I bought 2 new binoculars during this Black Friday, yesterday arrived both, none of them is usable, there is a collimation problem on both (2 Viewers)

[binolover]

Hello,

I bought 2 new binoculars during this Black Friday.
They arrived both yesterday, but I can’t enjoy them because none of them is usable, there is a collimation problem in both.
Occer has the worst problem have horizontal and vertical collimation that is so obvious that even the dumbest person could notice because is not possible to even recognize the objects when using both eyes, so huge the mis-collimation is.
As you can see on the box the name of the manufacturer is a single word made of 30-40 letters, the largest one I ever seen.
I bought this Occer because it has 29000 ratings mostly positive on Amazon, it seems the product with most good ratings and I thought it might be a good product.
How is it possible so good ratings for such a bad product?

The second one is a Svbony sv202 8x32. It has horizontal collimation problem.
The quality of eye cups is impressive. The feeling and the sound they make when reaching intermediary and final position.
The capacity to display a very bright image even when in the evening with no artificial lights arround impresed me the most.
On static images the quality on the image was great when looking with a single eye, bright images with a lot of details.
Field of view it states 7.87 angular degrees, but for me was harder to follow the birds flying than with my 8x21 7.5 degrees fov binoculars. I don’t know why, maybe because the double image or because the eyecups are larger that the 27mm diameter eye cups of the 8x21 binoculars. Those small cups can be placed very close to the eye so maybe because of that the field of view of 7.5 seems to look larger that 7.87 of Svbony.
Anyway Svbony would be a keeper if collimated properly. But as is the one I received has a little double image I will return it.

Anybody had such a bad experience? To order multiple new binoculars and none of them to be usable?

 

[Ignatius]

Ahhh, you live and learn.
For example not to trust fake good reviews for off-brand Chinese rubbish on that disgusting online retail site.
Svbony is also a Chinese company, located in HK. On their site they have a page for 'Influencer Recruit' which should tell you all you need to know about them. Some here like them.
My unsolicited advice: send that rubbish back where it came from, save up some more if need be, and get yourself one good brand bino. A Zeiss Terra or even a Conquest HD (which are greatly reduced right now because of the new line). I will almost guarantee you'll be a happy camper afterwards.

 

[binolover]

I will definitely return and ask for refund for it.
I wanted something like a Busnell Elite Custom, a reverse porro 7x pocketable and of decent quality but the well known brands don’t produce such binoculars anymore. People talk on this forum about good reverse porro but those are not produced anymore, or one can buy them used on eBay but with fungus and collimation problems because of the time it passed.
So I thought that maybe the reason the known brands don’t produce reverse porros with 7x magnification is because now Chinese brands have a decent quality for reverse porro that are easier to produce because of older optical technology and there is no need of phase correction, dielectric coating or ed glass.

I had a good Chinese reverse porro they don’t produce anymore because of legal reasons but for which speculators ask now for the rest of stock almost 10 times the initial price they used to sell it for - I mean the Nikula that is similar with Docter Turmon. Their image was amazing, all my friends loved them after they tried them.

Those 29000 reviews for Occer come from verified purchasers not influencers with a YouTube channel. How is that possible, are those purchasers blind?

 

[wllmspd]

Quality control on the cheaper binos can be or or the binoculars can be less robust and get knocked out of collimation. Sending them back is the best option.

 

[binolover]

A Zeiss Terra or even a Conquest HD (which are greatly reduced right now because of the new line).

I tried Terra but they did not impressed me at all. Conquest might impress me but are out of my price range.

 

[binolover]

I tried on fakespot.com to see if it detects false reviews for the Occer binoculars

• • Our engine has profiled the reviewer patterns and has determined that there is minimal deception involved.
  • Our engine has detected that Amazon has altered, modified or removed reviews from this listing. We approximate total reviews altered up to 19679.
  • Our engine has discovered that over 80% high quality reviews are present.
  • This product had a total of 29,211 reviews as of our last analysis date on Dec 15 2024.
  
  
  Funny, it says that 80% are high quality reviews.

 

[james holdsworth]

Does that imply that Amazon is altering / removing bad reviews?

 

[Dennis Mau]

I would recommend you stick with Nikon when buying MIC binoculars because they control the quality of their product better than the off brand MIC binoculars. Try the Nikon 8x25 Travelite and Nikon M7 8x30. It is difficult to buy a decent binocular under $100 that has any consistency in quality. When you read the reviews on a cheap MIC binocular, read the one-star reviews first because they are probably the only honest ones.

Nikon Travelite 8x25mm Porro Prism Binoculars, Matte Black 7277 18208072774 | eBay

<p>Brand new Nikon Travelite 8x25mm Porro Prism Binoculars, Matte Black PN: 7277</p>

www.ebay.com

Nikon MONARCH M7 8x30 Binoculars Roof Prism Fog-Free Waterproof New Japan 4580130921650 | eBay

Condition: New.

www.ebay.com

 

[binolover]

Try the Nikon 10x25 Travelite

Reverse porro at 10x magnification have a very small fov. 8x25 would be better but they I think they don’t produce them anymore.

 

[Maljunulo]

Save up, and buy better glass.

 

[binolover]

Save up, and buy better glass.

Not true. I should have started from cheaper and later when knowing to appreciate the quality and knowing my face fit only then to upgrade to better. I should have started with porro or reverse porro and later to upgrade to roof when finding a roof that have the same quality or better and fit my face well. My eyes are close (small ipd) and the nose is not small so it blocks large size eyecups to come close to the eyes especially when setting the binos for a small ipd there is not enough room for the nose.
Buy the best glass you can afford is like buy the best constructed shoe, even if it doesn’t fit your foot because is not your number. At first should find what fit one’s face and only after that to make a larger expense as best glass one can afford.

I started from roof prism because I wanted to be also fashionable and I regreted it. I should have started from cheaper to more expensive but me as a fool I started with roof.

 

[binolover]

Save up, and buy better glass.

I started with 10x25 Pentax dual hinge and was almost $200. That is twice the price of Svbony. Later I regretted the purchase, it has phase correction and a huge eye relief but is not easy on eyes for non glass wearers. And anything related to the sky, with the sky in background didn’t look good through them. I mean birds during flight or airplanes looked with contours around them when the sky was in the background. Definitely not for birding.
Was very good for watching ducks on the lake or a crow or a pigeon sitting on a fence.
But later when I got a tiny used and less expensive binoculars but with a large fov I discovered the real birding, watching different species of birds during their flight and being able keep them in the view and to see fine details about those species during the flight. And no contours and shapes around so I can distinguish easily the birds on the sky.

 

[tenex]

Welcome to Birdforum, binolover. You've formed a very clear plan here, but when it fails, are you willing to reconsider?

You have some particular needs regarding facial anatomy, so the best thing could be to try some in a store without having to buy and return them all. It could be worth a trip for the purpose.

One thing most here will agree on is not to start cheap and work your way up. Cheap is cheap, you have to be very lucky to get a working example, it may not last long, you can't learn very much about how others will fit your face, and the ultimate total cost will be higher.

Even among mid-priced binoculars, some are much better than others. The usual approach is to ask here for a few recommendations in the desired price range, noting your requirements for IPD etc. The sooner you get past this frustration and start enjoying what you see, the better. There's a lot of junk out there.

 

[binolover]

You have some particular needs regarding facial anatomy, but that will be hit and miss with any model, so the best thing could be to try some in a store without having to buy and return them all.

The problem is that we don’t have brick and mortar stores with a lot of binoculars to try.
At some brick and mortar stores one can order a lot of binoculars and pick them in store but they don’t have them in stock. They have in stock only 3 or 4 models, the rest the store order them online with pick up in store when someone wants to buy them.
There is a store with more than binoculars but are not for birding or hiking, only for hunting and they don’t sell anything that fits in a pocket, they sell only binoculars with at least 10x magnification because hunters need only high magnification binoculars. You can’t test any birding binoculars there, in you asking for anything below 10x or 12x magnification they are laughing at you and tell that you are crazy if you want less not more.
Also there is a center for astronomy but they only have giant binoculars, and with a lot of chromatic aberrations because for stargazing don’t matter.
The hiking stores have only Silva binoculars because Silva makes hiking compasses, but their binoculars are not great.
There is not a market for birding like is in UK where they have RSPB.
Maybe that is why people got used to buy them online, because binoculars for birding they don’t find in brick and mortar stores in a lot of countries in the east of Europe.

 

[limonabe]

C****** rubbish

Ethnic slurs aren't welcome here.

 

[Peter.home]

Ethnic slurs aren't welcome here.

Well they are, because I have reported this post 3 times now, and still it stands.
Birdforum.. you're a disgrace

 

[beacon hill]

Also depends on where you buy from.
Purchase from one of the smaller dealers (not the box shifters) and ask before purchase if they will give
them a final QC before sending.
Though if they have some pride in what they do, they should do this anyway.
I can personally vouch for that.

 

[binolover]

Also depends on where you buy from.
Purchase from one of the smaller dealers (not the box shifters) and ask before purchase if they will give
them a final QC before sending.
Though if they have some pride in what they do, they should do this anyway.
I can personally vouch for that.

The Occer came without any plastic wrap around the box, so I think before putting them in the parcel the dealer could take a look through them and notice the huge horizontal and vertical mis-collimation and to send another pair instead.
Svbony came in a plastic wrapped box, so checking them by the dealer when preparing the parcel would mean to unseal them.

Don’t they have in factory, after building the binoculars a device like collimator to check the collimation after the binoculars are produced and to separate good ones from junk?

 

[Maljunulo]

When you buy in that price range, the customer is usually the final inspector.

Of course, you may get lucky, at least until you bump them.

 

[Patudo]

I bought this Occer because it has 29000 ratings mostly positive on Amazon, it seems the product with most good ratings and I thought it might be a good product.
How is it possible so good ratings for such a bad product?

chortles