Fine scratch on Okular (1 Viewer)

[Aquaplas]

I just noticed that my EL 10x32 has a fine scratch on the eyepiece running over the pupil. I discovered him by chance with the flashlight. Hardly visible without a lamp in ambient light. Until now, when I looked at binoculars, I could not notice any impairment. My question, can such a fine microscratch reduce performance? Do you know what Swarovski can demand for the exchange of an eyepiece lens?

In general, you have experience with a scratch at EL binoculars? How sensitive are the lenses actually when you look at and wipe on glasses, for example?

 

[Sterngucker]

 

[Conndomat]

Hi there,

don't worry too much about the scratch - it won't degrade performance!

The coatings on modern binoculars are usually quite hard, you can hardly wipe them away unless you use acetone, nitro thinner or the like.
It becomes dangerous if there are small dust or sand particles in the microfiber cloth or the lenses, these can often be very sharp-edged and leave scratches in the coating.
You should refrain from looking at optics with a lamp, you get sleepless nights.

Andreas

 

[jan van daalen]

I wouldn't be bothered at all and if so, just send them into Swaro.
Once customers of ours went to Namibia and lost their Swaro in the "dust sands" of the sand dunes, after recovering they wiped the dust of the lenses with their T-shirt. Not a smart move BTW.
When this bin arrived at our place, these lenses had scratches.
Swaro coated them for free and added an extra cleaning set.
Don't worry, you have a Swarovski.

Jan

 

[Aquaplas]

I wouldn't be bothered at all and if so, just send them into Swaro.
Once customers of ours went to Namibia and lost their Swaro in the "dust sands" of the sand dunes, after recovering they wiped the dust of the lenses with their T-shirt. Not a smart move BTW.
When this bin arrived at our place, these lenses had scratches.
Swaro coated them for free and added an extra cleaning set.
Don't worry, you have a Swarovski.

Jan

Thanks for the Info. Nice to know that they have this superb Service. I cant see this little scratch while watching. So I wait for sending to Swaro. Think I can do that in a year or so also. At the moment it is not a problem.

 

[Foss]

"Don't worry, you have a Swarovski." = nice jingle for a radio/TV ad.

 

[jring]

Hi,

a small scratch far from the focal plane will not visibly degrade performance. If it bothers you can use Swaro support, but I would not do so for sth this minor.

Btw, anti-reflection coatings are made from MgF which is quite hard and chemically inert. Somebody on CN needed a multicoated corrector plate for a Schmidt-Cassegrain stripped of the coating (because the coating was opaque in his desired range of IR) and many people with degrees in chemistry, physics and other subjects could not think of an easy way to remove it besides polishing it off (which is very tricky to do without changing the figure of the corrector plate - and this is made specifically for your instrument so can not easily be replaced).

There are sometimes other coatings on top of the optical ones to make it easier to get water shaken off, like Zeiss Lotutec... those are less stable and chemically inert, so be careful if your bins have those.

Joachim

 

[Conndomat]

There are sometimes other coatings on top of the optical ones to make it easier to get water shaken off, like Zeiss Lotutec... those are less stable and chemically inert, so be careful if your bins have those.

Hello Joachim,

what does that mean exactly, modern binoculars meanwhile almost all have water-repellent layers e.g. Swaroclean.
Does that mean that you can wipe this coating off with normal cleaning with optical cleaning agents?

Andreas

 

[jring]

Hi Andreas,

for Lotutec, Swaroclean et al. I would certainly only use a cleaning agent as recommended by the manufacturer - or ask their support if they don't state sth.

Joachim