CN FORUMS ARCHIVE Telescope Reviews: Canon 18x50 IS UD First Impessions

Hi All,

I stumbled across a good deal on an Canon 18x50 IS that a friend purchased for his father but subsiquently has been gathering dust.

It cleared up last night so a borrowed them and spent about 1/2 an hour testing them. Since the Moon was out I did not attempt to do any real testing on DS objects. I purely wanted to check the Optical quality and determine whether they are the right fit for me.

The first thing I wanted to check out was how well the Image stabalizing worked and I was pleasently surprised. I'm quite a skinny guy and even have problems hand holding my 8x42 Pentax's. While standing, the image stabalizing completely removes about 70% of the jitter after about 5 seconds. After anouther 5 seconds all jitter is removed but the image tends to wander around around a bit, somtimes jumping. While seated or laying the image is very steady and any wandering of the object can be easily followed by the eye. It did notice what might be the "vibration effect" (for lack of a better term) that others have mentioned coming from the Image stabalizing. It was very small and only noticable when viewing the moon. It was apperant as a slight bluring of the image for about 1/4 a second at 1 to 2 second intervals. It was quite simular to moments of bad seeing in a telescope. It was not noticable when viewing Betelgeuse or other objects so It could have actualy been bad seeing since the Moon was low and directy over a rooftop.

The color correction and field flateness can be refered to as excellent! There was only a very slight color fringe on the nearly full gibbous moon. Only noticable if I really wanted to see it. In daylight the binoculars pass the tree -branch-in-front-of-an-overcast-sky test with bravour. I recall no reflections being noticable when scanning the sky around the Moon but I must add I was not looking for them.

Stars remain sharp over 80% of the FOV radius. The only thing that discouraged me are flairs in the left side. The collimation is perfect but viewing Betelgeuse showed a pronouced flair on the left side and a more subtle flair on the right side. I must add that I am very picky on this issue. I need to take them out on a dark night where observing, not testing, is the focus to insure the flair doesn't distract and remove from the fun factor. On the brighter Pleades stars the flairs where barily noticable.

While standing, I had a look at the Great Orion Nebula. The trapez whas clearly 2 seperate components with one being slightly elongated. Even with the sky backround being very bright M42 spread its arms beautifully, I dont remember seeing M43 but admitingly I forgot to look specificaly. I also had a quick look at the Open Cluster M52 in Cassiopia. It presented itself as a faint nebula. Since it was near Zenith and I was standing I couldn't spend enough time to tickle out individual members dazeling out from the haze. One thing that amazed me was being able to see the rings of Saturn seperated from the planet. Unfortunatly I could not see the Cassini or Enke sperations

One thing that is noticable is an effect due to the small exit pupils. The binoculars require an exact and careful IPD adjustment. I also had to consciously work on correctly positioning them in front of my eyes. This is especialy noticable when using during daylight.

Over all I was impressed with the quality and functionality. For astronomical use, with my skinny arms, a chair or chase lounge is an absolute must. The 15x50 IS's I have had a chance to look though where not quite as sensitive to my inherant shakes. For a quick look while standing on the back yard the 18x50 IS works very well. For a detailed study of an object, simply sitting down or leaning against a wall removes any swaying and allows the image to remain fixed. I feel the added magnification easily offsets the need to use them seated or reclined when compared to the 15x50 IS.

I did have a problem with the Image Stabilizing shuting off after about 30 seconds. This was very distracting but after replacing the batteries the stabilization stayed active for at least 3 minutes. (sorry lost count, could have been longer)

The jury is still out on whether I will keep these due to the stars fairing on the left side mentoned above. I'll need to take them out again. Aside from that, as a high power (in Binocular terms) true grab and go setup the 18x50 IS are great.

If the weather clears up during new moon I plan on compairing the 18x50 IS with my 16x70 Fujinon's and hopefully the 15x50 IS if I can get my hands on one.

Cheers,
Matt

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Edited by Mad Matt (12/30/04 06:03 AM)

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