johnbaz

Just now, John said:

Without a diagonal mirror or prism between the scope and the eyepiece the image will appear upside down and left - right reversed.

Ahh, Thanks, Pretty sure I have a 90° prism somewhere!, I'll try and find it tomorrow! 👍

Cheers, John 🙂

Hi all 

Dragging up an old thread, I decided to take the lenses out to clean them as they were stained and I recently bought an adapter so I can use my 1.25" lenses in the .965" tube!

It was a fair old job unscrewing the part that carries the lenses!! 🤨

The stain from condensation between the lenses!

The lenses were quite tight in the tube and when I put them back in, They scraped small bits of black paint from the inside which ended up between the lenses, Had them out several times but got fed up as they scraped the paint off every single time, Can see two bits at around 9 o'clock..

Don't have a mount for the scope so I rested it on a towel on some boxes, The view was nice and clear but upside down! Wasn't expecting that!!, Is this how they work??, It's so long since I looked through a refracting astronomical scope that I can't remember!! 

There is a lens mounted down the tube which I thought was to correct the orientation!!

I'll have to search fleabay now for a set of 76mm rinngs so I can get rid of the boxes!! 

Cheers, John 👍

On 12/06/2020 at 19:05, Ruud said:

Good idea - ask before buying. Zoom binoculars promise a lot, but they are crap really.

There's another type of binoculars we warn against: "auto focus" or "focus free" binoculars. Those are no more than binoculars without a focus mechanism. Focus is fixed to one distance and if you want to study  something at a different distance you're out of luck (a swan's nest that's 15 m away for example).

Hi Ruud

I had a couple of these focus free, The first ones (Jason perma focus, A company owned by Bushnell) I gave to my lad as I couldn't focus at all through them, I never thought to try looking through my glasses with them!, Anyhow, My lad could see fine so he had them!

I bought another focus free (Dowling & Rowe 7x50), These were only a fiver at a bootsale,  Again, I couldn't focus (Bad eyes!!) so I tried through my specs and WOW!!! They were great but they focus at any distance, The others which were the same as it turned out, He still has them and uses them!!

They're quite a bit bigger than the Tasco 7x50 that I bought from another stall! (They were a fiver too!!!) 

John 👍

I was warned against buying zoom bins by a mate that's forgotten more about binoculars than i'll ever know, Still went ahead and bought some, He was right!!  When I zoomed in, I had to re focus, I've had a few sets now and had the same thing with each set! One set I even had to readjust the eye bell on the right as one lens was in focus but the other was out!! 

I bought these lovely old Tasco zooms for just £14 at a local antiques emporium, It's best to keep them set on one adjustment and use them as non zoom!!

A couple more!!

John 🙂

23 hours ago, Nakedgun said:

Do you plan to mount them for use, if so, how will you attach them?

Hi David

The front focus shaft screw removes to attach a bracket for a tripod, I'll probably not get around to mounting them though!!

John 🙂

EDIT- I thought i'd posted in this thread before but apparently not!! 

Anyhow, My binoculars are HERE, Don't want to post pics as it caused a bit of trouble last time! 

It seems i've not kept my Flickr up to date as I bought these last year..

Both are 7x50, One is Tasco, The other is focus free Dowling and Rowe..

I didn't add these old Tasco zoom to Flickr either!

Crikey, Here's another set that wasn't put in to the album!

Celestron 25x70..

The Swallow 15x80 arrived, It looked like someone had tipped old smashed plasterwork in!!, Had to spend 20 mins washing and drying everything but at least the lenses were protected with caps!!

There is a fungal bloom in one objective lens although it can't be seen whilst viewing!!, Er, They're a bit big compared with my Monarch 8x42 rp's!!

I found this receipt for a new focussing shaft and other work in the bottom of the case from 1997!!

John 👍

Hi all

Found these on facebook for £30, The seller responded to my message concerning postage, They quoted £13.75, I sent them £46 to cover the Paypal fees, They should be getting posted in the morning..

It's a bit chancey buying bins untested as so many seem to have bad collimation or mould in the lenses or have been knocked about generally!

I've a smaller set of Swallow, 8x30 and they're so sharp and bright that I suppose i'm presuming these will be the same!- It won't be the end of the world if they're not up to scratch!

I can't seem to find much info on Swallow stuff, One result actually led me to here and another sent me to Cloudy Nights forum, When I googled images for 15x80 Binoculars some turned up with the small hinge at the objective end but the prism cases are much fatter, Others that have the slimline case but no hinge so i'm unsure if these are by a manufacturer that sells to different companies with different names on!!

Looking forwards to them arriving!

Cheers, john 👍

I think i've around fifty bino's but my fave are the Nikon Monarch 8x42 roof prism ones, They're just soooo crisp and bright and not unwieldly 👍

John 🙂

1 hour ago, Paul M said:

You can never have too many pairs of bins. I've only got 5 or 6 pairs.

I'm holding out now until I find something like this at a boot sale:

https://www.altairastro.com/Altair-100mm-90-Giant-Astronomy-Binocular-18mm-UF-1.25-eyepieces.html

 

If they don't come with a reasonable tripod I'll not be offering more than £25

WOW!! Those look the Biz! 😍

I've never counted but I think I must have around 50 bino's now!!


John 🙂

Here's a set of Tasco zoom bins that I bought this year, They seem a cut above other zoom ones that i've owned, Could be that they don't zoom loads like some others that I have (They're 7-15x)

A nice quality case with them too!

These on the other hand are naff by comparison, The mag starts where the Tasco's end!! 😮

John 🙂

Hi all, After recovering from a knee replacement around 12 weeks ago, I've been having a steady amble around our local bootsales of a sunday and brought some more bins home with me!

A while ago I picked these Tasco 7x50 armoured set up for £5, More recently (Last weekend) I found these Dowling and Rowe 7x50 focus free and armoured for the same price, The fella said he'd been a while wondering how to focus them!!

John 🙂

Replying to an old thread, I realised these weren't auto focus after using them for a while, They're individual focus but as Ruud said, they hardly need to be refocussed!!

Cheers, John 👍

I've two sets of these, Very bright and crisp, Was told they're called Komz!

I was told these were actually made at the Zeiss factory in East Germany that Russia took over after the war!, Have to say, I have a set of 8x30 Zeiss Jena and they're for all the world the same bins!! (And optically theior equal!)..

This set was a fiver! Had to pay and extra three quid for the case as it had a set of other 8x30's in, The receipt was in the case too!

This set is much better cosmetically but no different optically!! EDIT, Forgot to say I paid £10 from another bootsale for these!!

The cheaper set came with orange fiters fitted, Seemed like they'd been on from new as they were stuck with decades of gunge!!

John 🙂

2 hours ago, Roy Challen said:

That is quite a 'collection'. 

I've also around fifty air pistols too, I'm shortly going to start getting rid as I never use them now and let my range membership slip!


John 👍

6 hours ago, Icesheet said:

I've looked through these and I agree with your assessment. Very pleasing view. I was actually close to buying them before I found a second hand Swarovision 8.5x42.

 

Zeiss (and the other top bino manufacturers) have excellent warranty coverage and they have on more than one occasion been known to repair accidental damage as a warranty repair. Even when they don't the price of repair is usually quite reasonable. If the deal could still be done you might want to fire off an email to Zeiss and ask what they think?

We've already swapped back although I think he'd still do a deal as he really wnts a rifle but as he's a leftie, It would have to be dedicated left hand or ambi 👍

I've around a hundred rifles for him to choose from though!!

I thought that being top end bins, The repair would be quite pricey!

John 🙂

3 hours ago, Roy Challen said:

My answer to your question depends on what airguns you swapped 😆. If it was a couple of Gamos then I would say you should've kept the bins, Wiehrauch or Daystate though - wouldn't have let them go in the first place!

Seriously though, as Icesheet mentioned,  it might be worth checking the warranty. 

One was actually a Gamo Stutzen!! 😆

 The other was an Air Arms SE90, A very nice rifle!! 

John  👍

Hi all

As well as bins I also collect airguns, I recently swapped two of my rifles for a Zeiss Conquest 10x42 binocular, The warrenty said they were new in 2012 so are seven years old, The right extension tube (Sorry, Dunno the proper name!) was cracked and this played on my mind so much that I got in touch and traded back!!

Was I stupid as these bins are now almost a grand now and clarity/brightness etc was absolutely outstanding!! 

These are they!!

They came boxed with the manuals. warranty etc..

A pic of the crack that the original owner had tried to glue, I pulled it out further than it was meant to go (It does as it's cracked!! ) so that I could get a clear pic!!

I loved the performance of these bins but couldn't live with the damage unfortunately 😥

Cheers, John 👍

On 18/06/2019 at 09:52, pregulla said:

I think the problem with zoom binoculars is not the quality of zoom eyepieces, but with getting both to stay "in sync" while zooming.

A friend of mine that's really in to anything optic told me never to buy any zoom bin's, Of course I ignored his sage words and now have several sets, All of them require refocusing after I 'zoomed'!! 😂 I didn't mind though as they mostly still give a good image (For my ppor old eyes at least!) after fiddling with the focus knob!!


John 🙂

Ruskie glass tends to be excellent quality in my opinon, I was told that after WW2 when Russia took over east Germany, The Zeiss factory was in eastern Germany so thr Russian bino's suddenly became superb!! (Don't know for sure if this was the case but sounds feasable!!)..

I found some Komz /Tento which are super clear, As good as my Jena and the 8x30 look identical in size and build!!

These were knocked about but working superbly, They had the orange filters on the ocular lenses and seemed to have been attached for years!, I had to buy a cheapo set of broken Halina bins too as they were in the case that these should have been in!, Only cost a tenner for both bins and the case!!

These also came from a bootsale for £10

These have some mould/fungus on the lenses but are still very bright and crisp, Need a clean on the outside though!! ☺️

Hmm, I have some marked 'Tento' and made in USSR but can't seem to find pics of them! ?

John ?

On 25/08/2018 at 09:57, Geoff Barnes said:

I have to say I've never even looked in the Binocular threads, but I do have a pair of Sunagor 8-24x Mini Zoom bins which I've had for so long I can't even remember exactly where and when I bought them. It was probably 30 odd years ago and possibly from Jessops, or maybe even Argos in Southampton, not sure.

Anyway, they are really compact and great for keeping in your pocket when hiking etc. and nice and lightweight. The zoom function works surprisingly well, though you do have to re-focus as you zoom. FOV is obviously smaller at 24x but still acceptable and the views are really quite sharp for a cheap and cheerful pair.

I quite often still use them to scour the sky for faint visual objects like Omega Centauri before unleashing the 12 inch Dob.

Out of interest, Sunagor are still going strong and have the proud boast of producing the world's most powerful binoculars, the mind boggles as to how truly awful they must be at 160x zoom!  http://www.sunagor.com/acatalog/info_13.html

I recently found a sunagor 15-70x25, These are shocking at the higher mags but passable as a 15x binocular!! ?

In all fairness though, I couldn't be bothered to dig the tripod out to mount them on!!

John ?

I recently bought a Celestron 25x70 binocular, After not being able to focus through the Strathspey, These seemed very well colimated and lovely and bright (Still wish i'd brought the 100mm Strathspey home with me though!  )

A Japanese CitatioN 8x30 binocular that I picked up today at a local St Lukes hospice charity shop for £8, They quite nice and bright, Made in Japan..

Cheers, John 

Hi all

I had a walk around a carboot sale this morning and came across these unknown bin's..

Despite appearing to be very cheap bins (Rubbish softcase and lens caps) they really are extremely bright and clear!! Also, They're auto focus! The ocular lenses can be adjusted to the individual then away you go!! 

I paid £15 for them which is quite a sum from the bootsales but the brightness and clarity made me stick my hand in my pocket!! 

Does anyone know what the '200x120' actually means as i'm only familiar with the max x object lens dia markings!!

I've had Steiner bins before and still have a set of Steinheil bins but i've not heard of these before and there seems to be very little on the web about them! 

PS, I just did a search for 'Super view binoculars' and I found out they're Chinese make with Bak 4 prisms, Only 6 mag, They seem more powerful!!

Cheers, John 

Hi 

I love bins but have yet to acquire any of those fab large ones!!

Greenkat 7x50

Peerless 16x43

Komz 8x30

Nikon Monarch 8x42

Swift Ascot 8x30

Nondescript 8x25, I think it says France on the front! Very crisp and bright for such a small object!

Swift Tecnar 8x40

Zeiss Jena 8x30

8x30 Super Glenton

Swift 10x50

Lieberman & Gortz 20x42

Zenith 8x30

Scope overfield 9x35

Swallow 8x30

Prinze 16x50

Prinze 10x50

Bushnel individual focus (Think they're 8x30)

Miranda 7x25

Aloma 12x50 (Tokyo)

Japanese Omiya 10x50

Steinheil 8x40

I have some more but no decent pics , I'll look through the folders in my pc tomorrow..


John 

Can't remember exactly what I paid for this little scope but I think it was £8..

These were two or three quid for the lot!!

The book is out of date now though!! 

John 

On 2/20/2017 at 13:18, johnfosteruk said:

That's a great find John, I'm very envious  I always have an eye out at the car boot for scopes 'n' bins but to date I've found nothing.

A friend of the family found a Tal-1 recently which he gave to our niece and I get views with that so I mustn't complain really.

Good luck cleaning her up.

Hi John

About three quarters of these came from the bootsales but this only about half of actual Bines/scopes that i've bought over the years!!

John