Strathspey Marine 7X50s on the way.

[ghostdance]

Bagged a used pair on Ebay, look a bit grubby but the seller reckons they're optically great. A bit of a careful q-tip clean for the casing & then on to some widescreen viewing   I have the usual 10x50s, 15x70s and a pair of Canon 8x23A (nice but light gathering is not great in summer skies).

I've never had individual focusing binos before. Any tips? Anything to avoid?

I imagine you set em once & forget as far as the stars are concerned - bet I'll keep knocking the focus rings!

Thanks for any advice, re cleaning or viewing

Steve

[Charic]

ghostdance......Hi, Focusing is not to dissimilar to standard binoculars. Focus your left eye only. Cap/cover  the right objective or close your right eye, but capping is best, you wont have to squint and strain your eye. Focus until you see a sharp image, then complete the same for the right eye while capping the left objective. When left and right are focused, job done,  nothing else to adjust, except maybe  correct  the inter pupillary distance  (IPD) between the eyes. Only problem you have now is that if you need to change focus to another distance, you'll have to complete the task again. The 7x50 should have a reasonable depth of view. Practice will make you perfect.

I was out looking at some Stars last night in reasonable conditions, and found myself  constantly adjusting the optics to see if I could better the image each time I checked out a new constellation. 

Overhead or near the horizon, should incur some minor adjustments, so maybe individual focus would prevent the habitual focusing issue, when in reality, its not required at night?

As for cleaning, I only use Zeiss optical disposable tissue, purchased from my local Asda store, and  If the binoculars are housed in a sturdy case, I would assume focus will remain constant between uses.

Due to the IF system and its waterproofing / seals, I would think it would take some effort to upset the focusing without some physical adjustment?

I'm still waiting meet with JB  who provides the Strathspeys,  before my potential purchase of some 10x50's. Its only a matter of timing.

[ghostdance]

Thanks Charic Hopefully I won't need to faffle about with refocusing once set. At night at least! And I'll sashay down to Asda for some of those cleaning tissues - hoping the only cleaning necessary is on the outside - my first ever pair of used bins (well, apart from a pair of 'National Geographic' zooms, but the less said about those the better....I left em on the front wall for the local scrap collectors).

[Charic]

Thanks Charic Hopefully I won't need to faffle about with refocusing once set. At night at least! And I'll sashay down to Asda for some of those cleaning tissues - hoping the only cleaning necessary is on the outside - my first ever pair of used bins (well, apart from a pair of 'National Geographic' zooms, but the less said about those the better....I left em on the front wall for the local scrap collectors).

ghostdance.....I'm sure you still have 'rights' and if the sellers description is not  valid / correct ie  "Mint - Clean - Only one user" and they arrive  "pitted, scratched and dirty" I'm sure eBay will back you up, and source a refund if your not happy. I've no doubt, they will be better than expected when they arrive. 

[ghostdance]

ghostdance.....I'm sure you still have 'rights' and if the sellers description is not  valid / correct ie  "Mint - Clean - Only one user" and they arrive  "pitted, scratched and dirty" I'm sure eBay will back you up, and source a refund if your not happy. I've no doubt, they will be better than expected when they arrive. 

I'm fairly sure they'll be fine, fingers x'd - seller has great feedback & has described them as optically perfect but did not specify they were 'mint' tho 'little used', plus the grubbyness of the casing is apparent in the listing photos: they look like they've been stored in some dusty attic for awhile. Hopefully, as Marines, the seals will have kept any dust out of the innards. But good advice, thanks Charic - if they do turn out to be dogs, they'll be hotfooting it back to the kennels!