Product Description

Bushnell PowerView binoculars offer contemporary styling and design with traditional Bushnell quality and durability. A variety of styles and features appeal to a wide range of users from students of nature to concertgoers. Outstanding light transmission through fully-coated optics ensures bright, crisp clear viewing. The compact porro prism series provides great durability and performance in a smaller size.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16213 in Sports & Outdoors
• Size: 7-15x25
• Brand: Bushnell
• Model: 13-9755
• Released on: 2002-09-02
• Dimensions: 5.75" h x 3.00" w x 5.50" l, 14.08 pounds

Features

• Fully coated optics for superior light transmission and brightness
• Non-slip rubber armor absorbs shock while providing a firm grip
• Contemporary styling
• Magnifiation: 7x to 15x
• Objective lens: 25mm

From the Manufacturer
Like their roof prism relatives, the porro prism line-up provides great durability and performance in a "traditional" porro prism design. Compact in size, the contemporary styling houses fully coated optics. Suffice to say, images are crisp, clear and bright--even in low light. Affordable for any and all interested in magnifying life to its fullest.

Customer Reviews

Good, Gimmicky Golf Glass
After a number of noteworthy nature encounters on the golf course, I decided it would be wise to purchase a compact binocular for my golf bag. To that end, I purchased the Bushnell Powerview 7-15x25 reverse porro prism binocular.

My overall impression has been quite positive. At 7x magnification, the optics are wholly sufficient, providing crisp, bright views with only minor distortion toward the edges. The 262 foot (@ 1000 yards) field-of-view is somewhat narrow, but appears clear and deep.

Taking the magnification higher, the optical quality predictably declines. At full 15x zoom, the field-of-view shrinks to 183 feet at 1000 yards, and significantly less light passes through, leaving objects conspicuously darker by contrast. Nevertheless, the higher magnification can reveal details that are not visible at 7x, provided that the user has a very steady hand and good eyes to begin with.

The zoom function itself is intuitive and simple, completed with a quarter-turn of the collar that frames the right eye cup. The instruction manual recommends beginning at full zoom, then drawing back. This way, less refocusing is required. I prefer to begin with the full field-of-view, increasing magnification if desired. It is entirely possible to increase from 7x to 15x without losing sight of an object, but some refocusing is required once the desired magnification has been reached.

Relative to price, I am quite pleased with the Bushnell Powerview binocular. It fits comfortably in a small pocket in my golf bag, and provides excellent views at lower magnifications. I am, as yet, unsure what value to place upon the zoom feature. Whether it will be of use to you depends upon how you weigh the relative importance of magnification versus light-gathering capacity. While the zoom feature is somewhat amusing, consumers in search of a quality optical instrument will find a nice, standard compact to be a superior purchase.

PRO'S:
- Optics at lower magnification are crisp, clear, and bright.
- Size: fits comfortably in a large pocket.
- Appearance: well-designed reverse porro compact.
- Eye Relief: Fold-down rubber eye-cups make viewing through sunglasses (and presumably eyeglasses) possible.

CON'S:
- Optics at higher magnification are darker and more difficult to focus.
- Not comfortable for extended viewing.
- No objective lens covers.

Best bang for your buck
It would be tough to find better binoculars for the same price. I bought these for safari in Africa and they worked well. I especially liked the zoom feature. With just a high-power binocular, it's hard to find what you're looking for. With these, you find what you want at 7X, then zoom in.

I would have liked to have had a slightly more powerful binocular in a few places (maybe 25X), but overall they were great. We were able to get close enough to most animals to see them well with the binoculars. They were still bright enough even on a cloudy day, which can be a problem for compact binoculars. Best of all, they're cheap enough that you don't have to worry too much about damaging or losing them.

I was planning on selling mine when I got back, but I'm going to keep them.

Bushnell Compact Binocular 7-15-25
This binocular is light and compact. The optics are good, focusing is smooth. The adjustment of magnification 7 to 15 times, is a bit tight and bumpy. I usually live it half way, at 10 magnification, also not to decrease the luminosity at the higher power. I have another compact binocular, a Nikon with fixed power of 10. I would rate it better than this one, but it is more expensive. The Bushnell is clear and sharp and does what it is supposed to do. Great binocular for the price, but if you don't need the zoom, stick to a solid, simple, 10 power unit.