Best DSLR Cameras
With remarkable advancements across the board—sensor design, autofocus, dynamic range, sensitivity, Speedlight control, battery life, shutter and mirror drive mechanisms, Silent Photography in Live-View mode, focus shift capability and more. Tilting touchscreen, Focus Shift shooting mode, outstanding battery performance and much more.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"And now to the details: I am not a big fan of digital photography; I’m an old fashioned film guy that still shoots with a Hasselblad and 4X5. I somewhat reluctantly bought a Nikon Df as my first “good” digital camera only because of its retro styling. This camera offers the resolution that rivals film and an amazing ISO range. Combine that with high speed operation and the convenience of digital capture and I’ve probably shot my last roll of 35mm film. I’m a landscape, nature and environmental portrait photographer, so this review should be viewed in that context. I don’t shoot sports, weddings nor do product photography so the specific needs of those photographers are foreign to me. And think of all the images one can capture with this camera as opposed to the shots missed with medium and large format gear due to the hassles of lugging it around. Terrific ability to recover underexposed and shadow areas with very little noise. It has to be, I suppose, to squeeze in all that technology; nonetheless, it would be nice if it were a bit smaller."
"I have now had the camera for a few days and wanted to give my initial thoughts on the D850. The grip feels thinner but deeper and most people find it more pleasant. I prefer the ISO button on the right so you can make all major adjustments with the same hand. This could get annoying with the trackpad when you had to make larger focus point adjustments. I shoot a lot of landscape and I will no longer have to bend or lay down to get a shot. One area the D810 had issues with was hot pixels with long exposures. I haven't had a lot of chances to test the Auto focus system but I fully expect it to be tons better than the D810. This is mostly awkward when doing long exposures because you end up touching the camera to check while its still taking the photo. If you plan to take advantage of the 7-9FPS I suggest investing in the XQD card."
And That A Camera And A Smartphone Can Work Together In Harmony To Make The Photos You Share Absolutely Amazing.Features:Stunning Simplicity - Photos And Videos Captured With The D3400 And A Superb Nikkor Lens Are As Vibrant And Lifelike As The Moments They Preserve. Create Portraits With Rich, Natural Skin Tones And Beautifully Blurred Backgrounds. The Bright Optical Viewfinder Provides A Sharp, Glare-Free View Of The World, And The Comfortable Grip Enables Precise Handling.The Gateway To Better Photography - The D3400 Makes Photography Easy And Fun, Freeing You To Focus On Your Natural Talents&Mdash;Framing Great Shots, Anticipating Special Moments And Finding Unique. Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Obviously, its not going to compete with cameras like the D850 or the 5D Mk iv, but you can still take great photos with this camera."
"I plan to use this lens primarily for outdoor sports with faster shutter speeds, so it won't make much of a difference for me, but it would be nice to have the VR for indoor or low light outdoor situations. I used the 70-300mm for most of the outdoor animals while the sun was up, then switched to the 18-55mm for indoor animals and to take pictures of the lights (using a monopod) once the sun went down."
"And no, it doesn’t have WiFi, but Bluetooth instead that uses Nikon’s SnapBridge app to receive JPEG on your phone which works fine, if all you want to do is upload to Facebook, Instagram, etc, which compresses your images anyway. But for better quality photos, you’ll want to shoot in RAW anyway (or at least RAW + JPEG) and transfer your pics to your computer via the SD card (not included btw), so you can process the images on Photoshop, Lightroom, or whichever processing software you prefer, to really bring your photos to life and make them more professional. And all the self proclaimed experts on here who say this camera isn’t as good as the D3300 are just flat out wrong and don’t know what they’re talking about."
"This camera as a beginner one, it actually brings you the same sensor quality as D7200, if you don't care about the focusing speed."
"Absolutely love this camera!!!"
"It has been a while since I had a SLR style camera and I’ve missed it."
"Great camera for the price."
"Perfect for shots of animals you would like to remain far away from, but still would like to capture them in glorious detail."
And that a camera and a smartphone can work together in harmony to make the photos you share absolutely amazing.FEATURES:Stunning simplicity - Photos and videos captured with the D3400 and a superb NIKKOR lens are as vibrant and lifelike as the moments they preserve. Create portraits with rich, natural skin tones and beautifully blurred backgrounds. The bright optical viewfinder provides a sharp, glare-free view of the world, and the comfortable grip enables precise handling.The gateway to better photography - The D3400 makes photography easy and fun, freeing you to focus on your natural talents-framing great shots, anticipating special moments and finding unique perspectives in everyday scenes. Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Obviously, its not going to compete with cameras like the D850 or the 5D Mk iv, but you can still take great photos with this camera."
"I plan to use this lens primarily for outdoor sports with faster shutter speeds, so it won't make much of a difference for me, but it would be nice to have the VR for indoor or low light outdoor situations. I used the 70-300mm for most of the outdoor animals while the sun was up, then switched to the 18-55mm for indoor animals and to take pictures of the lights (using a monopod) once the sun went down."
"And no, it doesn’t have WiFi, but Bluetooth instead that uses Nikon’s SnapBridge app to receive JPEG on your phone which works fine, if all you want to do is upload to Facebook, Instagram, etc, which compresses your images anyway. But for better quality photos, you’ll want to shoot in RAW anyway (or at least RAW + JPEG) and transfer your pics to your computer via the SD card (not included btw), so you can process the images on Photoshop, Lightroom, or whichever processing software you prefer, to really bring your photos to life and make them more professional. And all the self proclaimed experts on here who say this camera isn’t as good as the D3300 are just flat out wrong and don’t know what they’re talking about."
"This camera as a beginner one, it actually brings you the same sensor quality as D7200, if you don't care about the focusing speed."
"Absolutely love this camera!!!"
"I decided to give my camera to my son who lives in Germany and get myself a new one to take a class along with my son."
"It has been a while since I had a SLR style camera and I’ve missed it."
"Great camera for the price."
Best Digital Cameras
• Canon EOS Rebel T6 DSLR Camera. • Canon 18-55mm Lens. • High Definition Wide Angle Lens. • 58mm 2x Professional Telephoto Lens. • Transcend 32GB SDHC Memory Card. • Transcend 16GB SDHC Memory Card. • Vivitar SLR DC59 Large Gadget Bag. • Quality Tripod. • 3 Piece UV Filter Kit. • USB Card Reader. • Auto Power Slave Flash. • UV Filter 58mm. • RS-60 Remote Switch for Canon. • Memory Card Wallet. • LCD Screen Protectors. • Table Top Tripod. • Lens Cap Holder. • Cleaning Kit. Digital DSLR Auto Power Slave Flash - RS-60 Remote Switch for Canon - 3 Piece UV Filter Kit (UV-CPL-FLD) 58mm - Hi-Speed SD USB Card Reader - 58mm Ultraviolet UV Protector Filter - Memory Card Wallet - LCD Screen Protectors (Clear) - Table Top Tripod - 3 Piece Cleaning Kit - Lens Cap Holder.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"If you are looking for a great entry level camera and kit for photography look no further!"
"This is my first camera, this bundle has everything you need if you're into photography."
"An average point and shoot camera takes higher quality pictures than you will get through these lenses. All of the components are cheap, but will give you an idea if those are things you will use and should replace with better versions. All the included components are as follows: $10.69 xit macro lens xt58wab. $8.93 xit telephoto lens xt2x58. $19.75 vivitar large gadget bag. $22.46 xit tripod xt60trb. $4.50 vivitar 4in pocket tripod. $9.16 transcend 16gb flash card. $16.99 transcend 32gb flash card. $8.68 xit remote shutter release. $4.93 xit SD/microSD card reader. $7.46 pro series digital filter set. $3.95 lens cap keeper (stick on). $2.94 xit universal screen protector. $3.99 xit digital ultraviolet filter. $3.00 vivitar cleaning kit and card wallet. $14.95 slave flash. Total accessories: $142.38. $449 Canon EOS Rebel T6 Digital SLR Camera Kit with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II Lens (Black)."
"I am no pro when it comes to photography, but I do want my own slr and want to learn!"
"Great camera and the bundle is truly amazing."
"We love this camera."
"I just got this today and can't really say much about the camera except that it's very nice and surprisingly lighter than I had expected (which is good) everything else you get with it is ok. My favorite is the large tripod."
"Other than the accessories, this is a great camera."
Best Interchangeable Lens Cameras
• Canon EOS Rebel T6 DSLR Camera. • Canon 18-55mm Lens. • High Definition Wide Angle Lens. • 58mm 2x Professional Telephoto Lens. • Transcend 32GB SDHC Memory Card. • Transcend 16GB SDHC Memory Card. • Vivitar SLR DC59 Large Gadget Bag. • Quality Tripod. • 3 Piece UV Filter Kit. • USB Card Reader. • Auto Power Slave Flash. • UV Filter 58mm. • RS-60 Remote Switch for Canon. • Memory Card Wallet. • LCD Screen Protectors. • Table Top Tripod. • Lens Cap Holder. • Cleaning Kit. Digital DSLR Auto Power Slave Flash - RS-60 Remote Switch for Canon - 3 Piece UV Filter Kit (UV-CPL-FLD) 58mm - Hi-Speed SD USB Card Reader - 58mm Ultraviolet UV Protector Filter - Memory Card Wallet - LCD Screen Protectors (Clear) - Table Top Tripod - 3 Piece Cleaning Kit - Lens Cap Holder.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"If you are looking for a great entry level camera and kit for photography look no further!"
"This is my first camera, this bundle has everything you need if you're into photography."
"An average point and shoot camera takes higher quality pictures than you will get through these lenses. All of the components are cheap, but will give you an idea if those are things you will use and should replace with better versions. All the included components are as follows: $10.69 xit macro lens xt58wab. $8.93 xit telephoto lens xt2x58. $19.75 vivitar large gadget bag. $22.46 xit tripod xt60trb. $4.50 vivitar 4in pocket tripod. $9.16 transcend 16gb flash card. $16.99 transcend 32gb flash card. $8.68 xit remote shutter release. $4.93 xit SD/microSD card reader. $7.46 pro series digital filter set. $3.95 lens cap keeper (stick on). $2.94 xit universal screen protector. $3.99 xit digital ultraviolet filter. $3.00 vivitar cleaning kit and card wallet. $14.95 slave flash. Total accessories: $142.38. $449 Canon EOS Rebel T6 Digital SLR Camera Kit with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II Lens (Black)."
"I am no pro when it comes to photography, but I do want my own slr and want to learn!"
"Great camera and the bundle is truly amazing."
"We love this camera."
"I just got this today and can't really say much about the camera except that it's very nice and surprisingly lighter than I had expected (which is good) everything else you get with it is ok. My favorite is the large tripod."
"Other than the accessories, this is a great camera."
Best Camcorders
Image sensor: CMOS image sensor. Resolution ratio of image:1M,3M, 5M, 8M, 12M, 16M,20M 24M. Memory card: Supports SD memory card and MMC card (4GB to 32GB). Resolution ratio of video: FHD 1920X1080, HD 1280X720, 640×480. Digital zoom : 16×. USB port: USB2.0. TV output: NTSC / PAL. Power: 3.7V rechargeable lithium battery. Focal distance: f=7.36mm. Aperture: F/3.2. Auto Off: 1m/3m/5m/No shutdown. Operating system requirements: Windows7/ 2002 / XP / Vista. Size : 125 mm ×58mm × 57 mm. Includes: 1* WELIKERA DV camcorder, 1*Camera bag, 1*USB charger, 1*USB cable, 1*AV cable, 1*HDMI Cable, 1*Lithium battery, User manual. 1.Check power supply: Place the charged battery. 2.Input and format memory card: with its metal sheet to outwards. 3.Turn over screen and switch on. Infrared Night Vision/Remote Control COMS Sensor Camcorder WELIKERA Night Vision Camcorder, can take footage at night. Certified Camcorder: WELIKERA Handy Camera has got DV CE , DV FCC and the DV ROHS Certification, while the Battery has got CE FCC ROHS and UL Certification.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The camera feels very unnatural on your hands when holding it for recording or taking images. This review is solely based for individuals that want to use the camera and video for up close, very tight recording."
"It has a zoom feature and night vision mode to get clear pictures at night or low light."
"My child is two years old right now."
"I was surprised to find the recording quality of this DV, especially for night vision mode."
"The quality of this product is great."
"This product performance for this price is really amazing and simple amazed with it !"
"I’m so satisfied with the camera camcorder."
"Digital zoom and the picture function work as expected."
Best Camcorder & Camera Lenses
The AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G optical design allows a different look and feel to images taken with zoom lenses, and its dimensions are ideal for discrete snapshots and landscape shooting with a picture angle that approximates that of the human eye. When mounted on a DX-format SLR, the picture angle is the 35mm equivalent focal length of 50mm.what's in the box: Nikon AF-S Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX Lens, HB-46 Bayonet Lens Hood for AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G, 52mm Snap-On Lens Cap, LF-1 Rear Lens Cap for F Mount Lenses, CL-0913 Soft Lens Case and 5-Year Warranty (1-Year International + 4-Year USA Extension). Fast, f/1.8 prime lens is perfect for low-light conditions, travel, environmental portrait and general photography Engineered for Nikon DX-format D-SLRS, the AF-S DX Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G lens renders a picture angle approximating the classic normal angle of view of a 50mm lens on a Nikon FXformat digital SLR or 35mm film camera Aspherical lens element minimizes coma and other types of lens aberrations, further improving image integrity Nikon Super Integrated Coating (SIC) enhances light transmission efficiency and offers color consistency and reduced flare Exclusive Nikon Silent Wave Motor (SWM) enables fast, accurate and quiet autofocus Close focusing to 1 foot for creative perspectives and versatility Rounded 7-blade diaphragm opening makes out-of-focus elements appear more natural Accepts 52mm filter attachments. Enter your model number to make sure this fits.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The fact is that a 50mm lens on a full frame camera and the same lens on a crop sensor camera do not shoot the same way. Pros: - Feels well built. - Comes packaged with carrying case, good cap, bayonet style lens hood. - Can fit more in the frame. - Fast. - Captures crisp images with lots of detail. - Great in low light, maybe even better than the now older 50mm 1.8D (which by the way does not autofocus unless you have a camera with a focus motor built in). - If I had a camera that did not have a focus motor built in, no problem, this lens has a focus motor built into it. - Focusing is SILENT - unlike the 50mm 1.8D, which hunts for focus and is noisy as hell. - Manual focus override: a switch on the side of the lens allows you to either manually focus the lens, or to allow for M/A, manual and autofocus. That said, I may use this lens more as a street photo / on the go / all around lens and keep the 50mm 1.8D for portrait work or product shots exclusively. - There is some barrel distortion with this lens (which is when there is slight curve to the image from the center point to all edges) the effect is very slight and can very easily be corrected in photo editing software. Overall, I am very pleased with my purchase. The shots are to show how much can fit in the frame using the 50mm lens (on a cropped sensor camera) in comparison to this 35mm 1.8G. I love the 50mm lens, I really do, but I needed more versatility and this 35mm lens gives me just that, the freedom to have a quasi-portrait lens as well as a great, fast, and sharp all around shooter."
"I've had the camera for almost a year and have been disappointed my the photos I was taking (been using the lens kit that came with my camera). Before I got this lens I had essentially stopped using my DSLR because the lens kit was so slow that I was always miss his smile."
"came brand spanking new great condition, box was safe and secure."
"Overall I think this is a great first lens after a kit lens."
Best Digital Point & Shoot Cameras
The Nikon Coolpix L340 Digital Camera has a superb 28x optical zoom telephoto lens with Vibration Reduction (VR). Includes: LR6/L40 (AA-size) alkaline batteries (x4) , Lens Cap LC-CP25 (with cord), USB Cable UC-E16, Camera Strap.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I tested the Nikon Coolpix L340, this is an excellent 20 mega pixel camera, with a very good 28x Zoom, and really very little color distortion around the edges, focus speed fairly quickly although the macro focus can sometimes be over 5 seconds, Its very user friendly compared to the previous and cheaper L330 http://amzn.to/20IqO79. PRO: The lens has an OIS. The sensor takes great low light photos and videos. The autofocus speed (but macro autofocus is slow). The ISO 80 to 400 produces very usable photos. Uses standard SD memory cards, I recommend a Class 10 from transcend http://amzn.to/1GU60mS. CONS: 28x optical zoom produces moderate levels of chromatic aberration around the edges (when at 28x)."
"I bought this camera from my local store."
"I set it on auto and went to work taking pics of stuff I needed to document. YOU NEED TO READ THE MANUAL regarding zoom usage and how to let it focus before completely depressing the fire button. The pictures are clear, natural and I couldn't ask for an easier camera to use that takes decent pics. The thing looks like it's made good and will suit me just fine for what simple pics I need. It's made in China and probably won't last long but the price seems fair compared to all the others I examined. I plug the camera into my computer and the pics are sucked-off onto Windows 10 software and usually defaults to Paint."
"The pros in this product were: -Low Price. -Great resolution (20.2 megapixels). - Compact enough to travel around with it. -A magnificent zoom (28x). - The many pre-established scenarios were they adjust the ISO and the white balance."
"Love Love Love!!"
"I am 100% satisfied with the camera, the quality of pictures it takes, and how quickly the camera actually takes the pictures (there is no lag)."
Best Surveillance & Security Cameras
The Nest Cam Outdoor is the perfect addition to any home. SECURITY HAS NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD: The Nest Cam Outdoor is here to help set your mind at ease. Nest Cam Outdoor is beautiful, weatherproof, and it plugs into power, so you never have to worry about dead batteries. Whether you're watching for the kids to get home from school, checking to see if your package has arrived, or scaring off a potential burglar, Nest Cam Outdoor is here to help! Nest Cam looks for motion and listens for loud sounds, like a boom or the crash from a window breaking.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Had a Christmas package stolen form my driveway, because of the camera we were able to identify the license plate and the thief which ultimately resulted in his arrest."
"We've had occasional situations where a camera has gone offline, but I attribute that to a flaky WiFi signal and not necessarily the camera. Regarding the Nest video recording service, we pay the monthly fee for all of our cameras. In the simplest of installations, you'd mount your camera in the desired location and then run the cord to an outdoor power outlet, securing the cord along the way with the included clips. I wanted to use this wiring so I was able to use a power over ethernet (POE) splitter and injector (bought on Amazon) to run power to the camera and then connected the splitter to the camera's power cable using a USB adapter. Because the cable is permanently attached to the camera itself (which isn't inherently a bad thing, and probably has to do with waterproofing), installations like mine which don't require the cable to span a long distance to connect to power end up with a long mess of extra cord. Aside from the physical installation, Nest makes it simple to connect and configure the camera to your home wifi. Using the app you can view your camera's live feed, view past motion events (still images if you don't subscribe to the Nest Aware service to record your video), configure settings like night vision, sound, etc., as well as turn the camera off and on (if you ever need to)."
"The problem is that they only offer 2 cloud storage option subscriptions to store your history with their Nest Aware cloud storage offering. Here is the break-down: Currently as of 10/24/2016: 1) 10 day - $100 per year per camera with a $50 discount for each additional camera. So for me - that would be $300 / year - to store 10 days of history for 5 of my cameras. OR - They also have: 2) 30 day - $300 per year / camera with a discount 50% discount per camera ($150 per year). This is ridiculous for home consumers who want simple home security. Nest - please make a subscription option for home security for owners to choose how much storage they want or offer and entry level package to store 1 or 2 days storage at a reasonable price."
"You will either get too many annoying alerts that aren't important or basically no alerts. You get (Some) snapshots of alerts. (This means you're probably going to get a lot of annoying alerts that don't matter to you, or you can basically not get any alerts). Since you only have picture snapshots, a lot of alerts won't even have anything in the picture because the motion detected it too late."
Best Camera & Photo Accessories
Built to perform in extreme conditions, SanDisk Ultra micro SDXC cards are water proof, temperature proof, shock proof, X-ray proof and magnet proof. Water proof, temperature proof, shock proof, X-ray proof and magnet proof.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I bought this for my Nintendo Switch and it's great."
"Since the card comes with an SD Card adaptor, I can easily copy the videos using my Mac's SD slot and then insert the microSD card into the slot of the tablet."
"The 4K speeds are fairly slow at 5MB/s and the sequential write is 15.8 MB/s which should suffice for most applications."
"I've had the 200GB card for about 7 months now. It has been in regular use, inside of a Samsung S7 Edge phone."
"I bought this for my SanDisk ClipZip MP3 player, and with it, this MP3 player can access my entire music file collection from a single micro SD card. Among other advantages, the one that really matters for a card with this storage capacity is that it stores its database, so that it doesn't have to rebuild it every single time I turn the MP3 player on. Third, when I used MediaMonkey to synchronize my music collection from my external harddrive to this card, it deleted my music without copying any of it. Fortunately, most of my music files were already stored on other SanDisk micro SD cards, and when I finished copying their contents over to this card, the Music directory was 131 GB in size, which is approximately what I remembered the size of the music folder was on my external harddrive. Overall, it seems to be a good card, and I'm pleased that I can finally use my MP3 player with a Micro SD card large enough to contain my entire music file collection with some room to grow."
"The other three work fine in both the GoPro and the Laptop: they haven't melted yet, but now I'm concerned."
"I was playing music and it started to fail reading files, then after a few minutes and a few reboots/rescans it got to the point where it consistently unmounted within 30 seconds of a restart and I haven't gotten it to work since."
Best Binoculars, Telescopes & Optics
Comes with aluminum tripod and accessory tray.Focal Length of Eyepiece 1 (mm) 20 mm (0.79 in).Focal Length of Eyepiece 2 (mm) 4 mm (0.16 in).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"1) Collimation. This telescope can be collimated easily by eye, if you want to collimate with a laser, you'll have to remove the corrective lens in the focuser tube. 2) The finder scope is unusable. While I agree, it's not the best finder scope out there and lining it up with the telescope can take a long time but, it is possible with time and patients. (note: it is a scope and not a finder, the image is reversed in the finder). 3) I can't see anything out of this thing. You need to collimate the scope and line up the finder scope, the instructions are in the manual for eye collimation (tip: back the focuser tube all the way out when you collimate, doing this will let you see both the secondary mirror and the primary, also note, this went through shipping and if it arrived with all the mirrors aligned and ready to go, get a power ball ticket because you'd be the luckiest person on the planet. 4) The Barlow is useless. Please google and youtube what a barlow is and how to use them, it's not a true lens and once you find out its true purpose, it'll make more sense. 5) The 4mm lens is useless. See my comment on the barlow, using the barlow with the 4mm will tame things a bit, also, get a lens and filter kit with a 15mm and a 9mm lens. One last comment on this issue is, do not try to push the telescope into position with the clutches locked, use the controls on the tripod to position the scope, if you need to make big adjustments, loosen the clutches (should be OK because your telescope is balanced) position the scope to the general area of viewing, lock the clutches and use the controls to fine tune."
"I later bought the Celestron 24mm to 8mm zoom eyepiece, which allows me to zoom in without changing eyepiece, and it works very well on the smaller 76mm telescope, but again blurry images on this one. I decided to order a Celestron 1.25" collimation eyepiece ($30), which can be useful in aligning the optics (the two mirrors) in reflectors like this one. The reason is that Polaris is faint, and every time you move a mirror by a tiny bit (as explained in the Celestron instruction) the star just darts out of view in the eyepiece. Lastly, I ditched all the Celestron recommendations on day and night collimation (using either the celestron collimation eyepiece or the "ring pattern" for out of focus point sources) and did instead the "EYE-DOCTOR TEST" : I wanted to see how sharp I can get this one, when there is no wind, no shake, no atmospherics, no moving planet, no mist etc. With this method (which I seemingly invented, as it is not described anywhere in the instructions nor on the Celestron site) I was finally able to adjust (by very small increments) the three screws on the secondary mirror till I FINALLY got a nice sharp picture of the writing on the letter. To avoid any further issues due to my previous messing around, I first screwed in the secondary mirror (by loosening up the three alignment screws, and pulling in the secondary mirror all the way in until it barely touches the mount), and later pulled out the primary mirror as well(by pulling out all six screws until the whole unit comes out, then reinserting the mirror after making sure the secondary was pointing the right way, straight to the back). Then, using the Celestron collimation eyepiece with its crosshair, I carefully adjusted the secondary and primary orientations (three screws for each mirror) until all the crosshairs overlapped perfectly. In other words, the crosshair in the eyepiece has to overlap perfectly with its reflection through mirrors 1 and 2, and back to the eyepiece. I found (April 2014) that the best way to collimate this (Bird-Jones or catadioptric design)telescope and get nice sharp images is to remove the focusing lens at the bottom of the focusing tube (takes 10 mins), align the secondary and primary mirrors with an inexpensive LASER collimator (mine is an LK1 $30 from seben dot com, takes another 10 mins to do this part), put the corrector lens back in and reinsert the focusing tube (don't touch the lens with your hands, takes around 5 mins). The secondary (smaller, flat) mirror is oval-shape and mounted right under the focusing tube, held in place by three (outside)-plus-one (center) screws. Now put a focusing cap (just an eyepiece cap with a small 1mm hole in the center) at the (top) end of the focusing tube. Then make absolutely sure (after you take again very carefully the correcting lens out of the focusing tube) that the inside of the focusing tube and the secondary mirror, as viewed through the focuser, are perfectly concentric when you view them through the hole in the cap. That is, the secondary mirror has to be perfectly centered when viewed from the top of the focusing tube. After this is done, make also sure that the tilt on the secondary mirror is such that you can see the center of the primary mirror (on mine I put a black pen mark at the dead center). Now re-align the secondary and primary mirrors with a laser (in my case), with the cap with a hole, or a cheshire eyepiece."
"The instruction manual is weak in this regard and Celestron really should update it to help getting this telescope aligned. If you visit various astronomy forums and ask about this scope, most people will tell you to avoid it because of the time you will be spending collimating it. After you spent time collimating it, then the views are pretty good for the price you pay. I could see the 2 main bands on Jupiter and the moons, the rings of Saturn, but struggled to see the Cassini division. This is the benefits with using an EQ mount where you will only need to turn one knob to keep your object in view."