Minolta Classic Sport 12x50

A pair of good binoculars is expensive! Agreed! This is one of the more expensive ones. BUT, it's really really worth the money!

Mechanics: Stiff focuser, seems to be fashionable with binoculars... The diopter compensation uses a lever which prevents rotation of an eye-cup... the compensation is done in discrete steps.
Eye-cups... not good... very very uncomfortable! They could be ignored though, but, you risk contact to the ocular-optics.

Optics: Very very perfect! The binoculars employ BaK4 prims. No ghost-images, merely no distortion, no visible chromatic aberrations. Reasonable wide-angle impression.
The views of all objects I pointed at with this pair of binoculars were a real treat! Bright, faint, no difference what so ever. Milky way browsing is pure pleasure!

Recommendation? YES! But only if you are experienced, e.g. avoid jitter... A magnification of 12x makes freehand observations quiet difficult. Deck chairs are a good assistance, for example.

Conclusion: The Classic Sport are very good binoculars, I would recommend the 10x50 for beginners, as these will be easier to use. Drawback: there are some $s (€s) to be spent for a pair of binoculars fine as these!

Last modified March 3rd 2005