Nikon is Japan's largest optical instrument brand, and its predecessor, Nippon Optics Co., Ltd., has been one of its important products since its establishment in 1917, and Nikon is also known as "one of the four top telescope brands". In fact, when it comes to telescopes, Nikon is also the only Japanese manufacturer that can compete with Europe's leading optical manufacturers. Nikon is a subsidiary of Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Mitsubishi is the largest pillar of Japan's military industry, so almost all optical instruments in the current Japanese army are produced by Nikon.
 
According to data provided by the review website Optics Reviewer, in the selection of the world's top 5 best-selling binoculars in 2018, Nikon has 3 products on the list: Travelite VI, Monarch 5, and Monarch 7. In the binoculars evaluation report of the well-known British evaluation agency Which, among the seven preferred models, Nikon occupies 3 seats with the Travelite EX, Aculon series A30, and T11. Among them, Travelite EX topped the list with 72 points, five points higher than the second place Olympus PCI., and won the Best Buy title.
 
In Nikon's product layout, the WX series, EDG series and HG of the Monarch series are all oriented to the high-end market, with a price of more than 10,000 yuan. The WX series is a binoculars with an ultra-wide field of view, using a high-transmittance Abbe-Koenig prism, the surface of the prism is coated with a phase-correcting coating to reduce the light loss inside the prism, and three ED glass elements with reduced dispersion are used inside each lens barrel to produce a high image resolution and contrast, and a single star can be seen as a clear sharp point when used for stargazing.
 
Of course, in addition to the good optical performance of binoculars, star observation is also important in the selection of objective aperture. Generally speaking, the larger the aperture, the stronger the resolution of the telescope, but the larger the aperture, the more bulky the weight of the fuselage. For handheld stargazers, choose a 50 to 60mm diameter with 7 to 8x magnification. If there is a tripod to assist, the diameter can be appropriately increased to 80mm, and even with a high magnification of 20 times. In addition, cloudless, less light polluted sky conditions are more conducive to stargazing activities.
 
Under different changes in light and darkness, the diameter of the pupil of an adult is generally variable in the range of 2mm to 7mm, and the darker the light, the larger the pupil diameter. In bird watching activities, we can use the exit pupil of the telescope to select the appropriate size, for example, 8×32, 10×42 and other specifications, the exit pupil diameter is 4mm and 4.2mm respectively, both in the middle of the acceptable range of adult pupil diameter, therefore, the light requirements are not high, can meet the needs of bird watching in most occasions. In addition, the binoculars with ridge prism have a straight tube appearance, which has better portability than the traditional Paul mirror, and the center spacing of the objective lens is small, which is conducive to the observation of targets at close range, and the focus is agile and flexible, which is more suitable for bird watching activities.
 
The EDG series is highly competitive in the conventional specifications for bird watching. In addition to the 8×42 specs, Nikon is only second behind the Swarovski EL, which is known as the "Mirror Emperor", and ranks first in the 8×32 and 10×42 specs, even comparable to the Zeiss Victory T*FL. It uses a ridge-type prism and is coated with multiple layers of phase correction and electrolyte coating on the surface, and the ultra-low dispersion ED glass and flat-field lens correction ensure high color fidelity and clear images around the lens.
 
Aculon Yueye series is Nikon's main model in the domestic market, like T01, W10, A30, these entry models within 1,000 yuan, with compact size, light weight, strong deformation as the selling point, although the quality of the lens is not high, but its large focus ring, rotating sliding rubber eye cup, can bring a smooth sense of operation, easy focus positioning, and some models have high richness, red, orange, yellow, pink, blue, camouflage, etc.
 
The Aculon A211 and Aculon SX, which are priced at 1300 to 3600 yuan, belong to the mid-range models that are more recommended in the Yueye series. The discontinued ST series once accounted for 60% of Nikon's overall market share in China, and the Aculon A211 is an upgraded version of the ST, with an aspherical eyepiece that eliminates the annoying image distortion. The Aculon SX has been optimized on the basis of the Aculon A211, such as the high-view design for easy use by people who wear glasses.
 
The Ruiguan HG L, Chensheng Monarch, Zunwang Prostaff and other series are all Nikon's products for the mid-range market, and the price is generally between 2580 and 4330 yuan. The Chenxiang Monarch series, known as the "Emperor Mirror", is the core optical components imported, the whole machine is assembled domestically, and the lightweight Monarch 5 and Monarch 7 are more popular, especially the 42mm aperture, both have dielectric high reflection multi-layer prism coating, low dispersion ED glass, in the price range of 3500 to 4300 yuan, the imaging quality is excellent, and the cost performance is high.
 
It should be noted that Nikon has official flagship stores on Tmall and JD.com, and the binoculars on the shelves are mainly Aculon, Monarch, and Prostaff series, which are not as complete as the official website. If you need to buy EDG, WX and other series with better performance, you must inquire about the agent information through the official website or purchase it through channels such as overseas shopping.