Baby the bino? Or embrace the scars? Show us your well worn and scuffed work horse. (1 Viewer)

[Fimmus]

I have always had a thing for scuffed and well used tools of all traits like cameras, hand tools and so on, as this shows some history that it was well loved and used by its owner.

Photos grabbed from the web for illustration purposes


But the thing is that i have reticently bought a Swaro NL32 and somehow i have a impulsion to baby it so it doesn't get any scuffs, which in return gives me a mild form of anxiety while using it. Maybe its high price tag has something to do whit it as it was one of the most expensive bino purchase i have ever done?

While i wish to have this as one of my most used and trusted bino, it will some day have its scars of use and i should not be sad when that day comes, its essentially only a tool.

Would be nice if you could share your thought on this an maybe post a picture of your well worn and scuffed work horse?

Thanks in advance.

Fimmus.

 

[Maljunulo]

I can't help, I don't beat my optics around.

Too old to do things which would do that.

 

[Binastro]

My own optics look nearly new after years of use.
Cameras, binoculars and scopes.

I wouldn't buy anything that looked like that Leica M3.

However, the only time I ever fell asleep at the wheel was on a very long over night drive on a long Norwegian plateau.
Luckily, the Norwegians and maybe other Nordic countries put rattle strips at the side of the endless boring roads.
This shook my Austin 1800 and woke me from dozing off.
So my car could have looked like the Leica or worse without these strips.

I then slept a few hours in the car.

I am not sure if Britain has these rattle strips but maybe the U.S.A. have them.

The worst looking binocular I have is probably a worn out Swarovski 10x40, but that is nothing like the Leica camera.
Bought secondhand and a mistake.

Regards,
B.

 

[Maljunulo]

We have rattle strips in Connecticut.

I have no idea where else they have them.

 

[albie...]

However, the only time I ever fell asleep at the wheel was on a very long over night drive on a long Norwegian plateau.
Luckily, the Norwegians and maybe other Nordic countries put rattle strips at the side of the endless boring roads.
This shook my Austin 1800 and woke me from dozing off.
So my car could have looked like the Leica or worse without these strips.

I then slept a few hours in the car.

I am not sure if Britain has these rattle strips but maybe the U.S.A. have them.



Regards,
B.

We have "rattle strips" in Canada , I believe they're called rumble strips .

 

[Maljunulo]

We have "rattle strips" in Canada , I believe they're called rumble strips .

That's what we call them.

 

[tenex]

My gear also tends to look nearly new after decades, but that's just because I like to take good care of things generally; I don't get "anxious". Some love the way old optics brass or get little dings. Some (like my wife!) are just hard on gear somehow, even in perfectly ordinary activity. Your own past experience should suggest what to expect here.

Let yourself enjoy your NL. If you were comfortable buying it, you should be using it. And of course it can be repaired if necessary.

 

[Montereyman]

I avoid used equipment that has suffered abuse. Why take the chance that the internals are not damaged or weakened or that weather sealing is compromised? It is much to expensive to have things repaired and the skilled people to do the work left the workforce many years ago.

With my overseas travels where I have invested $10,000 for a two week trip, having a piece of key equipment fail is not something I care to have take place. On a two-week dive trip in British Columbia my housing leaked on the last day and last dive of the trip and the salt water destroyed the camera and the attached lens. Very different had this happened on the first day of diving.

 

[Georgebirds]

I had a camera I dropped from on a horse, the little battery door came off and after that I had to hold the battery in with a piece of cardboard and some thick green garden wire. I only stopped using it years later, when it decided all photos would look better with sepia and neon green stripes across them, but I didn't agree!

My current camera recently survived a small house fire - the rubber casing peeled off slightly at the end which was nearest the heat, and there's some crinkly melt-marks in the lens hood, but it still works fine!

 

[Ignatius]

While I certainly would not buy stuff that has been knocked about like in the OP's illustrations I do buy second hand and I do not baby my stuff. To me there is a difference between using items in the field for their purpose and abusing things.
I like @Georgebirds' story because his tools suffered cosmetically but he kept/keeps using them until they show(ed) signs of malfunction. Buying something new and watching it get its own knocks and patina over time is a whole different story to purchasing something someone else has already knocked about to within an inch of its life. My 2 c€nts worth - ymmv.

 

[Patudo]

My binoculars are in pretty much the same condition as they were when they came to me, apart from a Leitz 8x30 with large portions of leatherette missing, which I had re-covered. I can't really say I "baby" my optics beyond common sense (ie. putting non-waterproof binoculars inside my jacket if it rains). But they have a pretty easy life - almost all urban birding, no climbing up mountains or bashing through rainforest. If I had to do that I suppose I'd get a Conquest HD.

I'd certainly consider buying the EL shown above (no armour deterioration, hurrah!), although (a) I suppose I'd want to look through it to satisfy myself it was fine optically/mechanically, and (b) it'd have to be sold at the right price.