consider that they have a stronger yet usually heavier magnesium frame than many of those similar in weight to them, makes this even more impressive. These binoculars produce good images, but they lack a bit of clarity and brightness when compared to some of their main competitors. New York, What is uncommon to see within this price bracket, but is what Celestron have used on these Trailseeker's are dielectric coated prisms. These Celestron Trailseeker 8x42 Binoculars are described by the company as being "fully waterproof", which does mean that the body has been fully sealed, but they do not go on to specify a recognized standard or depth. IPD (Inter-Pupillary Distance)
The elasticated straps have sliders so that you can adjust their lengths to suit your body and fit onto the main back panel via some plastic loops, which allow for more freedom of movement. Showing all of the accessories included with the Trailseeker. So this leads me to rate these as very good to excellent in this particular aspect of the view and most certainly up there with the best within their price range. In most situations, this model provides a very bright image. The TrailSeeker ED 8x42's brightness is quite good but again falls short of some of its competitors. There was a problem.
Theyre best removed and put in a pocket when using the Celestron TrailSeeker 8x42. However as you can read in the section on long eye-relief binoculars, for most people, even those who wear glasses, 15mm is often enough and thus 17mm is usually a good amount: Eye-relief is the distance at which your eyes need to be behind the ocular lenses to see the full view. Indeed as you will see later in the review, they share many of the same very impressive components, accessories and statistics that helped the 8x42 Granite win that award. GearLab is founded on the principle of honest, objective, reviews. Together they let enough light in to ensure sharp, colorful, contrast-y and hugely enjoyable views of the night sky in a surprisingly compact, astrotravel-friendly package. I can describe the view through the Celestron Trailseeker 8x42 binoculars as being very good on the whole and exceptional within their price bracket. Whilst aluminium and magnesium are still reasonably lightweight, they are both stronger than polycarbonate, but the problem is that they are also more expensive to produce and so are usually only found on higher end products. Each cover also has a rubber loop that fits around the barrel and allows them to simply hang below the bin when you are looking through the optics, but are always at hand to replace when you are done. Here I thought that these were about equal to my benchmarks and try as I might, I really struggled to observe one as being obviously different to the other. However, we did notice a touch of chromatic aberration when moon-viewing, with a big, bright Hunters Moon appearing fabulously clear yet with a little purple fringing on its limb. Or to express it as an angle from the binocular, they have a viewing angle of 8.1. Manufacturers can add a highly reflective material to the surface on the roof prism that does not reflect all the light that strikes it. The ones on these are very secure, indeed unlike some that are glued on, these look like they are part of the main body mould and thus are much stronger. The amount is minimal and to be honest unless you are actually looking for it, for the most part it is not at all easily seen. Our experts test thousands of products each year using thoughtful test plans that bring out key performance differences between competing products. This is the only area within the optical system of these Celestron binoculars that does not quite match that of more costly products and this is obviously where Celestron have decided to save costs and thus keep the price down on these. Material on GearLab is copyrighted.
Once you have correctly adjusted the length of the elasticated straps when on your body, they have enough tension to keep your bins from moving too much on your front, but at the same time, there is not too much tension as to make it difficult to lift the binoculars up to your eyes. Today's best Celestron 8x42 TrailSeeker Binoculars deals, We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices, Celestron TrailSeeker 8x42 review: Design. Made from a soft plastic/rubber, like the objective lens covers, the fit is good and the bridge is nice and flexible, meaning that they can be easily replaced onto the eye-cups whatever you inter-pupillary position is. Having said that in their class, I cant think of any that have metal focus wheels, so this is possibly a little harsh. Awards: Best Value For Money Binocular 2014. However for a lower cost bino, this could actually be a really smart move as those that do use ED glass are not actually guaranteed to produce an image that is instantly better than those that don't. For a soft case, the amount of padding is very good and thus it will protect your bins from impacts as well as the best I have used, with only completely rigid or semi-rigid cases being better. While we've mostly been nitpicking the downsides of the TrailSeeker ED 8x42's clarity, it isn't all that bad; it just doesn't stand out in a crowd. Its easy to grip and is completely waterproof, too, with the optical housing purged of any moisture with inert nitrogen gas under high pressure, thereby avoiding any risk of fogging on the surface of lenses.
Anti-Reflection Coatings Their stated width of 5.1in (13cm) with the central hinge fully open, close this and it drops down to 11.5cm.
The TrailSeeker 8x42s usability is pushed further by some significant eye-relief. Once again and within this price level to save on manufacturing costs, it is not that uncommon to find roof prism bins that do nothing to correct this. They also have a small tab on the top, which once again do nothing for their looks but do make them even easier to quickly flip off.
Their stated dimensions are as you can see from the table above, pretty standard, if on the smaller, more compact side for bins with objectives of around 42mm. Exit Pupil: In such instances, its images turn into silhouettes significantly earlier than some of its main rivals. As with all 8x42 binoculars, these Celestron Trailseeker's have an Exit Pupil of 5.25mm (428), so it is no surprise that as long as the optics are of a good standard (which we have already seen, these most certainly are) that in bright conditions, where the bins supply your eyes with more than enough light, image brightness was very good and matches that to what you see without binoculars. The bag comes with it's own shoulder strap, which is un-padded and connects to the bag via a couple of quick-release clips on each side. Prism Coatings However to produce a quality instrument that also has a small price tag is very difficult to achieve because you have to make some sort of compromises along the way and even though many try, many get it wrong. Eye-Relief: Ideal Uses: Their very good image quality and low light performance as well as their exceptionally wide viewing angle makes them ideally suited to most wildlife and bird watching pursuits. What Other Binoculars Should You Consider? The stitching on the faux leather connectors that join the padded section to the thin nylon straps looks good and should hold firm. Whereas lesser quality optics that are only Multi-Coated only have these coatings added to some of the surfaces and Fully Coated only have a single layer applied as opposed to many on these. Even though this is still less than some that can take 2 or more full turns, it is about a quarter of a turn more than the majority. For a slightly pricier choice consider the Nikon Prostaff 5 (opens in new tab), which come in 8x42, 10x42 and 10x50 specifications. Though that system is sometimes frowned upon for astronomy, Celestron here makes use of high-end phase and dielectric-coated BaK-4 glass to increase light transmission. How can that be if they use a roof prism optical system? However I measured the closest distance I could focus with the pair that was sent to me for reviewing to a much closer 4.6ft (1.40m), which is superb and I can only guess that they publish the official minimum focus as being much longer to be on the safe side? Its best attached to the neck strap to avoid getting lost. published 15 November 21.
S whilst their FOV is sensational, their eye-relief is good, but at 17mm is not what I would call excellent. From this point of view, you can also clearly see the anchor loops that are used to thread the neck strap through. Please refresh the page and try again. In this case it's my 8x42 benchmarks and I conducted the comparisons twice, once in good light at midday and then once again that evening, just at and after sunset: Image Brightness As you can also see their FOV, along with most other aspects is superb and matches or beats that of many far more expensive bins and which is why I think these make a great low cost alternative to the Granite: Strong Points: The extremely wide field of view you get through the Celestron Trailseeker 8x42 binocular is really hard to beat and is thus a real highlight of these. Aside from a little purple fringing when looking at particularly bright objects such as a full Moon the Celestron TrailSeeker 8x42 remains optically impressive. So to be as consistent, impartial and subjective as possible, I set side by side the bin under review and my "benchmark binoculars" and weigh up the view between them in different conditions. I think the table below that compares a number of similar 8x42 binoculars is very revealing: If you notice, I have also included the more costly Celestron Granite binoculars, that apart from the price difference and the addition of ED glass, have very similar specifications, which like these Trailseeker's are all very impressive. This Phosphate crown glass has slightly different refractive and dispersive properties as well as usually having a higher bubble count than the Schott Barium crown glass, but is still of a really good quality and for the use in this type of binocular considered much better than the BK-7 glass that you sometimes see in lower priced binoculars. To adjust the distance between the eye-cups to match that of your eyes is very simply done by opening and closing the central hinge and is known as the Inter-Pupillary Distances (IPD) on binoculars. Should You Buy the Celestron TrailSeeker ED 8x42? Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
For example a bird settles on a branch near you, or if you want to observe an insect in great detail. For something slightly larger yet less expensive in the roof prism category try the Opticron Adventurer II WP 10x50 (opens in new tab), which have larger objective lenses, 10x magnification and high-quality optics.
The elasticated straps have sliders so that you can adjust their lengths to suit your body and fit onto the main back panel via some plastic loops, which allow for more freedom of movement. Showing all of the accessories included with the Trailseeker. So this leads me to rate these as very good to excellent in this particular aspect of the view and most certainly up there with the best within their price range. In most situations, this model provides a very bright image. The TrailSeeker ED 8x42's brightness is quite good but again falls short of some of its competitors. There was a problem.
Theyre best removed and put in a pocket when using the Celestron TrailSeeker 8x42. However as you can read in the section on long eye-relief binoculars, for most people, even those who wear glasses, 15mm is often enough and thus 17mm is usually a good amount: Eye-relief is the distance at which your eyes need to be behind the ocular lenses to see the full view. Indeed as you will see later in the review, they share many of the same very impressive components, accessories and statistics that helped the 8x42 Granite win that award. GearLab is founded on the principle of honest, objective, reviews. Together they let enough light in to ensure sharp, colorful, contrast-y and hugely enjoyable views of the night sky in a surprisingly compact, astrotravel-friendly package. I can describe the view through the Celestron Trailseeker 8x42 binoculars as being very good on the whole and exceptional within their price bracket. Whilst aluminium and magnesium are still reasonably lightweight, they are both stronger than polycarbonate, but the problem is that they are also more expensive to produce and so are usually only found on higher end products. Each cover also has a rubber loop that fits around the barrel and allows them to simply hang below the bin when you are looking through the optics, but are always at hand to replace when you are done. Here I thought that these were about equal to my benchmarks and try as I might, I really struggled to observe one as being obviously different to the other. However, we did notice a touch of chromatic aberration when moon-viewing, with a big, bright Hunters Moon appearing fabulously clear yet with a little purple fringing on its limb. Or to express it as an angle from the binocular, they have a viewing angle of 8.1. Manufacturers can add a highly reflective material to the surface on the roof prism that does not reflect all the light that strikes it. The ones on these are very secure, indeed unlike some that are glued on, these look like they are part of the main body mould and thus are much stronger. The amount is minimal and to be honest unless you are actually looking for it, for the most part it is not at all easily seen. Our experts test thousands of products each year using thoughtful test plans that bring out key performance differences between competing products. This is the only area within the optical system of these Celestron binoculars that does not quite match that of more costly products and this is obviously where Celestron have decided to save costs and thus keep the price down on these. Material on GearLab is copyrighted. Once you have correctly adjusted the length of the elasticated straps when on your body, they have enough tension to keep your bins from moving too much on your front, but at the same time, there is not too much tension as to make it difficult to lift the binoculars up to your eyes. Today's best Celestron 8x42 TrailSeeker Binoculars deals, We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices, Celestron TrailSeeker 8x42 review: Design. Made from a soft plastic/rubber, like the objective lens covers, the fit is good and the bridge is nice and flexible, meaning that they can be easily replaced onto the eye-cups whatever you inter-pupillary position is. Having said that in their class, I cant think of any that have metal focus wheels, so this is possibly a little harsh. Awards: Best Value For Money Binocular 2014. However for a lower cost bino, this could actually be a really smart move as those that do use ED glass are not actually guaranteed to produce an image that is instantly better than those that don't. For a soft case, the amount of padding is very good and thus it will protect your bins from impacts as well as the best I have used, with only completely rigid or semi-rigid cases being better. While we've mostly been nitpicking the downsides of the TrailSeeker ED 8x42's clarity, it isn't all that bad; it just doesn't stand out in a crowd. Its easy to grip and is completely waterproof, too, with the optical housing purged of any moisture with inert nitrogen gas under high pressure, thereby avoiding any risk of fogging on the surface of lenses.
Anti-Reflection Coatings Their stated width of 5.1in (13cm) with the central hinge fully open, close this and it drops down to 11.5cm.
The TrailSeeker 8x42s usability is pushed further by some significant eye-relief. Once again and within this price level to save on manufacturing costs, it is not that uncommon to find roof prism bins that do nothing to correct this. They also have a small tab on the top, which once again do nothing for their looks but do make them even easier to quickly flip off.
Their stated dimensions are as you can see from the table above, pretty standard, if on the smaller, more compact side for bins with objectives of around 42mm. Exit Pupil: In such instances, its images turn into silhouettes significantly earlier than some of its main rivals. As with all 8x42 binoculars, these Celestron Trailseeker's have an Exit Pupil of 5.25mm (428), so it is no surprise that as long as the optics are of a good standard (which we have already seen, these most certainly are) that in bright conditions, where the bins supply your eyes with more than enough light, image brightness was very good and matches that to what you see without binoculars. The bag comes with it's own shoulder strap, which is un-padded and connects to the bag via a couple of quick-release clips on each side. Prism Coatings However to produce a quality instrument that also has a small price tag is very difficult to achieve because you have to make some sort of compromises along the way and even though many try, many get it wrong. Eye-Relief: Ideal Uses: Their very good image quality and low light performance as well as their exceptionally wide viewing angle makes them ideally suited to most wildlife and bird watching pursuits. What Other Binoculars Should You Consider? The stitching on the faux leather connectors that join the padded section to the thin nylon straps looks good and should hold firm. Whereas lesser quality optics that are only Multi-Coated only have these coatings added to some of the surfaces and Fully Coated only have a single layer applied as opposed to many on these. Even though this is still less than some that can take 2 or more full turns, it is about a quarter of a turn more than the majority. For a slightly pricier choice consider the Nikon Prostaff 5 (opens in new tab), which come in 8x42, 10x42 and 10x50 specifications. Though that system is sometimes frowned upon for astronomy, Celestron here makes use of high-end phase and dielectric-coated BaK-4 glass to increase light transmission. How can that be if they use a roof prism optical system? However I measured the closest distance I could focus with the pair that was sent to me for reviewing to a much closer 4.6ft (1.40m), which is superb and I can only guess that they publish the official minimum focus as being much longer to be on the safe side? Its best attached to the neck strap to avoid getting lost. published 15 November 21.
S whilst their FOV is sensational, their eye-relief is good, but at 17mm is not what I would call excellent. From this point of view, you can also clearly see the anchor loops that are used to thread the neck strap through. Please refresh the page and try again. In this case it's my 8x42 benchmarks and I conducted the comparisons twice, once in good light at midday and then once again that evening, just at and after sunset: Image Brightness As you can also see their FOV, along with most other aspects is superb and matches or beats that of many far more expensive bins and which is why I think these make a great low cost alternative to the Granite: Strong Points: The extremely wide field of view you get through the Celestron Trailseeker 8x42 binocular is really hard to beat and is thus a real highlight of these. Aside from a little purple fringing when looking at particularly bright objects such as a full Moon the Celestron TrailSeeker 8x42 remains optically impressive. So to be as consistent, impartial and subjective as possible, I set side by side the bin under review and my "benchmark binoculars" and weigh up the view between them in different conditions. I think the table below that compares a number of similar 8x42 binoculars is very revealing: If you notice, I have also included the more costly Celestron Granite binoculars, that apart from the price difference and the addition of ED glass, have very similar specifications, which like these Trailseeker's are all very impressive. This Phosphate crown glass has slightly different refractive and dispersive properties as well as usually having a higher bubble count than the Schott Barium crown glass, but is still of a really good quality and for the use in this type of binocular considered much better than the BK-7 glass that you sometimes see in lower priced binoculars. To adjust the distance between the eye-cups to match that of your eyes is very simply done by opening and closing the central hinge and is known as the Inter-Pupillary Distances (IPD) on binoculars. Should You Buy the Celestron TrailSeeker ED 8x42? Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
For example a bird settles on a branch near you, or if you want to observe an insect in great detail. For something slightly larger yet less expensive in the roof prism category try the Opticron Adventurer II WP 10x50 (opens in new tab), which have larger objective lenses, 10x magnification and high-quality optics.