Reviewed by David Chandler at: £379
NatureRAY is a fairly new brand, ‘born in the UK’ but made elsewhere. Currently, it offers four binocular ranges – the Scenic Pro ED is the top end, but has an RRP of just £379. HD versions of the Scenic Pro cost £80 less, and the Outrek, NatureRAY’s entry-level binoculars, start at £99.
In the box and in the hand
The Scenic Pro ED comes in a presentation box with the usual accessories. It felt comfortable to hold, is well balanced and has very shallow thumb indents. Build quality seems very good and, at 730g, it is not over-heavy for a ‘full-size’ binocular. It’s fog-proof, waterproof, rubber armoured and has hydrophobic coating on the objectives. A simple twist-ring adjusts the dioptre and the (removable) rubber-covered, twist-up eyecups have a good action and one intermediate position. Eye-relief is quoted as 18.4mm. That should be good for glasses wearers, but if that’s you, best to try before reducing your bank balance.
The tethered objective covers are quite loose fitting, however – I think losing one or both of them is a distinct possibility and rubbing against my fleece made one of them rotate around the barrel.
On a rainy day
…at Ouse Fen there weren’t many birds, but the Scenic Pro ED performed well. With an 8.1° field of view, this is a wide-angle binocular. The view is clean and crisp, with a ‘cold’ feel – that’s a description, not a failing. Colour rendition is good and in those rainy, overcast conditions, brightness was very good. Sharpness was excellent, with a narrow band of softening at the periphery, but nothing that distracts. I saw no colour-fringing, but those conditions aren’t really likely to produce it. Close-focus is excellent – I could almost focus on my feet. I measured it at about 1.35m – better than the official 1.5m figure. Focus precision is very good. Focusing needs just a light touch, and a little movement covers a lot of focusing range. The focus wheel is one finger wide and moves very smoothly and quite lightly, anti-clockwise towards the more distant birds. Two revolutions of the focuser are possible, but most of your birding will need no more than about one quarter of a turn. There were not many birds to see, but I did hear a Cetti’s Warbler shout out some song. To think of the travel I did in my youth for that species.
On a bright, sunny day
…the birdwatching was better. I checked out a ditch with the Scenic Pro and found a perched female Kingfisher about 80 metres away. I watched. She dived. A fish became bird food. I looked at various things for colour-fringing (it’s a reviewer thing) but didn’t notice any. It was almost the shortest day of the year and the sun sat low in the sky – this binocular coped well looking into the light. Side-light did create some reflections/flare on the eyepieces – shielding the eyepiece with my hand, when necessary, improved the view significantly.
Sometimes, I saw some brightness or reflection at, or just beyond, the edge of the view (not on the rainy day). Getting the inter-pupillary distance and your eye to lens distance right may help to minimise this. At sunset, I checked their low light performance. They did well 20 minutes after sunset in the open and close shade. Nine minutes, later they were showing colours on a fairly close Blue Tit, more or less in the open.
Specs
Eye relief: 18.4mm
Field of view: 8.1°/142m@1,000m
Close focus: 1.5m
Weight: 730g
Size: 144x110-130mm
Warranty: Lifetime
Supplied with: Case with strap, tethered removable objective covers, rainguard, lens cloth, neoprene strap.
Web: natureray.com
Verdict
Apart from the loose-fitting objective covers, which you might not want to use anyway, and the peripheral reflection/brightness referred to, I found little to fault in this binocular. It can deliver a very impressive view, with excellent close-focus and impressive focusing. This binocular is very good value for money. A 10x42 is available for the same price.