Droppped binos.

[duncanjameshill]

Soooo... I dropped my binos. Now I have double vision through them (is this a collimation issue?) They are Helios Quantum 4 20x80 triplets. I've had them for about 12 months and they cost me about £200.

My question is - can they be repaired or even are they worth repairing? If anyone knows a decent repair guy I would appreciate knowing.

[scarp15]

Right, I experienced a similar ordeal with a pair of Quantum 15x70's in which they were dropped and I encountered the double vision effect. I had no experience with collimating binoculars and took them to a photography specialist who retails binoculars. In their opinion the collimation on this particular model was internal and they would have to be sent away to be repaired. Cannot recall how much I was quoted but it was expensive. Anyhow they were returned some weeks later and the repair / collimation could not be undertaken. They also arrived back in a worse condition, which I would have taken up with the retailer but soon after they closed down. I expect that you might receive more positive advice though from others more knowledgeable, but sending them away for repair would be expensive. 

[BinocularSky]

Yes, if you haven't done too much damage, the Helios Q4 are recollimatable (to conditional alignment, i.e. almost certainly for one IPD only). The collimation screws are under the rubbers of the prism housings; there are images of their positions in this post.

The screw holes are usually blocked with plugs of adhesive, which you will need to remove to get access to the collimation screws. You will need a small flat-head screwdriver. The most intuitive ones to tweak are the ones nearest the eyepieces: the image moves in the direction that you screw the screw.

Mount the binocular, set it to your IPD, tweak collimation while looking through the eyepieces. If it is so far out that you cannot tweak it with the collimation screws, you may be able to fix a badly misplaced prism by dismantling the binoculars and re-seating the prisms. Be careful not to cross-thread the objective barrels when you replace them.

Good luck, & remember that doing any of this will void all warranties.

If you want it done professionally, try OptRep (superb) or Action Optics (more limited in what he will undertake).

I hope that helps.

[duncanjameshill]

Yes, if you haven't done too much damage, the Helios Q4 are recollimatable (to conditional alignment, i.e. almost certainly for one IPD only). The collimation screws are under the rubbers of the prism housings; there are images of their positions in this post.

The screw holes are usually blocked with plugs of adhesive, which you will need to remove to get access to the collimation screws. You will need a small flat-head screwdriver. The most intuitive ones to tweak are the ones nearest the eyepieces: the image moves in the direction that you screw the screw.

Mount the binocular, set it to your IPD, tweak collimation while looking through the eyepieces. If it is so far out that you cannot tweak it with the collimation screws, you may be able to fix a badly misplaced prism by dismantling the binoculars and re-seating the prisms. Be careful not to cross-thread the objective barrels when you replace them.

Good luck, & remember that doing any of this will void all warranties.

If you want it done professionally, try OptRep (superb) or Action Optics (more limited in what he will undertake).

I hope that helps.

Ok, found the screws and have collimated perfectly! Thanks very much for this info - I was pretty gutted beforehand!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[BinocularSky]

Glad to hear it.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Did they come with a strap?.

Might be an idea to use it.

I once dropped my Bresser 10x50 bins, from Lidl. Thankfully they are also rubber coated and they bounced about 3" back upwards and i grabbed them. Not a single scratch or scuff mark on them and collimation was fine.

[BinocularSky]

Did they come with a strap?.

Might be an idea to use it.

On a 7lb 20x80 Q4?