Hi, Barry from Birdwatch World here and in this video I'm going to be talking to you
about the Nissan Pre-Star 3S 8x42 binoculars which I have been using for birdies now for
quite some time and I really do like them. Starting with the look and the feel of them, as you can see they're a real sleek looking
pair of binoculars. They really have nice lines and they look really quite stylish and they feel good in
your hand. They're rubber armoured so they do grip to your hand and you're not going to let go of them
They're really quite nice feel. They've got the scalloped bit here at the sides where your fingers and your hand really
sit nicely in there and they feel really strong and stable in your hand
The weight of them is just right to be not too much but not not enough, not too much
but not too little. The eyes, for example, get a lot of neck pain and having these hanging around my neck for
a few hours is really no trouble at all. They don't hurt my neck which is great but they are heavy enough so that you feel like
you've got control of them so they're not moving around too much and spoiling the image
of your bird that you're looking at. The aspect of the inter-pupillary distance here, so moving the lenses further wide or
further close together for your inter-pupillary distance is a really good feeling mechanism
There's resistance there. You can just feel that it's nice quality and that kind of feel is also in the focus ring
here which is not super fast. It's not a very quick focus
There's actually quite a distance between close focus and far away focus
You're probably going to have to turn this about five times to get from one to the other
Almost five turns there on my finger but it really is quite accurate
As I said, the mechanism has that resistance there. It's not loose and you can feel the grip there and it really does help you to hone in your
focus and get the bird exactly where you want it and you can fine tune it quite easily
So the focus in this presence. I can also focus these with one hand
Depending on your hand size, you may or may not be able to do this
My index finger from the knuckles here to the end of my finger is nine centimetres
So that gives you an idea of whether or not you'd be able to do this but I can hold these
quite comfortably and focus with the one hand. So it's no trouble at all and that's good for me at the moment because I have a little
bit of tennis elbows. You can see I've got my elbows stretched out so holding these up with two hands causes
a lot of pain in my tennis elbows. So if I need to, I can do this with one hand and still focus them
It's no problem whatsoever. Now I have a three-step eye relief adjustment here
As you can see, you just turn these eye pieces up or down to adjust the eye relief for your eyes
This is helpful if you wear glasses, for example, which I probably should with binoculars but
I don't. So if you wear glasses, you keep the eye relief all the way in
You keep those pushed all the way in and that gets the binoculars far enough away from your
eyes to be able to use them correctly. And then if you're not wearing glasses, you can dial up, you can hear those clips in to
three separate positions there. So I normally use them at the second position
I'll dial them out to the second. That's just right for me. But you can choose whatever works for you
These do not lock into position. They are fairly stuck in that position but you can knock them and they will move around
That's the one thing that I find, that's another thing that I find a little bit annoying about
these binoculars. It's not a game changer but they do not lock into position so they will move
Just be aware of that. Now they come with this protective cover for the ocular ranges
So they just sit over the end there and they protect the ocular ranges from dust and grime
and dirt and stuff when you're not using them binoculars. They are set up so that they can be threaded through the strap and you can see, if the
camera will focus, there we go, so you can thread them through the strap and that means
that you don't lose them. One side of them actually has a little separated part on the plastic there, if you can see
there. So you can slip your strap in there rather than just have them attached to one side
So it attaches permanently here but on the other side you can move it in and out
But they don't get in the way when you're using the binoculars. If you have your strap set up properly you can just take them off, slide them down and
as you can see they don't get in the way. They do touch the skin areas here but it doesn't really bother me
So they're fine. You can choose to use them or not. Really, I do like to use them
Now the interpupillary distance of the binoculars, so this is interpupillary distance is the
distance from one pupil to the other of your eyes. Now this is something that you can't make yourself because you'll be trying to look
at the camera and your pupils will move inwards. You need to have a friend or loved one at your interpupillary distance
So you would stand there, you would look straight ahead and they would come up with a ruler
and put it under your pupils and measure the distance from one to the next
The interpupillary distance on the ProStar 3S is 5.6 centimetres to 7.2 centimetres or
2.2 to 2.8 inches. Interpupillary distance is a very important thing for you to keep in mind when you do
buy binoculars because if you have eyes that are fairly wide apart or fairly close together
you want to make sure that you can actually position the ocular lenses in front of both
eyes otherwise you can't use them. So always keep that in mind
It's a very important thing to be aware of. The low light performance of these binoculars is fantastic
The other night I went out to a headland called Bear Bluff which is at the southern end of
Sandy Beach here where I live. There's a lot of white-bellied sea eagles that often pass over and osprey and all sorts
of wonderful birds. And I was coming back just after dusk and looking through these binoculars it actually
appeared brighter than with my naked eye to me. So it was really great
And you can get the foliage on the side of the expansion. All the shadowy areas were quite dark when I looked at them with my naked eye but through
these it broadened up the shadows and I could pick out shapes and birds if I wanted to in
a much bigger room. So it was really, the low light performance is really quite good and that's because of
the 8x42 magnification. The 42mm front lenses here do let in quite a lot of light
One thing I was disappointed with about these binoculars is they do not have a tripod mount underneath
As they're quite light you really don't need it unless you're the type of person that gets
a little bit fetid looking through binoculars when, because your image does move a lot because
your hands move and that can make a lot of people feel a bit queasy
So if you are that type of person getting a pair of binoculars with a tripod mount might
be good for you. You can get brackets to put onto your end binocular that will then screw onto the tripod
if you like. But if you really like the ProStyle 3S the lack of tripod mount is not a game changer
It wasn't for me. It would come in handy to take pieces through the binoculars if you're using a digiscopic
mouse which I use. One I don't have yet, I'll go and get it in a second
And having that stability when you're trying to take photos would be a good thing
But no tripod mount. The binoculars come with this little pouch. I'm not sure what it's made of but it's just flat padded and the binoculars can sit in
there even with the strap on. You can pop your lens covers on there, close the bag, they fit in there just nicely
You've still got the strap hanging out and you can carry them around in that if you want to
So that's quite a nice little bag there. And they also come with these covers for the objective lenses so they can clip in there
I do find with these, they do tend to clip out if you've got the binoculars loose in
the bag for example or when you're pulling them out of the pouch they will sometimes
stick off. But they are in there quite sturdy. You can see that I'm applying a bit of pressure there and it took a little bit to get them out
So that'll protect your objective lenses. Now they are waterproof up to 1 metre or 3.3 feet for up to 10 minutes according to
the Nikon website. Now I'm not going to immerse my pair in water for 10 minutes to test these out for you but
I will dunk them into water just to prove to you that they are waterproof
Alright so here we are. I have a little tub of water here
I have my Nikon Tristar 3 binoculars. I'm going to dunk them in the water fully immersed to prove that they are waterproof
Now I have not done this before so I have no idea if it's going to ruin them or not
but if it does, like I said, I can send them back to Nikon and say, excuse me, you said
they were waterproof and they are not. So here we go, dunking them in the water in 3, 2, 1, here we go
Okay so they're almost fully immersed. There's just a little bit of the top here poking out
Um, no bubbles which is a good sign for me. So that means that they are in fact waterproof
Awesome. They are also fog proof as they are nitrogen filled and sealed so they will not fog up
in there which is very handy. So all in all the Nikon Tristar 3s are a very good pair of binoculars for birding
They, with the 8x42 magnification, provide just enough light and also makes them not
too heavy to cart around for a long time. Ergonomic, feel great in your hands and can do worse than any other