Binoculars

Bought a pair of Celestron 8x42 binoculars last weekend ($64, Woodland Hills Telescope). The pictures make them look smaller than they actually are; remember that the objective lenses are 42mm in diameter. The width feels pretty nice, but they are a bit longer than I'd like.

The good

I'm pretty happy with the magnification and objective size. I can hand-hold it easily during the day, and it's just a little jittery at night.

The eye relief (~20mm) is ample for use with glasses, and it has extendable eyecups to block out stray light if you don't wear glasses.

Optically, it's fine. Any aberrations are no worse than what my glasses introduce. This is a photo taken through the eyepiece with an iPhone 4.

I blame the blurriness on camera motion. In a couple places you can see blue fringes.

The bad

My main complaint is that the field of view (5.8°) is a bit too narrow; I should have been paying closer attention when I was shopping. See the chart below for some of my potential alternatives. On the other hand, it is pretty close to my super-telephoto setup (360mm on a 35mm frame; 5.7° horizontal x 3.8° vertical), for what that's worth.

The supplied neck strap and lens caps are also pretty lame. The neck strap is thin and uncomfortable, the objective caps fall off when they should be on and flop in front of the lens when they should be off. I guess the eyepiece caps are okay.