Opticron Marine 3 7 x 50 Monocular

bit bigger and heavier than I thought it was going to be, but very well made and the picture through the lens is excellent. really good for low light or when you don't want to carry a full pair of lenses. with the money.

As I suffer an alignment problem with my eyes, this is most suitable. Magnification low enough to hold still with one hand and exit lens big enough to allow light in and identify colours on birds.

Summary;Overall a very good combination of brightness, clarity, magnification, and field of view (especially, and regardless of price. Only thing I haven't tested is the most expensive, and brands like swarovski etc).From a total novice point of view I have spent a lot of time and money trying to understand what gives the best overall monocular experience.General laws determine higher magnification will cause loss of detail and brightness, and I find this to be true, especially regarding brightness.I find that brightness is the most important aspect alone, and I observed more detail of subjects with less magnification compared to more expensivemonoculars with higher magnification. From experience I believe that sharpness/detail of viewed subjects has much to do with the overall brightness.Another very important aspect I find is field of view, and this monocular has the perfect one! (no exact details at time of writing but Imagine easy enough to find out). A narrow field of view, even if you feel sure you are pointing right at a subject, can disorient you and take some time before you locate your subject but by no means is the magnification low. As always depends what you will use them for.My only wish is that it would have somewhat higher magnification and this would have been the perfect overall monocular.Tip; brightness is related to exit pupil and exit pupil is calculated by dividing the objective lens diameter by the magnification, in this case50 divided by 7 which equals 7.1 and is considered very high and close to max.The human pupil expands to this in low light/dark conditions so for all intents and purposes the monocular view will see as much as you can in the dark but only magnified.Lastly, it is very well built and sturdy and the focusing wheel is more on the resistant side rather than being loose.Thank you.