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Charity Shop Binos

Alfian

By Alfian
in Discussions - Binoculars

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Alfian

Alfian

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I was in a charity shop yesterday and noticed lurking in a locked glass cabinet what was certainly an old but very clean looking binocular case. There was no indication of what was inside, almost certainly a porro prism bino, but what sort?  I asked if I could have a look and the pleasant staff member  obliged. I was astonished to find a Japanese made Greenkat 12x50 in absolutely mint condition. It was as if, and I'm obviously guessing, that someone had been given as an unwanted present, looked at them once and put them away in a cupboard for maybe 40 years. I checked them over had a look through and as far as I could tell they were well collimated so I parted with the £20 price tag. Checking them over again at home I am as certain as I can be that they had rarely if ever seen the light of day or indeed night. The weather has been foul today but I've managed to have a look across the valley at my usual test objects, insulators and notices on power cable posts and they are not at all bad . They look and feel well built, the eyepiece bridge doesn't rock, focusing is smooth, diopter adjustment is good and they are surprisingly comfortable in the hands and not too heavy. They are labelled as wide field and i think if my maths is right that 315feet at 1000 yards works out at about 6 degrees which for 12x50s is quite wide but the outer maybe 30% falls off quite badly but the rest is pretty crisp.  I am now obviously waiting for a clear sky or at least some decent gaps to see what they can do and  report back on that. A £20 binocular!! Some photos here so see what you think.

GK 1.jpg

GK2.jpg

GK3.jpg

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Skipper Billy

Skipper Billy

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Just a wee word of caution - I would clean the rubber eye cups with an anti-bac wipe before using them again - or a piece of kitchen roll and Dettol etc

I picked up a really nasty eye infection a year or two ago - the only thing I can think was relevant was that the previous day to being in real pain I had used a pair of secondhand binos from a charity shop !

Great find though - enjoy them !

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Alfian

Alfian

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36 minutes ago, Skipper Billy said:

Just a wee word of caution - I would clean the rubber eye cups with an anti-bac wipe before using them again - or a piece of kitchen roll and Dettol etc

I picked up a really nasty eye infection a year or two ago - the only thing I can think was relevant was that the previous day to being in real pain I had used a pair of secondhand binos from a charity shop !

Great find though - enjoy them !

A good thought, thanks. Probably a bit late now but I'll give them a wipe anyhow.

 

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Merlin

Merlin

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I, too, recently purchased a 12X50 glass ( circa 1970s? ) in mint condition for just £5 on a local flea-market. The black leatherette case also looks new. Usually, bins of this age are plagued with internal fungi, dust and out-of-collimation prisms. There's no brand name on the bins, just a serial number. A lucky find!

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Stormbringer

Stormbringer

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On 20/11/2018 at 16:56, Alfian said:

I was in a charity shop yesterday and noticed lurking in a locked glass cabinet what was certainly an old but very clean looking binocular case. There was no indication of what was inside, almost certainly a porro prism bino, but what sort?  I asked if I could have a look and the pleasant staff member  obliged. I was astonished to find a Japanese made Greenkat 12x50 in absolutely mint condition. It was as if, and I'm obviously guessing, that someone had been given as an unwanted present, looked at them once and put them away in a cupboard for maybe 40 years. I checked them over had a look through and as far as I could tell they were well collimated so I parted with the £20 price tag. Checking them over again at home I am as certain as I can be that they had rarely if ever seen the light of day or indeed night. The weather has been foul today but I've managed to have a look across the valley at my usual test objects, insulators and notices on power cable posts and they are not at all bad . They look and feel well built, the eyepiece bridge doesn't rock, focusing is smooth, diopter adjustment is good and they are surprisingly comfortable in the hands and not too heavy. They are labelled as wide field and i think if my maths is right that 315feet at 1000 yards works out at about 6 degrees which for 12x50s is quite wide but the outer maybe 30% falls off quite badly but the rest is pretty crisp.  I am now obviously waiting for a clear sky or at least some decent gaps to see what they can do and  report back on that. A £20 binocular!! Some photos here so see what you think.

GK 1.jpg

GK2.jpg

/GK3.jpg

have you had a chance to try them out on the stars yet ?

really interested on how they perform

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Alfian

Alfian

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1 minute ago, Stormbringer said:

have you had a chance to try them out on the stars yet ?

really interested on how they perform

I have, fairly briefly, on a night of gaps in the cloud and even in the gaps the seeing was poor with a bright moon. I was waiting for something better and also wanted to compare them to my Opticron 10x42s. However based on what I' ve seen so far they are good. I was probably pessimistic in my earlier estimate of the outer 30% being unusable. Its a bit better than that but the outer field does have noticeable edge dimming maybe down to the Bk7 prisms plus distortion (coma?) and obvious pincushion but the central field is good with nice pin sharp stars. They come to focus well with minimal tooing and froing. There is some internal reflection when close to a (very) bright object - that moon again - but it wasn't bad to the point of distraction. Speaking of the moon there was CA as expected, but it wasn't horrible and given the very iffy seeing features were more sharply defined than expected.  As previously said, they are nice to handle but the eye relief is a bit skimpy. I prefer to use binos without specs' if I can and with naked eye these are easier and more comfortable to use with eyecups folded down. Its not possible to get a full field view with specs. I really need to get out on a better night with them to say more. I'm not expecting them to be the bees knees but for £20 I'm happy enough.

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Merlin

Merlin

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The very best secondhand binocular I've had was bought for £18 in a secondhand shop in the 1970s. The glass was in mint condition and had no brand name, only a serial number. The spec was 7X50 with individual focusing on both eyepieces.

I sent the serial number to Frank's of Glasgow. They told me that I had a German naval glass. The stars stayed sharp right to the edge of the field.

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solarboy

solarboy

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Hi

I attended winter fest at Kelling a couple of weeks ago and walking around sheringham there is an army surplus shop down a side street in there cabanate there was a pair of 10x50 Charles frank bins 25 quid wish I, d bought them 

Solarboy 

 

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Alfian

Alfian

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1 hour ago, solarboy said:

Hi

Some years ago I picked up a pair of bins in a charity shop in concert for a 5er

ASAHI PENTAX 8X40 WIDE ANGLE BINOCULARS, 9.5*, JAPAN

Solarboy 

s-l400 (1).jpg

Those Pentax' look very nice and for £5 "bargain" is an understatement.

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John

John

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Charity shops are a good source of low cost binoculars. I've had 3 pairs that we use for birding from our local shops, all 8x30's, Zeiss Jenoptem, Swarorski Habicht (really !) and most recently a pair of the excellent Russian Komz ones. The most expensive were the Zeiss which were £18. The Swarorski's were just £10 !.

The 12x50 Greenkats seem a good pair for astronomy - and look in super condition.

 

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Rusted

Rusted

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The problem with many of the binoculars I've bought secondhand is misalignment between barrels. Lay them on something safe so they stay still and then wink each eye in turn as you look at a distant object. Or [more easily] wave a card across the objectives in turn. There should be no image movement from eye to eye.

My brand new Zeiss Jenoptem 10x50s went out of alignment within a month of purchase despite being treated with kid gloves. The dealer refused to get involved by claiming they had been dropped. They hadn't. So I re-aligned them myself by removing the objective protective shells using rubber gloves for enough friction.

Then [very carefully] turning the wedge shaped ring in front of the lenses against each other while staring through them. Once the images overlapped again and the outer locking rings were re-tightened they have been fine for the last 30 years. :thumbsup:  Don't remove the locking rings or you could see the objectives taking a nose dive!

Note: Some binoculars may not even have such wedge shaped rings. I really wouldn't get involved in prism shifting screws! You carry out such repairs entirely at your own risk. As did I, because I had no choice.  If you get headaches, nausea or vertigo while or after using binoculars then misalignment is the likely cause.  That's how I discovered my Zeiss Jenoptem were badly mis-collimated. 

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