NIKON MONARCH M7+ 8X30 £499

The Monarch M7+ is a step up from the M7, but shaves £400 off the HG price tag, but how different is it from the M7? It has a little bit more eye-relief, weighs 10g more, and costs £90 more. The big difference is that it has the field flattener lens system used in the HG. Field flatteners correct field curvature to improve edge sharpness. The key differences between the M7+ and the HG are that the latter is 25g lighter (it has a magnesium alloy chassis as opposed to fibreglass-reinforced polycarbonate resin on the M7+), and has a scratch-resistant coating on the lenses – on the M7+ it’s oil- and water-repellent.

This is a small and lightweight binocular – people with larger hands might find it too small. The build quality is very good. It’s rubber-armoured, waterproof and ‘fog-free’. I found it good to hold – holding the eyecups against my brow ridge helped me get the best results. The rubber-coated eyecups have good ‘mechanics’ and two intermediate positions. 16mm of eye-relief should be enough for glasses wearers – check this yourself though. The dioptre ring sits under the right eyecup – push it up to unlock, twist to adjust, pull down to lock. The focus wheel is a single finger wide and turns smoothly with moderate resistance.

Focus-precision is very good, the view is wide and clean with good colours, but there was some vignetting when I scanned, and occasional flare/reflections. The field of view is 145m@1,000m. Sharpness is very good with a smidgen of peripheral softness. Brightness is good and chromatic aberration is very well corrected. Nikon say the close-focus is 2m, but I could focus to just less than 1.5m.

VERDICT

Small and light, the build quality is very good, the view is very wide and very sharp, brightness is good, chromatic aberration is not an issue and close-focus is remarkable.

SPECS: Eye relief: 16mm Field of view: 8.3°/ 145m@1,000m Close focus: 2m (quoted) Weight: 475g Length x width x depth: 119x125x48mm RRP: £499 Warranty: 10yr Supplied with: Case, neoprene strap, objective covers, rainguard Web: nikon.co.uk