Nikon 12x25 Travelite Binoculars - Porro

These binoculars were nice and compact and had good optics. However, the amount you could see out of them was very small. A different pair fixed that.

I bought one pair of these from Amazon in Used condition but the prism in one eye piece wasn't properly aligned. I see this problem has been mentioned in other reviews. I was able to return them with no trouble and bought a pair in NEW condition. This time everything was perfect. Very nice and sharp. I have a trip to Costa Rica coming up so I wanted a pair that allowed me to look at things in a forest. So up at the top of a tree, not on mars. These are 12-25. The 12 is the magnification and 12X is just fine for what I need. If you get too much magnification you will find the image is hard to keep stable and you are so zoomed in it's hard to actually find what you are looking for. I also need something water proof, light and something that works well in low light situations. The 25 in the title is the size of the lens. Bigger means they let in more light. Bigger lenses are nice but add to the size and weight. I hate to suggest "showrooming" but you might want to pop down to an REI and what fits in your hands, what kind of weight you want, etc. It's tough to pick binoculars on the internet. But if you do decide on a small travel pair, these are the guys you want.

OK I've purchased many NIKON products in the past & they were exceptional. These Travelite 12X25 binoculars should not display the NIKON name. Image brightness was lacking. The focus was somewhat coarse. I wanted a compact, quality pair of binoculars and I feel for $145.00 the quality should of been much better. I have purchased similar binoculars of the OCCER, Aurosports, and OPAITA branding at a $25.00 to $65.00 price-point that were much more superior to the NIKON'S. Not sure if the Made in China had something to do with it but these other "off brands" were also of Chinese manufacture and performed much better. The OCCER 15X30 were exceptionally bright & focused easily. The OPAITA 20X32 were the best at around $50.00 with super sharp bright imaging without the eye fatigue experienced with the NIKON's. The Aurosports 10X25 at around $25.00 were about on par with the NIKON's with the same size dimensions although the other mentioned brands were only larger by a half to three quarter of an inch. I may return the NIKON's but will evaluate them one more time outdoors as they're the super compact size I needed. Used them outdoors & rated it up from 2 stars to 3 stars as it is about the highest (12X) magnification for binos this compact. In bright daylight they're fairly sharp but 12X may be too much for the objective lens to transfer sharp, bright images in waning daylight. If the price point was $65.00 to $75.00 I'd of given it a 4 star rating for value.I had decided to keep them as I'll never get such magnification power (12X) in such a sub-compct package.

Love 'em for athletic events. Other brand pair of binoculars were misplaced. Went back to Nikon; superior to the other brand I tried, IMO. *NOT* disappointed; lightweight, (almost) pocket size, good quality. They were quite a bit more $$$ but I'm more than satisfied. I'm just going to be more careful, keeping track of them.

The only thing I dislike about them is that they are a little bit too small but they are great binoculars. I thought I’d lost the first pair so I bought another pair. Found them after I thought I lost them so I returned the new pair that Ijust bought from Amazon and my old pair works just like they are new.