Trouble with bins

[Ben Smith]

Hey fellow gazers.

Hope you all had a good new year.

I have been given a pair of binoculars, not sure what make, they have a WA on the lens cap and an orange/red tint on lenses 10X50 The problem is the images don't line up to make one image. I can turn the barrel on one side so they line up but then it is loose. There are screws in various places, are these collimation screws or are they just broke. I'm kinda new to binocular viewing so any help will be honoured

[Charic]

Ben Smith........Hi, Doesn't sound to good, can you send an image, someone here will recognize them?

Edit* Up-load an image to your Gallery.

[Ben Smith]

Here are some pics

[bingevader]

I don't think collimating binoculars is for the faint hearted, but the screws for adjusting the prisms are often on the outside of the main body of the binoculars, possibly under the rubber cover.

If they're old and otherwise useless though, I don't suppose you have anything to lose!

Cheers

[Ben Smith]

Yeah I do have another pair of 10x50's but wanted these to keep in the car I'll give the screws a turn to see if it helps can't see it being as hard as collimating the newt.

What as the - o + for on one of the eyepieces?

[cantab]

With those orange coatings reflecting so much light, I can't imagine they'll be much good for night-time use anyway.

[Charic]

Magnacraft make something similar ? That's the nearest I can see at present. The Barrel shouldn't need to be removed. If both barrels give you a clear, focused image looking through the eyepiece, but not as one, then there may be  some misalignment at the hinge point. Not sure collimation is something you would want to try. 

What as the - o + for on one of the eyepieces? [sic]   You would normally focus and adjust the binoculars using your left eye only? Once set, you then adjust only the dioptre setting on the right eye piece from + to - in order to get the right eye correctly focused. Unless the Binoculars have had some heavy fall or rough treatment, its unlikely collimation is a fault, but more likely a twisted barrel somewhere along the pivot line.

[Ben Smith]

Yeah I think is has something to do with the barrel because if I twist one them I can get a nice crisp image. Thanks for the - o + info

[Charic]

That sounds like the barrel may have been damaged some how. There is obviously some defect your noticing. If you swap the barrels over, does the defect shift or stay on the same side?

Its possible the barrel is mis-threaded, causing the out-of alignment issue? Once both barrels are correctly aligned, you should have a circular shaped image in the viewfinder, not the figure of 8 as depicted in the movies?

[Ben Smith]

Ahh I didn't think of swapping the barrels. I will give this a go and see if it helps. I may aswell give them a good clean while there apart

[Peter Drew]

If all else fails you can twist one of the barrels as you describe until the images merge and then bond that barrel in position. 

[Ben Smith]

Swapping the barrels seems to have done the trick, I will need to test on something further when the clouds shift but think I may need to twist one of the barrels a smidge to fine adjust.

[brantuk]

Do you have rubber eye cups on the diopters? It doesn't look like it in the pictures. Or do they have twist up eye cups?

It's not been mentioned in the thread so far - but are you adjusting them to focus correctly by setting the diopters properly?

[Ben Smith]

Do you have rubber eye cups on the diopters? It doesn't look like it in the pictures. Or do they have twist up eye cups?

It's not been mentioned in the thread so far - but are you adjusting them to focus correctly by setting the diopters properly?

No rubber eye cups, looks like they might have been removed.

And yes charic went through the proper way to focus

I will be testing on the moon tomorrow so will see if they are fixed

[Ben Smith]

Just an update to say thanks and the bins are now fixed.

Not as good as my clear ones as the tint does take the light out of stuff so I'm just going to use them for planetry and lunar stuff near the sun

[andre808]

Nothing to do with this post, i know nothing. But i like your profile pic Proto star. Horsehead over Tubeway Army 1st album cover. Very good.