8-25x25 Straight Zoom Monocular

Superb value for money! Excellent optics and plenty of focus adjustment (missing from many other monoculars). Having lost the sight in one eye from Diabetes, Binoculars didn't seem appropriate and the good news... This monocular gives me high quality vision with an amazing zoom range - far better than I would have got from binoculars.

The image quality is decent for the price you pay. The quality at 8x magnification is really good (sharp and bright), however towards the 25x magnification the quality starts to suffer a little bit (getting little soft, but still acceptable and darker). Also offers nice close up function if you want to inspect something close up. The focus ring is nice and smooth, quite heavy to turn (won't move on its own). The body of the monocular feels very well made (for the price it costs), and it does not rattle or feel like it is going to fall apart. Only reason not to give 5 stars - the monocular folded at its most compact setting is focusing past infinity, meaning you have to turn the focus ring when you get it out of the pouch or leave it in the pouch extended few millimetres (focused at infinity). Not sure if that would bother most people using it, but worth mentioning. Another thing worth mentioning is that to actually use the 25x magnification successfully you need very steady hands, it is not easy to handhold the monocular at that magnification due to its small size and light weight.

Focus is average and at max zoom is not good. Stiff action. The close up focusing (0.5m) seemed like good feature but when I tried it your naked eye will give you better view if you can get this close to it anyway. Or any cheap magnifying glass will be much better. Returned it for refund. Bought a Barr and Stroud 15x-45x for about half as much again. It is much bigger but the quality is so much better. I found it focused better at 45x zoom than the Hilkin at 15x. Not too sure what you could use the Hilkinson 8-25x25 for as 8x binoculars will cover most of what it did but with better view.

I did not really expect this to all that good for the price, but I did not expect it to be as bad as it was. The place for this is the rubbish bin.

Well made. Difficult to use at max length.

quality, just made to last. well pleased with it, smooth operation, focus so good. even used with mobile for extra zoom

There are cheaper ones around for a Monocular, this seemed to be a step up in quality and a not unreasonable price for what you get. Build is nice with a solid metal casing which is soft to the touch. You get a supplied case with belt pouch, lens cleaning cloth and an attachment to put around your neck to hold it. Optics are better than expected with a good control of abberations (ie not a problem) sharpness is good too, with a nice smooth focus and zoom action You can use the zoom control near the eyepiece to zoom from 8-25x magnification, this isn't a fast optic so low light isn't it's ideal application but quality remains good at the full zoom end with decent contrast and sharpness (albeit fairly dim at the 25x end... not an issue in good light but one to watch).. Push the front part forward to enable the macro capability. Close up ability is excellent really good macro for looking at bugs and fine details. Overall very pleased nice and compact make this a device you would be happy to take anywhere with you Update Feb 2014: Still very pleased with the Monocular it's still working very well Added photo to show the various controls (see users pics) The only real downside is the rather mediocre case supplied this really needs a better quality case to store it in. In all other ways the unit is still working fine and looks fresh despite being used quite a bit.

Light, compact, easy to use, I love this monocular it is great quality