Review for Barska 20x80 X-Trail BaK-4 Porro Prism Rubber Armored Binoculars, Black AB10590

Author: eklf {!} from Carrboro, NC on Mar 27, 2008
Pros:  long eye relief, light weight, good collimation, wide field of view
Cons:  multicoated lens vs fully Multicoated, brow pressure can loosen focus wheel
Would recommend:  yes

eklf wrote:

I am an avid binocular astronomy fan and these Barska Xtrails 20x80s were my first "big" binoculars, having previously exclusively used 10x50s and 7x35s. I was initially very impressed by these binoculars, but previous experiences told me that only time can tell how well I really like them. Its now been one year since I got them, and am very comfortable and confident in giving my review. In short, these are great binoculars for the price point and I wholeheartedly recommend them. In long, the pros of these binoculars are their light weight, braced centre bracket, very comfortable eye relief at around 15mm, big eyepieces, good fit and finish. It came perfectly collimated and so far, after one year of good use, it still retains its collimation…this is an outstanding achievement for this class of instrument. The objective covers are nice and snug, but the eyepiece covers are slightly loose. A big plus is its wide FOV. Its stated to be 3.7 degrees, and in practice is about right. Very few large binoculars have this wide an FOV. The cons are that these are multicoated only in the objective end, the prisms show a pale blue reflection indicative of single coatings only. In practice, however, this may or maynot matter, and clearly for this pricepoint, this is very very minor con. A second issue is that too much brow pressure forces a loss of focus. However, I have experienced this in other binculars also, so its not specific to these ones. Also, the long eye relief does not require one to bury one’s eyes into the eyepieces. This has absolutely not been a problem for me. Lastly, with the eyeguards up, there is a loss of FOV at the edges. Again, this is quite frequent, and all my other binoculars show this, so its not specific this binocular. Optically, these are a joy to use. The stars on axis are very sharp, and remain so until maybe 70% out. After that, it turns into elongated spikes. Bright stars show some flaring, but that is quite acceptable in binoculars of this size. There is very little chromatic aberration on the moon. The contrast is not the best I have seen, but still quite good for the price point. In summary, good eyerelief, light weight, wide field of view, sharp images, sustained collimation more than outweigh multicoated lenses, average contrast, and the usual problems of loss of focus after too much brow pressure. These are great binoculars for the pricepoint, and I highly recommend these binoculars for their performance.