Bins in the Attic - Treasure or Tat?

[SnakeyJ]

I've been considering buying a cheap pair of the Bresser or Meade 10 x 50s recently as it gives me the chance to do some visual exploring while telescope is tied up on imaging runs - but have held off with other priorities taking up the little disposable income each month.

Last week, during a dump run I noticed an abandoned/unloved set of bins about to go over the wall and managed to save them from landfill - however, these are definitely tat on closer inspection (Renhe Sehfield) and will definitely be going over the wall on my next visit.

However, whilst in the attic looking out a hamock for the kids to play with I found a long forgotten box of inherited stuff from my Grandad. Inside two pairs of bins (Hanimex 7x50 fully coated optics and Glory 12x50 super fine precision coated optics). Both sets are probably 60/70s vintage and need a good clean, but both seem surprisingly good visually - albeit in bright daylight and reasonably collimated.

I will have a try out tonight to see how they stand up against the 9x50 finder. Hanimex is a reasonably well known Korean firm and these are probably low end reasonable, but little info available on the Glory which are serial numbered and appear at first sight to be optically better.

Those cases look pretty mouldy - time to get the cloth out!

[Steve Ward]

The KOG are vintage Japanese , Nikon basically , and should be good quality , not cheap either ...

[SnakeyJ]

The KOG are vintage Japanese , Nikon basically , and should be good quality , not cheap either ...

Thanks Steve, they certainly seemed the better pair to my untrained eye in daylight - probably pushing it a little for hand held, though they are not too heavy for a quick scan and I shall give them a try out tonight. It's nice also to have something of my Granddad’s to hang on to

[LukeSkywatcher]

Nice find. Im sure they will perform. I have a set of Eikow "Airport" 10x50 bins in a similar hard case. They were bought second hand for me back in about 1982. I'll never get rid of them even thought i dont use them.

[SnakeyJ]

I had a very quick go with the KOCs last night - nice and sharp/contrasty and plenty bright enough, though I will definitely need some form of support to properly evaluate them - the 10x7s will probably be more manageable for hand held, but didn't get an outing last night.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

These old bins are often pretty decent. I got a pair of (Yashica built) Combifoto-branded 7x50s for free because they were broken. A simple tweak of collimation and tightening of three screws holding the dioptry control in place yielded a very nice pair of bins used by the kids. Very sharp, but lacking the large FOV of some modern bins. Cheap modern ones are often less sharp, and I will trade FOV for sharpness gladly in these bins.

[BinocularSky]

Other advantages of these older bins include:

* If it's meant to be (say) 50mm aperture, then it probably is (modern budget "Mx50" ones can be as low as 41mm)

* Build quality is often much better than modern budget ones.

[SnakeyJ]

Thanks Steve - they certainly are bright and have good contrast, but I'll need that monopole for 12x. Great site you have over at Binocular Sky. Very nice clean layout and an excellent resource - which I shall peruse in detail after work laid out as well.

[BinocularSky]

I'll need that monopole for 12x.

You'll probably need a hinge clamp as well, unless the binocuilar has a mounting bush. & Thanks for the kind words about the web site.