Customer Reviews
Bushnell Powerview Binoculars 
2008-01-21
We enjoyed our binoculars in Florida these past two weeks. They work extremely well. Great product.
Good For The Money 
2008-01-07
When you're getting a pair of 16x50 binoculars at this price-point, it would probably be harsh of me to criticize them too hard, so long as I can see through them effectively :-)
They're heavy - but that's what I expected, so no complaints there.
The strap that comes with these is made of nasty thick plastic - a kind of strap that I haven't seen since I got a cheap SLR in the early 1980s. Completely pointless (unusable in my opinion), and the first thing I would advise is to go buy the strap/support system of your choice and don't relay on the nasty accessory that comes with.
The binoculars come with lens caps on. I haven't figure out if they intend you to use them all the time to protect the lenses, or if they're just for show in the box. The large caps are fine, but the small ones do not stay attached, so don't rely on them to protect.
In use, the quick focus mechanism is actually very effective but definitely requires two hands to operate as it's a little stiff (and as a lever, you have to be able to press down on either side). I guess few people would be operating something this heavy with one hand, but it does mean that both hands are under tension as you have to have fingers on the focus mechanism.
Optically, these are absolutely built to the price. Definite chromatic aberration here giving a nice blue/yellow fringe, especially at longer distances. But for the price, I kind of expected that. Diopter correction works well.
Overall, a great product for the price. I would possibly recommend looking at spending a little more to get some better optics, but really for this money it's a great way to get this much magnification.
Impressive 2008-01-01
These binoculars were a good deal for the money and had the right specs. so I decided to get them. But, we were still surprised with how good they were when they arrived. We would recommend them to anyone interested in both astronomy and terestrial viewing.
nephews liked 2007-12-28
We gave these to our 13 year old nephews, who camp a lot, for Christmas. They had been wanting some decent binoculars and they both really liked them. One commented after looking through these that they were "friggin awesome". They used them that night to look at the moon and the stars and were impressed.
bushnell 16X50 2007-12-23
very good value. sharp images as long as you brace your arms; 16X also magnifies the shakiness 16 times! probably not as good as leupold or swarovsky, but at under $100 a little forgiveness is justified. a great item to have handy when traveling.
Flimsy Product 
2008-07-16
I was really looking forward to getting these binoculars. I had owned Bushnell binoculars in the past and was very happy with them.
These arrived totally broken.
The left main lens housing was sheared completely off from the unit.
Looking at them, I found they were constructed using cheap plastic for the main body. The lens housings are screwed into the body, but the plastic is so fragile that apparently when they were dropped sometime during the shipping process the plastic shattered.
I probably could have Super-glued the housing back on but then they would have been subject to fogging since when the housing broke off the Nitrogen that is injected into the housing escaped. Nitrogen is used to prevent the lenses from fogging.
While checking out the remainder of the unit, I worked with the quick focus lever and found that it didn't hold focus very well either. I would like to see a unit that has a dial focus with a lever fine focus so that the major focus point is stable. The lever focus would be really nice for finer focusing after you have zeroed in on the subject. I would have used them for viewing auto racing for the most part, so once you get the major focus point clear, a lever focus for fine focusing would be great for viewing a moving target like race cars that can vary in distance by up to 1/4 of a mile closer or further than the main focus point as the cars travel around the track. That is where the quick focus lever could do a great job. But to use it for the entire focus field is too much and it isn't fine enough since a tiny bump in the wrong direction can cause you to lose sight of your target object entirely.
I also agree that the design of the focus bar is poor in that you have to use both hands to focus since you can only push down. Either that or if you have a long finger you can reach across the center and push down on the other side of the bar as well.
I won't be reordering a replacement. Instead I will look for binoculars that have a more durable housing since using binoculars subjects them to being "knocked around" and if the material used by Bushnell shatters so easily, they are not going to last very long.
So my advice to anyone who owns these particular binoculars is to protect them from being dropped or even bumped into trees, etc very hard since the housing is brittle and will shatter. If you use them in Winter, they will be even more brittle and the housing will shatter even more easily than in warm weather like we have now.
I would also advise Bushnell to change their packaging since if they make a product that is this fragile they should pack it in thicker shock absorbing materials than they currently do since what they use wouldn't protect a product a fraction of the weight and bulk of this product. That would lessen the chance of catastrophic damage such as these were obviously subjected to.
My cell phone, which weighs 3.5 ounces came in a corrugated box with a total weight of one pound with 10 ounces of that being the box and packing materials (the charger weighs about 2 oz).
Yet these binoculars that weigh 12 TIMES as much as my cell phone, with optics that are far more vulnerable to damage from the shocks of shipping and handling than a cell phone have only a couple of ounces of material to protect them from damage and came in a box no sturdier than a cereal box. It is a miracle if any of these binoculars get to the customer in one piece!
Great value, crisp optics 2008-03-23
I purchased this 16x50 model at Walmart for $59. The optics are crisp and clear. Comes with a storage bag/case and a good quality braided nylon neck strap. I read in another review that the neck strap used to be a cheap plastic material- they've improved on that strap. This model is an exceptional value for the money. The high mag power is best suited for distance viewing, and as a substitute for a spotting scope for targets, etc.
Excellent product. 2008-02-27
The Bushnell binoculars are fantastic. It's amazing what you can see with them and a more than reasonable price.
Love them! 2008-02-13
I purchased these binoculars, for additional power, have old 7x35 with great lenses, sharp view, so I chose these per reviews combined with price. Great buy.
Bushnell Binocs...Great Product 2008-02-08
I purchased this binocs for a tiger safari in India and am amazed by the quality of this product. Certainly recommended and a great value for price. AAAAAAA plus quality.
