Mark Scheffel 10 x 50 binoculars review

[mdstuart]

Good evening

I have purchased a second hand pair of these binoculars. No reviews on the web so I thought I would post my findings for others.

They are marked Mark Scheffel in an attempt to make you think they are German but they are Japanese marked T.E Japan with a serial number 43497.

The mechanics after a greece a lovely smooth but firm. Nice wide range of focus even with my short sighted eyes..They focus down to about 5 meters..

The objectives have a blue coating. They needed a bit of a clean with my Celestron Lens pen and now look great..

The eyepieces were really filthy and made it look initially like looking through mist. Now they are cleaned and sparkle and that has made a big improvement. The eyepiece lens groups seemed clean other than the eyepiece but for the life of me I could not see how to get them out if they had needed a clean..

They were reasonably in collimation so no double vision etc which is pretty important as this is tough to correct in small binoculars.

They came with an old case and three caps..I am missing an eyepiece cap...(anyone have a spare out there?)

The field of view is far bigger than the normal 10x50 five degress. Its quoted as 7 deg so at 10 times you get fairly imersed in the view. They give the same FOV as my Russian 7 x 50's but the mag is of course higher...

They are sharp on axis but clearly go soft towards the edges. This does not seem apparant when in normal use but I am sure it will be very obvious on the star test when I get to see some stars!

They are much lighter than my Russian 7 x 50 as the prisms are half the size..which is good for portability and holding them steady..

I paid £4.20 for them so that is good value in my books..

eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace

So in summary, I am pleased with the purchase. I have ordered another 10 x 50 made by Viper which have bigger prisms and massive eyepieces to compare to these. Mind you at £3.20 maybe they will not be so good?

Is there anyone else out there who loves trying out binoculars..cleaning them up and then passing them on for others to enjoy on this forum?

Mark

[Polar Bear]

Is there anyone else out there who loves trying out binoculars..cleaning them up and then passing them on for others to enjoy on this forum?

Mark

Hi Mark, I have tried that and had no takers on the forum with a superb pair of Vixen Ultra-light 10x50's. Tento 10x50's and Japanese 12x50's offered ( after being cleaned and collimated) at what they cost me + postage.

They all ended up back on ebay with a start price of 99p and all turned in a profit for me.

Paul

[mdstuart]

Paul

Interesting..Have you ever found any 10x bins that are nearly sharp to the edge of the FOV that are 7 deg or more...I am still looking..

Mark

[Polar Bear]

Paul

Interesting..Have you ever found any 10x bins that are nearly sharp to the edge of the FOV that are 7 deg or more...I am still looking..

Mark

Only Leica and Swarovski models I have tried in a shop at around £1500

I believe the Fujinon 10x50 Mariners may fit the bill for about £350 second hand , but still a long way off the price of our ebay exploits.

Keep looking and trying as I do.

Or ask Steve (Tententerre) as I am sure he will have experience in this area.

Paul

[Polar Bear]

Whoops , I meant tetenterre , sorry Steve...

[BinocularSky]

Whoops , I meant tetenterre , sorry Steve...

My fault for having a weird user-name.

I've not used it but, if I am not mistaken, the Fujinon Marine is a 7x50.

The "good" Fujinon is the 10x50 FMT; it has a FoV of just under 6.5*, and is very sharp to the edge, but does have a tiny bit of CA there.

I'd like to try out the United Optics BA8 (sold under various brand names) which appears to be a clone of the Fujinon; the 15x70 is extremely good, but I've yet to use the 10x50 version.

By far the best 10x50 I've ever got my grubby mitts on is that of a friend who leads birding expeditions to remote places of the world: a Swarfovski 10x50 EL -- it has a FoV of just over 6.5* and is damned near perfect.

But, in reply to the original question, I have never used and never heard of a 10x50 with a FoV of 7* or more that is sharp to the edge. I've not done the optical design maths to see what would be required, but I suspect the cost of making it would be prohibitive.

I used to have a Swift Newport Mk2; the FoV was just over 8*, but most of it was unusable -- a real disappointment after the Mk1 which was a really nice 10x50, very bright and pretty sharp.