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Let me start this review by saying that I am not an expert in terms of complex technical aspects around binoculars, and therefore I will not dig much into that stuff. However, if you are interested in the technical geekness I recommend you the forum Cloudy Nights. There you’ll find a lot of technical information about binoculars, given by the best experts you can find on the Internet.

In this review I’ll give you my opinion on how they perform, what I think about them (the pros and cons and how they suit my needs) as well as some basic technical info. So this review certainly won’t have the geek mumbo jumbo that only a few people understand.

First of all I bought these binoculars primarily for stargazing but they are very good both for astronomical and terrestrial use. When I first looked at the Orion’s Belt with them I sort of said… WOW!!! I was truly amazed. Then, when I looked at the Pleiades I went WOOOOW!!!! Get the picture, don’t you?!

Before buying them I’ve done some research, and everybody was saying that the image was good, but hey… I wasn’t expecting such a good image, to be honest. It was just when I looked at the night sky with these binos that I truly understood what other owners mean when they say that these binoculars give you a great bang for the buck.

They are crisp and clear across almost all the field of view (FOV) and only on the very edge they exhibit some blur (not very pronounced though). I believe that 90-95% of the FOV gives a crisp and clear image. Plus, the collimation, which means the optical alignment, was perfect out of the box.

If you want to use these binoculars for stargazing you’ll be more than happy with them, but if you want to use them for terrestrial views they also give you detailed images and good contrasts. On the other hand I haven’t noticed any major color aberrations! Maybe in high contrasts like, for instance, if you’re looking at the moon you may notice some faint fringe, but quite frankly, it won’t be nothing like what happens with those cheap Chinese binos, where you get purple fringes everywhere. I mean, some of the poor little suckers have such color aberrations and miscollimation that if you really must look through them, I urge you not to do it for more than 30 seconds or you’ll end up so nauseous that you may even throw up. And even if you manage not to throw up, you’ll get a huge headache. That’s for sure! The Pentax are in a very different league so, if you’re wondering whether or not they suffer from some of the bad stuff typical to the Chinese binos, don’t worry, they don’t!

Pentax claims that each air-to-glass surface is fully multicoated. Not being an expert in such matters all I can say is that they deliver awesome optical performance for their price tag. They are not a pair of Fujinons alright, but they come closer than many others! I don’t know if it is due to the coating, the internal structure, the prisms or whatever, and I don’t really care, all I know is that they do what they are supposed to, and they do it very well.

About the body, I can only say that it feels very good in your hands, for two main reasons: first because of the soft but grippy rubber surface, second because they have very nice ergonomics with soft edges, all across the objectives, meant to fit nicely to your hands. And it’s a fact that when you handhold the binoculars they do feel very comfortable.

If you are the kind of person who wants a pair of binoculars to go outside no matter if it is a wonderful sunny day, a chilling night, or a humongous downpour, I have good news for you! They are sealed and nitrogen filled which prevents condensation inside. They’re also rain/waterproof (up to one meter according to Pentax, since they meet the requisites of the JIS Class 6 waterproofing protocol), snow proof and of course, fog proof. So don’t hold yourself from taking these babies for a walk because I think they will love it and you too!

Because they are 10×50, you can use them with your hands only – especially in terrestrial views. For small and/or faint objects you might want to use a tripod. As I use them mainly for stargazing, I have them on a tripod almost all the time. I bought a cheap 1/4″-20 tripod adapter from Celestron that does the job, although one of these days I’ll buy something better since this adaptor is the weak link of all the setup. The tripod I use with them is a sturdy, yet heavy, Manfrotto 055PROB (Bogen 3021BPRO). It weights 2.4 kg (5.3 lb) and has a maximum load capacity of 6.0 kg (13.3 lb). I have it equipped with a Manfrotto 488RC4 ball head with a weight of 800 g (1.76 lb) and a maximum load capacity of 8.0 kg (17.6 lb). So as you can see, for a pair of binoculars weighting 1030 g (2.27 lb), this setup is more than enough! This is not however the tripod I use for outdoor photography. In outdoor photography you’re always walking from one place to another, and for that purpose I have a carbon fiber Slik tripod that weights like a feather, but for the binos I prefer the old Manfrotto given the fact that I don’t do much terrestrial views, so I just have to find one good place to stargaze and stay put! If you do photography and want an all around tripod, you can buy a carbon fiber instead, but be prepared to pay much more for the tripod than for the binos. The Manfrotto was my first tripod for photography, but I couldn’t carry it anymore without shouting out loud something less proper, so I decided to buy the Slik exclusively for outdoor photography and kept the Manfrotto for other purposes such as stargazing and some indoor photography.

Size comparison (from left to right): Nikon 10x21 Sprint IV; Pentax 10x50 PCF WP II; Celestron 20x80 SkyMaster

If you have eyeglasses, don’t worry, the eyecups are perfect for those who use eyeglasses. They have three positions for eye relief each one of them giving you a nice click. When you feel/hear the click you can be sure that the eyecups won’t move from the chosen position. There is also a central focusing mechanism on these binos that has a locking position. Very handy and easy to use, it prevents the binos from accidentally get out of focus. On the right eyepiece you also have the dioptric correction in locking click stops with an adjustment range of ±2 m-1 .

The only downside of these binoculars don’t have to do directly with them but rather with accessories. I’m talking about the caps and the bag. The primary lens caps stick snuggly on the objectives, however the eyepieces cap (which is a single piece for both eyepieces), is truly – and forgive my English – a piece of crap, really… When I saw the damn thing falling off the binos no matter what, instead of WOW I guess I did say something like OMG!!! It’s by far the lousiest eyepiece cap I’ve ever seen, and I don’t quite understand how Pentax included such a bad item in this package. Instead of a single piece they should have done a couple caps, one for each eyepiece. As far as I know this ain’t rocket science, so I don’t understand what were those guys thinking when they made this awful mistake.

It also comes with a bag and shoulder strap. The bag is not as lousy as the eyepieces cap, but still it could be much better. It’s not rigid and it doesn’t give you a sensation of protection for the binos. Don’t you even think about dropping them inside this case. The outcome will certainly be tragic to say the least!

Finally if you ask me the pros and cons, it’s easy: the cons are the eyepieces cap and the case. The pros are everything else!

Cheers!

Pentax 10×50 PCF WP II specifications:

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