Any way to extend eye cups beyond max on Vortex Viper HD 8x42? (1 Viewer)

I purchased a pair of these new and love the glass. They are rugged and well made and easy to hold.

I have a problem with them however, the eyecups do not twist out enough for me. If I don't hold them perfectly just off my eyes or balanced on the bridge under my eyebrows, I easily see the kidney bean crescent darkened areas.

Any one know if there is a straightforward way to extend the eyecups beyond the max?

No, sorry, there's not.
When you're at max 'twist' the metal runner is at its full extension.

A real DIY suggestion however - could Vortex CAnada send you a spare pair of rubber eyecups to put on over the existing ones and hence extend the eyecups by a few mms?

It's amazing to me just how many manufacturers are not providing long enough eyecups for the amount of eye relief they offer. Very few bins I've seen have gotten this right.

Note to manufacturers - we don't all wear glasses and if you can't figure out how to accommodate both types of users you're killing off part of your market.

I'm not sure who they were now but some in the past have mentioned using a short length of bicycle tyre inner-tube folded back on itself to extend the eye cup by a few millimetres. I know they mentioned a diameter and being able to get the tubes for free from the discard bin of a local bike shop. That's all I recall.

Hope that helps,

David

Yes the eye cups can be extended. Here is how:
First remove the rubber eye cup protectors from the ocular assembly. These are simple rubber affairs that are glued to the slotted rotating metal eye assembly. The are typically attached with simple contact cement. Take a sharp small pocket knife, razor blade, or box cutter. Being careful, you can skin the rubber cover off of the metal assembly. This requires a bit of patience, but is pretty easy. Some of these rubber covers are pretty lightly glued and some seem to have been installed with much more vigor, but even the hardest will come off.

With the rubber eye cup covers in hand, you need to proceed to a good hardware store that has a selection of 0-rings. You will need four. Turn the rubber eye covers upside down. You will need an 0-ring that will just fit inside the cup and this will be held in place by the molded part of the cup that folds over at the ocular lens end. Obviously you will need one for each eye cup cover. Don't get these too big, otherwise they will expand the diameter of the eye cup when replaced and the ocular covers (rainguard) won't fit right.

Just slip this eye cover back in place and check to see what the extension looks like, you may need more or less. If you can have some idea of the amount of extension you need you may wind up buying fewer 0-rings.

When you get the proper amount of 0-rings under the upper edge, you will see the rubber cover will not fit flush with the bottom of the eye assembly. I get another 0-ring of the same thickness as I used under the eye cup cover that matches the diameter of the now exposed metal eye cup the rubber cover encloses. This will serve to fill that space. However, I would re-glue the eye cup covers first. Just a little contact cement, you can see where it was applied when the binocular was assembled.

Might take a bit of trial and error to get things right before you re-glue things. I have done this to more than one binocular.

Another option would be to acquire a set of Nikon EDG winged eye shields. These simple slip over the existing eye cup, and have their own ocular covers. You can probably order these from Nikon.

I fixed my Vortex 10x25 monocular easily. The rubber on the outside is glued on (like most binoculars.) I slowly worked mine off (cheap glue helps hold it on) Once you've pulled it mostly off slide it back down but leave a 1/4 or 3/8 space.

My Vortex 15x50's I just pulled up the rubber and wrapped some electrical tape around the bottom of the rubber eyepiece.

Then no more blackouts, easier to get your on it quickly and no eyelash or backlight problems.
You're right that most binocular makers make the ocular too short but I've customized a bunch, Zeiss is real easy to fix.

I haven't started experiments yet, but self-fusing silicone tape looks like an interesting material for eyecups...

CSG said:

It's amazing to me just how many manufacturers are not providing long enough eyecups for the amount of eye relief they offer. Very few bins I've seen have gotten this right.

Note to manufacturers - we don't all wear glasses and if you can't figure out how to accommodate both types of users you're killing off part of your market.

Click to expand...

Yet.

That was a thrill on the Meopta 6.5x32s. 3 position cup, with a LONG setting that wipes out the
blackouts, so you can use the high-performance ocular without the dreaded kidney bean, no glasses on.

I really wish the Yosemites had that, for without-glasses use.