Nat Geo kids binos

[DaveL59]

No really suitable place for this post really but thought I'd share in case others have a pair for their little ones to use. This pair is perma-focus and I'd got them for my grandaughter when  she was 3 ish as she was fascinated by the birdies in the garden etc and wasn't really able to focus mummy's DCF pair.

She's really enjoyed them, took them everywhere, even the bath lol. So 3 years on and little brother is now on the scene and not long ago he's lobbed them causing something to break loose inside causing a rattle. That said they still seemed to work. So I collected these yesterday, sounded like a prism had come adrift yet the image was correct even when rotating the bino thru 360 degrees, very odd. Then I noticed at certain angles you could see the image being blocked slightly across one diagonal edge of the view. So I took them home where I have decent fine screwdrivers etc to see if they could be sorted.

Thankfully the front plates are held with 3 screws so I figure there's a chance we can open them and resolve the issue. That front 'lens' is just a protective plain plastic it seems and behind this front plate is another with a lens, again held by 3 longer screws which I assumed had the prism carrier behind it...

Some wee springs allow those screws to adjust the collimation which is good as I hadn't counted turns to undo, oops!

Even better was what's on the flip side:

Nope, not prisms at all, mirrors! The reason for the clunking was that metal block that had originally been glued into a recess above the eyepiece and I guess added a little weight to the back end of the bino. Damned lucky it didn't do more than slightly chip those mirrors tho 😮 

So I cleaned out the debris and reassembled, tweaked collimation and we're good once more. But being me I figure do I glue the metal lump back in, or remove the one from the other side just in case we get a more catastrophic event next time around? Decided to remove the other which took a while and also found that side had 3 springs vs 2 on the other, it hasn't escaped anywhere so I guess one didn't get fitted at factory.

Anyway, all back together, lenses cleaned so it'll be one happy grandaughter when she gets these back 🙂 

Edited May 31, 2022 by DaveL59