Anyone tried hands-free binoculars?

As everyone who has attended a club launch knows, eye acuity varies from person to person, some people can see a rocket much higher in the air than others can. My eyes are lower than average and I was wondering if a pair of so-called hands-free binoculars might help, such as these:
https://www.hammacher.com/product/hands-free-binoculars
I'm aware that, for rocketry viewing, any binoculars must be low power with wide field of view. This "hands-free" product has the needed specs but seems rather gimmicky, don't think I've ever seen anyone wearing them.

Anyone have any experience with this type of binoculars?

I wouldn't bother. These are purely gimmick.

Binoculars are not easy to learn to use, but once you do they can work well.

For the most part, the best thing to improv your ability to see rockets in flight are polaroid sunglases. They should darken the sky and make rockets stand out a bit more.

What helped me the most was prescription sunglasses that were made for my distance prescription.

I've never used the hands free binoculars, but I think they might work well. Just be aware of what you are getting and their limitations. The ones you linked to are a 4x magnifier, which is much lower than the normal 7, 8 or 10x that most hand held binoculars have so if you expect the same type of magnification, you won't get it. The fact these are only 4x and have only a 8.2° field of view isn't very good. It is probably the eye piece design for use as glasses. The Bushnell 4x30 have a 900' at 1000 yd. field of view which is almost twice the 467' these hands free ones have.

If you want to try regular binoculars you may want to get a zoom type like the Bushnell Spectator 5-10x 25. These let you find your object at a lower magnification and wider field of view and then zoom in once you've found it. You should read this first. There are some drawbacks with zoom binoculars like smaller field of view at low magnification than a fixed magnification set would have.

Thanks, those Bushnells look great. Wish there could be a table full of different types of binoculars at a launch so I could try them all.

I assume I don't need much magnification, as I just want to see rockets that others are able to see with the naked eye. I do need a wide field of view, and that Bushnell 4x30 has the widest view I've seen. I've used 10x binoculars at launches, and with them it's hard to find the rocket unless someone points a finger in the correct direction. Once I do find it, the rocket image looks quite large through the lenses. A smaller image that is easier to find would be a lot better.

I'll also have to try sunglasses, as suggested.

Those Bushnells are awesome.
Have a pair and use them for various hobbies , all who try them are impressed .

HASTE said:

Those Bushnells are awesome.
Have a pair and use them for various hobbies , all who try them are impressed .

Click to expand...

The 4x30 or the zoom?

The 15mm objective is tiny! Can't imagine they would work very well.

As for the Bushnell 4x30, the eye relief seems short at just 10mm, if you're an eyeglass wearer. As an eyeglass wearer myself, I look for binocs with at least 18mm eye relief. Perhaps with the large 7.5mm exit pupil (30/4), less is OK? I'd be concerned about the permanent focus too. The 4x30s look unnecessarily large for what appears to be a reverse porro-prism design, must be just extra plastic for holding onto.

FWIW, The best binoculars Bushnell ever made were the 7x26 custom (originally a Bausch & Lomb design).

For inexpensive binoculars, stick with porro-prism designs - for the same cost, they'll give a better view than roof-prisms.