Bestguarder 4X50 Digital Night Vision Binocular PP27-0020

Was surprised

I bought this to look at nocturnal animals who frequent my backyard and deck, and often make things go bump in the night, especially the lid to the trash can. The first night I had it out, setting it up and getting it focused, I spotted a raccoon walking the rail of my deck and watched him as he moved around. I ran it in passive mode because there was enough city light pollution to see him pretty well. I am pretty sure I wouldn't have seen him with the naked eye, because the deck is in shadow from the street lights.

The biggest gripe that people have seems to be that they can't figure out how to focus. There are a number of previous reviews which address exactly how to do this, but apparently some folks don't read all the reviews (the way I do). This monocular has a very narrow depth of field, and you have to constantly change the focus as you scan from nearby to far away. It can focus on things just a couple of feet from the lens out to infinity. So, for the umpteenth time...

There are two lenses, the objective and the eyepiece. Find something to look at that has some contrast so you can see lines and edges (a tree trunk works well). The front objective should be adjusted to give the best possible definition (even if that means it looks fuzzy) while NOT moving the eyepiece lens focus. Roll it back and forth, from unfocused to focused back to unfocused, getting a feel for where the best focus is located "in the middle" between the unfocused positions, and leave it there. THEN, without touching the front lens, twist the eyepiece lens to get the best possible remaining focus. The eyepiece is actually focusing on the back end of the imager tube inside the unit, so once you get the eyepiece set, you should not have to touch it again; you may want to make a mark to be able to get it back to focus quickly should you accidentally move eyepiece. Any further focusing will be done with the front objective lens.

Yeah, it's fuzzy around the edges. However, the more light you have, the sharper the overall image appears to be. The built-in illuminator projects a beam that fills about 2/3 of the field of view, which coincidentally, happens to just about cover the sharpest part of the field of view, so you have IR light only where it does the most good. I found it gives pretty good illumination out to about 150 yards. But you can certainly see much farther than that, and I only turn on the illuminator when I am trying to see in the darkest shadows, or inside a dark room.

One thing I saw mentioned in a couple of reviews was the fact that you can look at the stars and see more stars than with the naked eye. It's no telescope, but you definitely can see stars that are lost in the haze and light pollution to the naked eye.

I like it; I think I'll keep it!