Nikon Monarch 5 16x56 HD Review
Nikon’s big Chinese-made
Monarch 5s are one of the few quality options in a powerful big-eye binocular
that doesn’t cost a fortune. But does the competitive price and
outsourced manufacturing mean they’ve cut corners with the view?
People periodically ask me to recommend a sensibly-priced hand-held
astronomy binocular. The answer was once a knee-jerk reaction: Nikon’s
12x50 SE every time. Sadly, the 12x50 SE is years out of production and they no
longer seem to come up used (no surprise there). So is there an alternative?
Though many think 10x or 12x ideal for astronomy, I find that
higher powers and larger objectives have a definite advantage when it comes to
finding and enjoying DSOs, as long as you can hold them steady. And one obvious
mid-market option is Nikon’s 16x56 Monarch 5s.
So, I bought a pair to try them out on the night sky and see
if they made a recommendable alternative to the 12x50 SEs, also to compare them
with two of their rivals from the European-made ‘Alpha’ segment:
Zeiss’ 15x56 Conquest HDs and Swarovski’s 15x56 SLC HDs.
At A Glance
|
Magnification |
16x |
|
Objective Size |
56mm |
|
Eye Relief |
16.4mm (claimed), ~13mm measured |
|
Actual Field of View |
4.1 degrees |
|
Apparent field of view |
59.6 degrees |
|
Close focus |
~5.5m |
|
Transmissivity |
Est. 88% |
|
Length |
199mm |
|
Weight |
1230g |
Data from Nikon/Me.
What’s in the Box?
Design and Build
Nikon have lots of Monarch models (too many models in
general, in my opinion). These are the older Monarch 5s; the bigger objective
designs aren’t available in the latest Monarch 7s (yet). However, these
have all the latest technology, with HD lenses to cure false colour a notable
advantage at this price.
The 16x56 Monarch 5s are made in China, but don’t seem
to be a re-branded generic model. Nikon also make an 8x56 and a (very niche, I
would have thought) 20x56 version, but oddly the ideal-for-astronomy 10x56 has
been discontinued.
Body and Ergonomics
These have the typical Monarch look, which is to say
they’re externally well made, with nice armour and quality components.
There’s no sense that these are a cheap binocular in terms of look and
feel.
These are compact for a 56mm design – as compact as
Swarovski’s 15x56 SLC HDs and more so than Zeiss’ 56mm Conquest
HDs. Weight is just a little more than the SLC HDs and about the same as the
Conquests, mostly thanks to a fibreglass-reinforced polycarbonate body that
also makes them warmer to hold.
That black armour is grippy and slightly sticky - like the
stuff they use for racing tyres and rock boot soles - but it does mark up more
than, say, Swarovski’s and is a real magnet for dust and fluff. It smells
slightly rubbery too.
Externally these are deeply sculpted on the back and fall
nicely to hand as we’ll see.
Nikon claim the big Monarchs are fully waterproof, though at
one metre for five minutes it’s not at the same level as the Zeiss or Swarovskis.
Left to
right: Swarovski 15x56 SLC HD, Zeiss 15x56 Conquest HD, Nikon Monarch 5 16x56.
Monarch
16x56 HDs have heavily contoured body for a comfortable hold.
Focuser
The focuser is the main area where the build quality falls
down. The focuser is stiff and sometimes sticky. Worse, the best focus point is
hard to find because it shifts slightly as you focus in and out.
Part of the problem may be its speed – little more than
half a turn from close focus to infinity is seriously rapid.
The dioptre adjustment is via the conventional ring under the
right eyepiece. There is no locking mechanism and no click-stops either (these
aren’t Nikon’s HGs).
Optics - Prisms
These have conventional Schmidt-Pechan roof prisms. Nikon
claim the latest dielectric coatings for the mirrors.
Optics - Objectives
Nikon don’t publicise the lens design, but these
include the latest low-dispersion ED glass that helps correct false colour
fringing (chromatic aberration), hence the ‘HD’ tag.
The coatings are greenish tinged and of a high quality, but
they are a little more reflective than the best (i.e. Zeiss T* coatings). Dim
reflections suggest all the internal glass elements are fully coated – no
corner cutting there.
Internal build quality looks excellent – well finished
and baffled with solid, rugged-looking mechanicals.
Nikon
Monarch’s coatings are just a little more reflective than premium
models’. Internals are well baffled.
Optics - Eyepieces
The eyepieces have large eye lenses and are doubtless a
modern multi-element design. They deliver a true field width of 4.1° which equates to an apparent FOV of
59.6°. That’s a decent, but not world-beating field of view (though
much better than the smaller Monarch 5 10x42s).
Nikon claim high
eye relief, but measured from the edge of the cup it is 12-13mm - a lot less
than the claimed 16.4mm and too tight for specs wearers. Eye relief is one of
the few areas these binoculars really disappoint.
The exit pupils
look properly round and un-vignetted; internal reflections are well suppressed.
The eye cups have
three extended positions. They’re smooth in action, but chunkier than
they need to be which is a problem if your eyes are close set like mine (they
squash my nose).
Three
position eye cups – more travel than required for the short eye relief.
Accessories
The Monarch 16x56s come with a Cordura case, strap, band-on
objective caps and a rather loose eyepiece cap.
Tripod Adapter
The 16x56 Monarchs come with a
slightly flimsy looking, but perfectly serviceable, tripod adapter that screws into the front of the
hinge once you’ve un-threaded the blanking plate. The bottom of the
adapter fits a standard ¼-20 photo tripod and helpfully has four
different positions so you can get balance right.
The hinge
cap unscrews to reveal thread for tripod adapter
In Use – Daytime
Ergonomics and Handling
The deeply sculpted body is very comfortable to hold. Some
dislike that sticky armour, but it feels both warm and secure to me. Balance is
just right and the focuser falls easily to finger. Basic handling is ideal for
me and much better than some premium big-eye designs I could name.
The focuser is not up to premium standards: it’s a bit
stiff and vague. More seriously, perfect focus isn’t quite the same
focusing through and then reversing back. This is a pain for me because I
habitually focus that way and I get caught out every time because the perfect
focus point isn’t there anymore when I back out.
The dioptre adjustment – by the conventional ring under
the right eyepiece – isn’t too stiff, but the slightly soft focus
made it harder to use than the best. I also noticed it adjusted slightly off
centre, even though my eyes are perfectly corrected with specs on.
Eye relief, unusually for Nikon who pioneered good eye relief
on their HG and SE ranges, is very tight. Once again, the problem is the eye
cups – the eye lenses are deeply recessed within them, reducing the ER to
the point where I can see perhaps only half the field or less with specs on.
Without specs, I can most comfortably use these with the eye cups fully
retracted – all that extra click-stop travel just isn’t needed.
The eye relief is just too little to
give a decent field of view with my glasses on. If you wear glasses when
observing these might not be for you. The eyepieces are comfortably free from kidney-bean
blackouts, though.
The thick eye cups mean these aren’t ideal for those
(like me) with a narrow inter-pupillary distance. If your eyes are set quite
close or you have a smallish face, try before you buy.
These don’t look enormous hanging around my neck,
unlike some big-eye binos, but I might get a few
sniggers from the local birders if I took them down the prom’ to watch
the Egrets on a Sunday afternoon.
Testing the Monarchs on a typically wet Lakeland day.
Monarchs
don’t look too huge hanging around my neck.
The View
The daytime view is reasonable: slightly dimmer than
Swarovski’s 15x56 SLC HDs and a little less sharp and contrasty too. Colours
are little less bright than the best. The biggest problem with the view,
though, is getting best focus …
The depth of field is shallow (as are all binos
of this power), but that means constant re-focusing and unfortunately that
somewhat vague and rough focuser becomes a pain when panning around. The optics
themselves don’t quite snap to focus like the best either and all too
often you find yourself viewing with slightly imperfect focus, which does no
favours for the view.
Only the very finest high-power
binoculars give a really excellent daytime view and these aren’t among
them, but the daytime view is serviceable with no obvious faults apart from the
vague best focus point.
Flat field?
One strong point of these is that the field is reasonably
flat. It does in fact curve very gently towards the edge, but this isn’t
too obvious during the day. Other aberrations – coma and astigmatism
– are virtually absent.
Sharp view
centre field drops off towards the edge.
Chromatic Aberration
The HD lenses mean that chromatic aberration is very well
controlled centre field. Despite the very high power and big lenses (both of
which mean more chromatic aberration, all other things being equal), the level
of false colour is typical of a first-generation premium HD birding binocular
– an excellent result.
False colour is most obvious when focusing through high
contrast areas, or when panning through high branches and does increase
substantially off-axis. Chimneys and roof lines have a faint fringe of purple
you don’t get with the best HD optics.
False colour correction is good, but
it is not quite up to the latest premium HD models such as the SLC HDs.
In Use – Dusk
Those big lenses start to come into play as my pupils dilate
at dusk and twilight performance is very good. I generally prefer 10x56s at
dusk, no matter what the twilight rating number says, but these penetrate deep
into dark dusk shadows.
I watched a pair of deer in my neighbours’ drive on
Christmas night (Rudolph, where’s Santa?) that were quite invisible to
the naked eye.
In Use – The Night Sky
Night
testing the Monarch 16x56s in strong Moonlight.
This isn’t the first big-eye binocular to give decent,
but slightly lack-lustre daytime views, only to be transformed on the night
sky. At night, finding perfect focus on a star is easy and once found you can
just keep it that way, so the focuser is no longer a problem. Having done so,
you realise the optics are in fact very good indeed.
The field, which appears quite flat during the day, is in
fact slightly curved towards the edge: you have to re-focus stars in the last
80% of the field to get them perfectly sharp. But other off-axis aberrations
are well suppressed and stars never bloat or stretch due to coma and
astigmatism the way they do with some binoculars, even at the field stop.
A full Moon generates only the mildest trace of ghosts, but
no spikes or other nastiness. Veiling flare when working around a bright Moon
isn’t a problem either.
However, looking at a bright security light produced a
snow-storm of dim ghosts and a few faint, long spikes too. This is an area
where these binoculars can’t compete with the best – Swaro’s 15x56 SLC HDs showed no ghosts or spikes at
all on the same light.
In general, stars are tight and bright. Star colours are
quite strong and stars remain pin-point across almost the whole field.
The Moon
The Moon looks really good through these binoculars –
crisp and sharp. No, it isn’t as white and contrasty as the very best,
but a lot of detail is visible and false colour is no problem. The Moon comes
to perfect focus in both barrels, unlike the Minox
15x58s where one barrel remained slightly ‘soft’.
Using the tripod adapter, I could make out further detail and
the view was similar to that through a small refractor. That extra power (16x
vs the more usual 15x) is quite obvious. All you need to add is a Lunar app or
atlas and a basic photo tripod and you could enjoy exploring the Moon’s
main features with these binoculars straight out of the box. The high power is
the absolute maximum I could hand-hold, but it really works on a tripod giving
these a handy dual use for astronomy.
Venus
Venus showed little flare spiking or false colour – an
impressive performance from a mid-market binocular.
Jupiter
The view of Jupiter was as good as I have seen with binos, period. There was no flare or spiking beyond the
planetary disk at all and only very modest chromatic aberration; just a little
bloat within the confines of the planet that all prismatic optics give and that
make seeing the equatorial clouds belts difficult.
The Galilean moons were very easy to pick out and showed
their different brightness well. I was easily able to split Ganymede and Europa
which were in close-ish conjunction (around 18”
apart) early on Christmas morning – a sure sign of the excellent optical
quality.
Deep Sky
Using the tripod adapter, I got a superb view of
Orion’s sword region with masses of pin-point stars across the field and
extended nebulosity from the nebula. I was able to split the Trapezium. The
view was wonderfully comfortable, relaxed and aberration-free, one of the best
binocular views of Orion that I’ve had.
The Pleiades also looked excellent with lots of diamond-dust
faint white stars set among the Seven Sisters and the two orange central stars
clear and bright.
The 4.1° true field is quite narrow, but
still plenty for most open clusters and I had good views of the Starfish
Cluster in Auriga and nearby M35.
Albireo, my favourite binocular double, looked cleanly split
and brilliantly coloured with the high magnification and light-gathering power
really helping out.
Overall astronomy performance of
these binoculars is very strong by any standards and especially so for the
price.
Nikon Monarch 5 16x56 vs Swarovski
15x56 SLC HD
I ended up reviewing these at the same time, so a comparison
is interesting, though of course the Swarovskis are a
different class and price of instrument.
·
The
daytime view through the Swaros is better –
brighter, sharper, more detailed and higher in contrast.
·
The
night-sky view is better in the Swaros too, but not
by the same margin.
·
The
Swaros control false colour a bit better across the
field, but especially off-axis.
·
Both
have low off-axis aberrations, but field curvature is even less in the Swarovskis.
·
The
Nikon’s focuser isn’t worthy of the rest of the binoculars. The Swaro focuser is top notch.
·
Handling
is very similar; I think I prefer the Nikons, which are very comfortable to
hold.
·
The
Nikons just don’t have enough eye relief.
·
The
Swarovskis cost about three times as much in the real
world, about double the list price.
If you are a perfectionist like me who loves a perfect view
and wants a binocular for the long haul that you can get fixed or serviced in
fifteen years, save up for the Swarovskis. Otherwise
…
Summary
My first impression of Nikon’s 16x56 Monarch 5s was negatively
influenced by the lack of eye relief and the slightly vague and stiff focuser.
But the more time I spent using them the more impressed I became, especially
for astronomy.
The daytime view is actually very decent with a wide, flat
field that’s bright enough and quite detailed with minimal false colour
in the centre, but nowhere near as good as the Swarovski’s 15x56 SLC HDs
(obviously, for the price). At night, though, they come quite close to the SLC
HDs, which I was testing alongside them. The high power and large-aperture,
good-quality optics and good stray light suppression give really superb night
sky views that get even better when you use the included tripod adapter. Everything
I pointed them at looked great – the Moon full of sharp detail with no
false colour; Jupiter sharply defined with no nasty flare; wide star fields
full of pin-point stars; nebulae with lots of bright detail.
The binoculars are actually well made too and quite compact
and very comfortable to hold for their size. The only real downsides are the
vague focuser (these would be little use for raptors – an obvious
application otherwise - as the result), lack of eye relief and a possible
problem for people with close-set eyes due to the hefty eye-cups.
So, are Nikon’s Monarch 16x56s a new budget astronomy
binocular best buy to replace the 12x50 SE, then? Maybe: if you can stand their
weight and power. The SEs were much more ‘perfect’ and gave much
‘nicer’ daytime views, but the higher power and larger objectives
mean these actually show you more for less cost when it comes to astronomy.
Consider that even a pair of Zeiss Conquest 15x56s would cost well over twice
as much and these seem great value.
Given their really excellent astronomy performance, good
build quality, low discounted price and included tripod adapter, these are very
highly recommended for astronomy; less so during the day when the focuser is a
problem. But just make sure they work with your eyes/spectacles.
Nikon’s Monarch 5 15x56 – price/performance
compares favourably with similar models from Zeiss and Swarovski.
You can buy
Nikon’s 15x56 Binos from Amazon here and give ScopeViews a bit of commission towards new content!
