Nikon Stabileyes 14x40 Review

Author's Rating:

Pros: Excellent optics. Stabilization works well.

Cons: Too big and heavy.

The Bottom Line: 
They are a quality product and work well. Excellent for use on a boat. For travel and hiking they are way too big and heavy.

Author's Review
These appear to be essentially the same as the Fujinon Techno Stabi binoculars. The quality of construction and optics are excellent. Images snap into focus easily. The image stabilization works very well. It does not freeze images but rather significantly slows down vibration and motion of the image in the field of view so that it is easier to resolve detail. The right eyepiece has a broad range of diopter adjustment of around 3+/-. The unit has two modes; land and water. This is an stupid gimmick. The default is land and you have to push a button each time to switch to water mode. The water mode has more image stabilization and I wish it operated only with this mode all the time. The Fujinon has only this single mode. These binoculars are very bulky and heavy, around 3 lbs. On a boat they would be fine, but for travel and hiking, forget it. Way too big and heavy. The price is relatively high in general, but compared to Leica and Swarovski (sp?) they are a bargain. My overall satisfaction is 6 to 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. My rating would be higher if they were smaller and lighter.