Telescope Reviews: First light Nikon Action 7x35

What to expect from a 55 euro binocular that's right at the minimum spec for astronomy use - some would even say below spec. Well, not that much really, let's be honest. If that is your mind-set - and it certainly is mine - then you would be very pleased with the Nikon Action 7x35.

First impressions count as much as anything, and the Action certainly scores in this regard. Good solid build quality, nice to look at as well as through, good feel in the hands (though rather small). In daylight, colours are vibrant, contrast is good, depth of field is phenomenal, center sharpness is impeccable.

In twilight I thought the image was perhaps not as bright as I was expecting, so possibly the light transmission is not top notch. But without actually comparing to a better binocular, I can't know for sure. When it got dark I didn't notice this anymore.

The real bonus of a 7x35 binocular is of course the large TFOV. It spans from gamma to delta Aquila (9°06') or from epsilon to gamma UMa (8°56'), in both cases with a slight margin. The Lyra stick figure entirely fits in the FOV, and with Corona Borealis there's even a nice margin around it. I can just get the 4 stars making up the center Keystone of Hercules, into one view.

For starhopping or for finding things you can't precisely pinpoint, the wide FOV is great. For example, this evening we had three Iridium flares within 20 minutes, all "a bit to the lower right" of Arcturus, less than 10° above the horizon so with very few field stars. The Action 7x35 did admirably on this task.

Stars in the center of the FOV are nice and sharp, without gross aberrations. Jupiter's moons were easily seen (even one that was less than a jovian diameter away from the planet) and the planet itself was a relatively tight clean disk - of course, small. The nearly full Moon was also impressively sharp, and showed very good contrast. Towards the edges it deteriorates pretty quickly, but I did get nu Draconis (63" separation, or 440" apparent) resolved out to about 75% from the center. That's pretty good really. Only in the outer 10% or so do you get significant "seagull" stars. The Moon isn't sharp in the outer 2° of the FOV, and when it touches the edge it is significantly flattened and shows a lot of chromatic aberration.

There's a relatively large area of sky around streetlights that can't be accessed due to flare or glare, and a have a lot of streetlights near my house, but other than that I am toally happy with the Nikon Action 7x35. I bought two, for my kids, but I guess they can manage to get by on sharing one between them.

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Mark
Leica 8x20; Vixen 8x42; Swift 8.5x44, 10x50 and 20x80; TS 7x50; Orion 15x63; Docter 15x60
WO Megrez II 80 FD + Baader 90° T2 Amici