Steiner Navigator 7x50c Compass Binoculars

For serious coastal and offshore work, the Steiner Navigator 7x50c answers the two things a boater wants most after dark: the light-gathering of 50 mm optics and a bearing compass built into the view. You can take a compass bearing on a distant light and keep watching it at the same time, something a plain binocular cannot do, at dusk or well into the night.

The compass is Steiner's HD-stabilized, fluid-damped design, with an illuminated scale that stays readable in the dark. Line up a headland or a navigation light, read the bearing off the scale superimposed on the view, and hold the target the whole time. Because the compass floats in fluid it settles quickly as the boat moves, and the illumination runs off a single CR1225 battery so it is ready when you need it at night.

Behind the compass sits the same 7x50 marine optic that makes the Navigator worth carrying. The 7.1 mm exit pupil matches a dark-adapted eye for bright low-light views, and Steiner-Auto-Focus keeps everything from about 66 ft to the horizon sharp once you set the diopters, with no center wheel to chase when a contact appears. The chassis is Makrolon polycarbonate on floating prism bearings, wrapped in NBR rubber armor, nitrogen-sealed against fog and waterproof to 5 m, with a floating strap.

Key Features

• Integrated bearing compass: HD-stabilized, fluid-damped, and illuminated, with the bearing scale shown in the view so you can take and hold a heading without lowering the glass.
• 50 mm low-light optics: a 7.1 mm exit pupil for bright views at dawn, dusk, and night, when navigation matters most.
• Steiner-Auto-Focus: set the diopters once, sharp from about 66 ft to infinity, nothing to adjust in the moment.
• Sealed for the sea: Makrolon body on floating prism bearings, NBR armor, nitrogen fill, 5 m waterproofing, and a floating strap.

Who It's For

• Coastal and offshore navigators who work in low light and want a compass reading without taking their eyes off the mark.
• Skippers who pilot by bearings, where the in-view compass turns a two-step job into one.

One point worth setting straight: the compass is stabilized, but the optics are not image-stabilized, so like any binocular the view moves with the boat. If you want the same low-light 7x50 without the compass, see the Navigator 7x50. If you want a compass in a lighter, compact body for a smaller boat, look at the Navigator 7x30c.