Celestron 71422 Cavalry 7x50 GPS Binocular (Olive Green)

I received these binoculars just last week and am completely satisfied with them. I have been looking for a pair of binoculars for some time that had certain qualities. They are: 7 x 50, fully multi-coated, BAK-4 glass, compass and range finder installed. This one has all of those plus GPS. That was really the reason why I bought these. I wanted to check out the GPS. It works.I'm happy that these binoculars do everything they advertise. The first item on my list was how good are they as binoculars. Great. The image is clear and colors true. Straight lines come through straight. I haven't noticed any distortion. They work well in low light situations. The screen for viewing the three modes I find to be large enough and bright enough to see and understand easily. They are light weight.I must confess that I prefer that everything were mechanical instead of digital. This item is digital. I do not find that to be a problem. I would recommend them for marine use. I'm currently using mine for bird watching. They should be good for camping or hunting.

I have no problem with the vision through these binoculars, they are as expected. But I would like to keep the view that way by protecting the lens and eye piece. Unfortunately this flimsy bit of detail was not well thought out. The lens covers pop off and flap during use and the eye piece cover just does not fit or stay on and is very cheaply made. When I contacted the company I was told to put some Velcro or a bungee around them. When I said not good enough they said they will send a new eye piece cover but admitted it will probably just do the same thing. I may revise when the new cover arrives. I hope it is a drastic improvement. Disappointing!

I received the binoculars on time and well packaged. However, what a disappointment! Although the optics are wonderfully clear and distortion free, and the individual focus controls easy and smooth, the electronics didn't work. I followed the instruction manual to the letter, and installed the provided battery. Tried to power up as indicated by pressing the power button, but nothing happened, the LCD screen remained black. Then I noticed that the battery compartment was overheating. Double checked the battery polarity, reinstalled, with the same negative results. I decided to return and exchange the binoculars, as this unit is probably defective (my luck!). Fortunately Amazon returns are not complicated, and I received approval and the corresponding shipping label to return these binoculars. Quality control failure in the Celestron factory? We'll see when I receive the replacement binoculars, but I hope that the electronics work on those!Celestron 71422 Cavalry 7x50 GPS Binocular (Olive Green)UPDATE on the replacement, Sept. 21, 2016: I received a replacement order for the same model of binoculars within four days of requesting it. This Celestron Cavalry 7x50 binoculars arrived in perfect condition and work great. The main reason I chose this model is because of its built-in GPS unit. Both the digital compass and the GPS work as described, and are accurate enough for my needs in coastal navigation. I had to get used to pressing the on/off button to fix a position or a compass bearing once I had the target object under the reticle, but once accustomed to this, I was able to use the bearings and GPS position to track my course on the chart with as much accuracy as with a hand-held compass and my other GPS unit. The GPS readings vary just a bit as compared with my Garmin unit, but the differences are minor for my purposes. As mentioned before, the optics are great and the reticle and calculating dial are very useful, and as accurate as your reference heights and calculations. I give the binoculars four stars because of the defective first unit I received.

With fully multicoated optics, BaK-4 prisms and ED glass objectives, it's a steal! Color rendition and sharpness are both beyond expectations. This is my second pair (a 'friend' borrowed my original and never returned 'em). Now I'm back in business! I recommend these for astronomy as well as general nature study at a reasonable price.

The 15X70's I ordered were Ok at first, however, after some use, it became noticeable that the Collimation was slightly off. They became unusable as binolucars, having to squint one eye in order to avoid seeing double. At this point, I'd have been better off with a spotting scope. Apparently Collimation going out of alignment is a common problem with large binos, and these don't hold up very well to field use. After having tried to adjust it myself, these binos went from worthless to completely worthless. I was really needing these binos for long periods of glassing, but these just don't hold up.Buyer beware, with budget spotting optics, you get what you pay for. Buy good quality optics, cry once over the price, and be done with it. Since I didn't do that, now I'm back to looking for new optics, and I'm not happy about that in the slightest.