Looking for the perfect binoculars to take your outdoor activities to the next level? Consider trying out Celestron Cavalry 8 x 42 Binoculars.
Whether you’re looking for a useful tool for hunting, camping or bird watching – or want something reliable and durable just in case of emergencies – these binoculars are essential for any outdoor enthusiast’s kit.
In this review, I’ll break down all that makes these popular binos stand out from their competition, including impressive lens quality, ergonomics and price ranges.
With plenty of features packed into an easy-to-use design, it’s easy to see why they have such an enthusiastic following among beginner and experienced users alike!
Celestron 71424 Cavalry 10×50 Binocular (Olive Green)
1. Design
The design of this model is unique and different from most other binoculars that you might find. The outer casing has thick rubber armoring, making it waterproof, fog proof, durable, and scratch-resistant.
The design is such that it allows seeing targets far away from you. Since they are specially designed for professionals, the body is very robust but still lightweight. Hence, easy to carry.
The objective lens covers on these binoculars fit nicely, have a smooth finish, and are attached to a central pivot, preventing them from being accidentally misplaced. In addition, they keep the lens clean as no dirt can go inside the cover.
The body shape resembles the shape of Porro prism binoculars as the objective lens is not aligned with the eyepieces.
The misalignment tells us that the incoming light is first bent and then inverted before going to the eyepieces. The body itself is completely waterproof and foldable, allowing you to adjust the eyepieces according to your needs. The rubberized armor body makes the binoculars less reflective compared to metal bodies.
This feature allows you to remain hidden. Plus, the rubber armor body makes less sound on impact, making it easier to be silent when hunting or hiding during security situations. The design of Celestron Cavalry binos includes a built-in GPS and digital compass.
Hunters or people in the military and law enforcement must know the exact location of where they are, and the built-in GPS can jump in for help.
You can get the exact location using GPS in the form of latitude and longitude. At the same time, the built-in digital compass helps you determine objects’ direction accurately. These binoculars have a built-in rangefinder reticle integrated as well. This tells you how far away the object is from you by showing the distance on the oculars.
The eyecups on these binoculars have a foldable rubber cover, allowing you to set the eye relief according to your needs.
They are tripod mountable which is useful when you need to mount them on a tripod for stable viewing or want to use them for an extended period. The overall body construction is solid and sturdy.
2. Eyecups
The Celestron Cavalry 7×50 and 15×70 have roll-up roll-down rubber eyecups, whereas Celestron Cavalry 10×50 has twist-up eyecups. The roll-up roll-down eyecups are very soft and cover your eyes firmly, preventing light from entering from the sides.
Since they are made from rubber and are soft, avoid laying your binoculars on this side for an extended period.
However, this is not a big issue as they tend to return to their original shape. They can be both fully folded downwards or halfway folded downwards.
These 7×50 binoculars come with an eye relief of 23mm, whereas 15×70 and 10×50 Cavalry binoculars come with 18mm and 19.5mm eye relief, respectively. This allows you to set your eye relief precisely according to your requirements.
The twist-up eyecups are made from hard plastic and can be rotated and locked at varying positions as per the user’s needs. This helps in adjusting the eye relief. This eyecups feature makes them more user-friendly as they allow you to rotate them according to your needs.
The twist-up eyecups provide fine-tuning of the interpupillary distance compared to roll-up roll-down eyecups. Since they are made from hard plastic, they have a more balanced weight than rubber eyecups.
3. Prisms
Prisms are made in many shapes and sizes, and they depend on the application of binoculars. The shape of the prism determines how the lens focuses light onto the retina.
The prism used in Celestron Cavalry binoculars is the BaK-4 prism which is considered to be one of the best among all as it has good light transmittance.
They are considered high quality, with good coating and low reflectance. Design-wise, there are two different types of prisms which include roof prisms and Porro prisms.
Porro prism design is named after Ignazio Porro, who invented this prism structure. In this prism design, two prisms are used. The light comes into the binoculars and hits the first prism, which is inside the binoculars.
After hitting the prism, these light waves are reflected at a specific angle, and they then hit another prism placed at some angle. This phenomenon inverts the incoming light and is called internal reflection. As a result, the optical path takes a Z shape, and this prism design requires more physical space.
In a roof prism, all prisms inside the binoculars are aligned in a complex manner to create an image of the target. Since they are horizontally aligned, there is no z-shaped optical path in roof prism design binoculars. All Celestron Cavalry binoculars use Porro prism design.
This is also evident by the body shape of these binoculars as the eyecups and lenses are not aligned. In general, the Porro prism offers more great features like stargazing, daytime hunting, nighttime hunting, and general outdoor activity.
You can see distant objects more clearly, and the wide-angle of view helps you to detect small objects and animals at great distances.
4. Lenses
Celestron Cavalry binoculars have fully multi-coated Bak-4 glass lenses, which help in increasing the amount of light reception. Multi-coated lenses help in reducing the reflection of light inside the binoculars, eliminating chromatic aberrations, and providing sharp and brighter images.
In addition, the lenses are encased inside a protective armor casing which prevents any damage to it from external factors like dust, water, etc.
The objective lens diameter of these Celestron binoculars is larger than average binoculars, allowing users to see objects and images better from a long range. The 7×50 Celestron Cavalry comes with a 23mm lens which is a perfect size.
The increased light transmission of these Celestron binoculars is an excellent feature as they offer a higher light transmittance than other 7×50, 10×50, 15×70, and non-Celestron models.
A 50mm lens diameter with a 7x magnification power gives an exit pupil of 7.1mm (50÷7). Simply put, a larger exit pupil allows more light to come out of the eyepieces and enter your eyes. Ideally, the exit pupil should be greater than your eye pupil.
This helps in maximizing the light transmission to your eyes. Firstly, larger exit pupils allow you to quickly line up your eyes with the eyecups enabling quick use of binoculars.
Secondly, in low light conditions, the size of your pupil gets bigger to allow more light to come into your eyes for creating a clear image. In such scenarios, a larger exit pupil of these Celestron Cavalry binos allows more than enough light to enter your pupils, allowing you to view your target object clearly. These binoculars indeed come with well-designed lenses.
5. Image Quality
The highest optical performance is one of the best variables to measure the quality of binoculars. The image quality of Celestron Cavalry binoculars is quite excellent. They offer a clear image with sharp details, crispness, and contrast.
Celestron Cavalry binoculars provide an accurate natural color system. This is due to a unique design that ensures accurate colors and more saturation of those colors than other binoculars.
They do not have any artificial tinting or lens coatings to mess up with the colors, like other cheap binoculars. Quantitative image evaluation indicates that the color quality of these binoculars is excellent.
Upon seeing an object through the eyepiece, most binoculars that are cheap and ill-designed have some area around the eyepiece where the image is a little fuzzy or out of focus, so to say.
However, these Celestron Cavalry binoculars almost have no fuzziness in the image around the eyepiece edges.
Color fringing is another one of the common factors to look out for a while using binoculars. This refers to color differences in different parts of the same object; while it may be perfectly clear on one side, it may be foggier on another side.
Accurate image details and color fringing is an objective measure of quality. Celestron Cavalry binoculars have very little color fringing around the edges of the image.
Pros
Cons
Conclusion:
These binoculars are well-made, with a very ergonomic design. They are entirely waterproof and utilize nitrogen gas to become fog proof as well. The rangefinder feature is also a good addition.
With the digital GPS system, you can always track where you have gone and how far you have traveled. The compass is also very accurate, making it easy to navigate your way.
The image quality is excellent and crisp. The contrast is also good, and so is the brightness level. The long eye relief is an exemplary aspect of these binoculars, especially for eyeglass wearers. Overall, these are professional-quality binoculars that will not disappoint you if you are looking for a good pair of binoculars.