Excelsis Ratings/Reviews - Votes:Orion Little Giant II 15x70

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Orion Little Giant II 15x70

I've had these binoculars slightly less than a year. I got them on sale for $199 + shipping last November when Orion had a Web only sale on them. They are well made, good to look at, and come with a very nice hard case. At the sale price, I give them an 8 for value. At their regular price, I would give them a 7. Orion seems to put them on sale from time to time for various prices, so wait before you buy.

The Little Giant II binoculars are short on eye relief for eyeglass wearers. The images are sharp at the center but go soft approximately 2/3 out. They are light enough (approximately 3 lbs, 1.4 kg) for me to handhold them, if I brace myself against something or lie down in a lawn chair. Yet they are big enough to gather a good amount of light. That being said, they are not a replacement in any way for my larger telescopes. I use these or any binoculars to scan the sky and having really heavy binoculars that must be mounted on a tripod defeats why I use them.

I recently made a quick daytime comparison with a pair of the Celestron Skymaster 15x70 binoculars that sell for $75-$89 + shipping. The Little Giant II were much nicer to look at and seemed to have better optics, but the Celestron had more eye relief (almost too much without glasses). They seemed to weigh approximately the same. The Skymaster price is so low that one really should try both binoculars before deciding if the Little Giant II is worth the extra money.

So, which pair would I buy if I were buying binoculars now? That's a tough one. I'm glad I own the Little Giant II, but the Skymaster binoculars are hard to ignore at 1/3 the regular price of the Little Giant II.

Overall Rating: 8
Optics:8 Value:8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date: 10/30/2003 08:17:33 am PST
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.131.4)
Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=315303

Reply Replies: 0

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