Steiner Commander 7x50

Designed to meet the requirements of the navy and marine professional, these Steiner Commander 7x50 binoculars are the ideal choice for just about any boat owner, fishing guide or ship captain wanting a simple to use, but extremely high performance binocular.

As you would expect, these binoculars are fully waterproof and by replacing the air inside the chassis with moistureless nitrogen gas under pressure, they are also guaranteed not to fog up when the weather gets bad.

These Commander binoculars also feature Steiner’s Sports-Auto Focus System. This means that once you have set up the binocular to match your particular vision on each of the eyepieces, everything from 20 yards to infinity will be in focus. No further focal adjustments are ever necessary, making this binocular easier to use one handed and you can get on with piloting your vessel with minimal distractions.

The moderate 7x magnification is ideal for the majority marine uses and whilst most people assume a powerful magnification is better than a lower one, this is usually not the case on the water and here are the reasons why:

Whilst it is true a high magnification can provide you with a more detailed view at longer distances, the problem is that it also magnifies any movement that you make and thus when using your optics on an unsteady platform like a boat on the water, the resultant image shake can make it almost impossible to actually view what you want to see. This is one of the main reasons why these Steiner Commander and most other marine binoculars use a moderate 7x magnification.

Also, remember that with a lower power you get a wider view which is important. At an incredible 145 meters wide at 1000 meters (438 ft @ 1000 yards), the field of view on these Commander binoculars is seriously impressive and will certainly help you to quickly find your subject when searching over large areas of open water.

Next is the combination of the large 50mm objective lenses and a moderate 7x magnification that produces a very large 7.1 mm exit pupil. This ensures that even when light conditions are very poor and your pupils have dilated, your eyes are supplied with more than enough light.

Added to this large exit pupil is Steiner’s fully multi-coated HD optical pathway that makes certain you are able to view the brightest images possible even in very poor light and weather conditions like you experience in mist, fog or at twilight.

Adding to this, these binoculars have a tough, scratch resistant coating on the outer lens surfaces. This material also has hydrophobic properties at the molecular level meaning water simply rolls off the surface allowing you to continue to use the binoculars in mist, sea spray and even rain.

Steiner also includes their floating neck strap with these optics. Like many floating straps designed for marine use, they are bright yellow, but Steiner goes even further, using a reflective trim made by 3M, it makes the strap even more visible and thus easier to find and recover should you accidentally drop your binoculars overboard