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People often ask, who makes Nikon rangefinder?
Let’s find out!
Who Makes Nikon Rangefinder?
Nikon Vision Co., Ltd makes Nikon rangefinders. The company was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
Nikon Coolshot ProII Stabilized Rangefinder Review
When it comes to top-quality rangefinder models, it has always been Bushnell.
Precision Pro has made some progress, but when it comes down to the best of the rest in regards to optical quality and ease of use, the King is Bushnell.
Anyway, it looks like Nikon has something to say about that too.
Yeah, that Nikon. The one that makes cameras.
We recently got our hand on the Nikon Coolshot II stabilized rangefinder and had some high expectations before our first round with it
Most of the other rangefinder brand fails because they don’t offer good optics.
If you include every feature you want in a camera, but the image quality is poor or the screen is fuzzy, then it won’t be fun to shoot pictures with it. About high-end photography equipment, Nikon is among the very best in the industry. Almost every photo from the first six years of this site was taken using a Nikon camera.
Needless to say, we’re excited to release this on the platform and see what it can accomplish.
With this review, we’re going to compare the Nikon Coolshot Pro II Stabilized to the two most popular stabilized cameras out there: the Bushnell Pro X E and the Bushnell V 5 with Slope. These three cameras sit right in the middle of the price range, so they’re natural comparisons.
Nikon Rangefinder Box.
When you open up an Apple product for the very first time, you feel like it’s something really special.
While the packaging for the Nikon rangefinder was good, it’s clear they didn’t put any effort into making sure it looked nice.
It doesn’t matter to us if they use their energy on frivolous packaging instead of putting it into the device itself.
Carry Case for Nikon Coolshot
Inside the box you get everything you would expect:
- The rangefinder
- A canvas carrying case
- A battery
- A lens brush
- Instructions/warranty card
The very first thing that I notice is that it’s much larger than the Bushnell Pro XT. It doesn’t mean that it’s large; it’s an average-sized rangefinder. The Pro XT just happened to be the largest rangefinder we have tested.
It feels good in your hand, and the ergonomic design is very nice.
It was easy to put the batteries into the device, which can be weird when using some devices.
It has some very good quality rubber on it but feels slightly less expensive than other high-end rangefinder models. However, it’s waterproof, which means there’s no reason to worry about dropping it in the ocean.
On the left side, there are two buttons: the power switch and a menu option.
On the Coolshot Pro II, there are buttons for taking
The power switch is used to turn the distance unit on and off, and the menu key changes the laser modes.
There are four modes:
- Golf Mode: Slope adjusted distance (horizontal distance +/- height) and actual distance
- Actual distance mode
- Actual distance and height mode
- Horizontal distance and height mode
Manufacturers should be careful when they add new features to their products. Adding too many features may confuse consumers. We encountered this problem with the Blue tees Rangefinder, which has an extra feature that we sometimes end up using without knowing what it does.
This is also why the Bushnell V5 is such a killer product; it has no slope.
There’s some of this going on in the Nikon rangefinder as well.
There are three golfing options: Slope, Non-Slope, and Off Course. And there are two more options that we honestly didn’t even know existed until we looked them up.
It’s easy to inadvertently hit the wrong button when switching modes, so sometimes you’ll end up in a different one than you expected.
It’s not an immediate problem once you get used to using the device, but you may find yourself fiddling with it for the first couple of holes just to figure out where you’re supposed to be.
Optical Quality
After just one use, you can tell that this rangefinder has excellent quality.
Some lesser rangefinders may include lots of bells and whistles, but they might not be able to provide good optics, screens, ergonomics, or accuracy.
If you don’t care about seeing the target through low-resolution glass, then why would you care about a vibrating slope feature?
Once you’ve looked through the viewfinder for the first time, you’re immediately impressed by its quality.
It’s really easy to use the camera’s focusing screen to manually set focus.
One thing that sets Bushnell apart from competitors in terms of screen quality is its brightness, clarity, and location.
The OLED screen inside Nikon’s rangefinder camera is even sharper than before. It’s incredibly impressive.
It’s even better than before! Now, all of your distance markers turn red, but when you’re locked onto the flag, you see a green circle appear around the screen to confirm that you’ve found the flag!
This is what the Dual Color Screen looks like on the CoolShot Pro II Stabilized.
It works really and it’s nice to be able to use a phone without having to worry about scratches or cracks.
The Nikon’s unique set of features includes its ability to take high-quality photos
We’ve seen the same set of features come out on rangefinders over the past few months.
- Slope
- Vibration technology
- Magnet
Nikon is bucking trends by doing things a bit differently than most camera companies.
It has a slope but doesn’t include the vibration and magnet found on most similar products.
Nikon “Echo Technology”
First, we’ll look at vibration. All the companies call it something different, but basically, the phone will vibrate when you’ve successfully locked onto the flag.
On this Nikon CoolShot camera, they have what they refer to as “echo” technology. Instead of vibration when you take a picture, you get the green light on the screen and an audible little sound. You can turn this feature off if you want.
It was surprising for me to realize that the Echo feature works so well, and provides almost the same user interface as the original device.
Who Makes Nikon Rangefinder?
What Is Stabilization in a Rangefinder?
One of the features that make this drone different from others is its ability to stabilize itself during flight. It uses gyroscopes to help keep the drone steady even if there is movement.
It works too.
When you look at the flagstick, if you slowly pan back and forth to attempt to lock onto an object, you can visually see where the camera is locking in better so that it makes it easier for you to get a reading.
The Coolshot 50I on the left has a magnet inside, while the Pro II Stabilized doesn’t.
Overall, it was a really useful feature, and if you struggle to read flags because of shaky hand movements, this is a game changer.
Sometimes it will overshoot slightly, but this doesn’t happen very often, so the technology is a welcomed addition to rangefinders.
Built for Competition
One of my favorite new features that were added to the Bushnell X2 is the ability to switch between non-sloped and sloped shooting modes. On the Nikon Pro II rangefinder, there wasn’t any way to change from non-sloped to sloped shooting mode.
Nikon Coolshot ProII Stabilized Performance
When you put everything together, how does it perform?
With the Echo™ Technology, you can get accurate distances, and the “Echo” technology is very helpful. We rarely had any issues with it back- focusing and missing the target for the tree behind the green.
It has an accuracy rating of +/- 0.75 yards for anything less than 700 yards.
One thing we didn’t like about this camera is that sometimes it was hard for us to see through the viewfinder.
Sometimes when using binocular or telescopic sights, it takes a moment for your eyes to line up with the lenses.
After using it for a few rounds, we realized that it was easier to concentrate on than with other devices, but it seemed a bit harder to get into the flow state.
But after doing so? It was crystal clear.
One minor complaint is when you’re in golfing/driving/putting/chipping modes, it shows the actual yardage on the top right corner of the screen, and then the slope-adjusted yardage front and center.
Conclusion
We hope that this article was helpful. If you have any queries feel free to reach out in the comments section below.
