Petrovich007

Hello guys! I'd appreciate any opinion or advice. So far I own a Vixen 9x63 and can't say it's really what I expected it to be. However, the "form factor" 9x63 looks good to me, so I'm thinkg about purchasing some other 9x63, preferrably something classic , made of glass and metal... 

Hello James, what kind of data you need? Could you share some photo(s)? Is the front lens coating green? I guess I could help. The year is obviously 1973 (unless you have some military version)

Surprisingly, I received a feedback from Vixen. Thank you guys!

Hopefully this info would be useful for somebody:

9 hours ago, Franklin said:

Just been having a flick through my old catalogues and the Vixen Ultima is not listed in the 1985 one, the earliest catalogue I have is 1992 showing the Ultima range and the last catalogue to list the Ultima was in 2004.

So the timeline for the Ultima range is post-1985 to 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

Franklin, thanks a lot! What is remarkable is "620g" for 8x42. I can't read the Japanese so not sure if this is net weight or gross. Both samples I have are ~570g net and 890g gross (bino + case + straps, covers). So probably they didn't come from the batches corresponding to this catalogue but were manufactured later (well, on the other hand sometimes weight grown after improvements or some optimization  ). 

P.S. Frankly speaking, I'm puzzled. In my understanding, you attached 1992 and 2004 catalogues, and both provide 620g for 8x42. Really interesting... 

9 hours ago, Franklin said:

The Ultimas were Vixen's deluxe binocular for many years and they were rebranded for Celestron as well. Production began in the 80's and continued into the early 2000's. The earlier models came in a tan leather case but the later ones had a black case. Superb, lightweight porro binocular, I've had the 7x42 and the 7x50 models and they were both excellent. 

Franklin, thanks for this information. Here is the way the case looks. Actually, since posting the initial message I purchased another 8x42 identical to the first one (at least, visually identical). The case is also identical. The serial is 811H4098. 

On 05/04/2024 at 22:55, Nakedgun said:

What's the first thing to disappear :)? (I'm not a native speaker so probably miss some proverb or saying : )

~

Can't help with dating this branding, but Celestron marketed a line, also called Ultima, which appear identical to your unit. They were discontinued some years back when virtually all production shifted to China. I seem to recall the Celestrons becoming scarce around 15 years ago. But, memory being the second thing disappearing with age, I could be mistaken.

 

 

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Hello,

I bought on occasion a Vixen Ultima 8x42 which turned out to be a very good device. So I tried to find out when it could be manufactured but didn't succeed. The general impression is like it could be 1980s. The "Mikiko" signature doesn't look like factory print, so it must be a previous owner name/marking.

Probably someone owns this model and could share any information on manufacturing history. I would really appreciate any ideas. Thank you!

The s/n is 002H2493.