CarsonCloseUp 6x18mm Close-Focus Monocular (CF-618)

The Carson CloseUp: Handy, good quality monocular. I use it all the time. Very small, lightweight, cheap. Comes with a strap to carry it around your neck, and a little black pouch with belt loop. So very easy to carry along. Good for seniors like myself, or for kids who like to explore. You do need two hands to twist the two telescoping parts to focus-in on things. Carson did not place a scale with markings to make it easy to pre-set the monocular to an approximate distance, before fine-tuning the focus. This is a drawback that would have been easy to prevent by adding some little lines with viewing distances. Read on for my work-arounds.This monocular has a very wide viewing range, with two main areas of use (and focus work-arounds):1) FAR: for distance viewing (mostly outdoors). See a bus number or street name from far away, or deer and birds on a nature walk. -- Prepare the monocular by screwing the two parts together, so it is at its shortest (only 2.5 inches long). The monocular is now focused for far away. This is the opposite of what you would expect (counter-intuitive). You would normally expect the monocular to be at its longest for viewing far away, like a telescope. But no. This is what took me the longest to get used to. So: short for far away. From this position it takes only 2 or 3 twists (quarter-turns) to focus in to as close as 8 feet. So easy to use, not much effort.2) CLOSE: for close-up viewing (mostly indoors). Clearly read the finest print, see the smallest detail. Nature lovers can observe the details of flowers or strange little insects. You can see sharply from as close up as 11 inches. That is what makes this monocular so special, and why it is obviously called the Carson CloseUp. -- Prepare to use it for close-up by twisting the two parts apart, unscrewing them, so the monocular is at its longest (about 4.5 inches long). It is now focused at its closest, or less than 1 foot away (again, counter-intuitive). Then twist to adjust the focus to further away. It takes about 8 twists (quarter-turns) to get it to focus 3 feet away. So that is more work. Closer in, it has a very narrow depth of field. That means you do have to very exactly focus it to see sharp. So that takes a bit of work twisting it, adjusting the focus.A tip if you regularly use the CloseUp at medium distances. Like reading product labels and prices on the bottom shelf, without having to bend over or go down on your knees. Take a fine-tipped permanent marker, and draw some little lines, so you can pre-set the focus before viewing and fine-tuning the focus. That will save you a lot of work in finding the right focus in the mid area. Carson should have done this, engraving little lines. So little effort to save the user so much work. I hope these work-arounds will help make this product even more useful and easy to use, if you decide to get it.

I wear eye glasses and can see the full field of view with them on, though some people have more deeply recessed eyes.I can focus it with one hand. My middle through pinky fingers hold the front barrel while my thumb and pointer turn the eye barrel. Just under 3 full turns covers the range from infinity to 10". Half a turn takes it from infinity to 6 feet. The Carson 7x18 focuses well past infinity too.It is 2.5 inches at shortest and 3.5 inches at longest.7x confirmed by merging images with my 7x35 binoculars.The field of view is 400 ft, not 472 ft as advertised. The apparent field of view looks 50 degrees, not the 60 of my binoculars. I don't mind since the eye relief is so good.The focus is smooth with good tolerances and the right amount of friction. No wiggle.The inside is black, and the lenses are coated. Looks like quality.The larger barrel diameter is 1 1/8 inches.Very high depth of field far away, and very shallow depth of field up close.1/2 turn takes you from infinity to 7 feet.I can easily hold this very steady with one hand, but I can also hold 16x binoculars steady. I'm well practiced.With my glasses I have a combined 20/20 vision. With my weaker eye I was just able to read a street sign two blocks away, while standing.I'm tempted to send one to my father as a gift.---------------------------------Update:I opened the window so I could get a truer side by side test with my binoculars. Looking through a window with a few faint water spots, they look equally sharp as my Tasco Essentials 7x35. With the window opened, I could see that there is slightly more ever so faint haze in the Carson 7x18 than in my Tascos, which had slightly less clarity than naked eye. This is easily overlooked. Imaging looking through a clean window, vs opening the window to look outside. The clean window shows a good view most would not complain about nor notice anything wrong with when looking through, but the opened window is much better. The fully coated optics are nice, but not perfect. The roof prisms scatter a bit more light than porro prisms. You have to pay more or get something less streamlined to avoid that.Also, the center of view was sharper in the Tascos, as was the edge of view. The Tascos had a much wider field of view too. My Tascos are not as sharp as my Nikons.You get what you pay for. But if you are not super picky, the Carson will give you a magnified view that shows much more than what your eyes can see. It is small and portable and inexpensive.I've looked through some uncoated all plastic lens monoculars before, and the Carson is much clearer than them.