Too long eye relief on pocket binocular (1 Viewer)

[Naturebird]

I bought a Kowa SV II 8x25 bino, to be able to have a small pocket bino in my jacket if i see some birds on one of my dog walks, or walks to the store. The image quality and feel of the bino was actually not that bad, especially considering the low price.

What bothered me though was the eye relief, its way to long. With my other binos(Vortex Viper 8x42) i can comfortably rest the eye cups on my eye socket, but with the kowa i had to have the binocular too far away for that to be possible, even with the eye cups fully extended. It felt unstable, and i felt distracted by all the light coming in around the eye cup.

Is this simply something that you half to accept with pocket sized binoculars? Or did i just get a too cheap one?

 

[Binastro]

I have this problem with numerous modern binoculars, which are designed for eye glass wearers.

I don't use glasses with binoculars.

This applies to all sizes.

The Swarovski and Leica 10x25s I cannot use.
I use an old Docter 10x25.

The 5x10 Zeiss monocular is ridiculous. I can only use it by using my distance glasses and resting the monocular against the glass.

As you already have your binocular you could try making extra eye cup extensions or wear glasses even if zero power such as opticians zero power demonstrators.

With future binocular purchases you should try the binocular before buying.

It has little to do with cost.

You may find an old 8x25 is more suitable even if bought in a charity shop.

Regards,
B.

 

[tenex]

Is this simply something that you half to accept with pocket sized binoculars?

Well, they do have their limitations especially if you don't wear eyeglasses. Even the expensive Zeiss Victory 8x25 has too long eye relief (or too short eyecups) for me, which is an annoyingly common problem today. Perhaps you can find a way of holding with hands resting on your face instead? The other problem is that such eyecups are generally too small to be comfortable anyway. Try holding your Kowa resting in your eye sockets as you'd expect, and ask yourself whether you'd like that if you could find another similar model with less eye relief.

P.S. The Docter (or Noblex) mentioned by Binastro also came in 8x22 and is surprisingly comfortable precisely because it's less compact. You might still find one in stock somewhere. It's very nice and has a wider field of view than most. I think there was an Opticron version also?

 

[Naturebird]

Thanx for the input! I returned the binoculars to the retailer, will try on site next time

 

[Swedpat]

Too long eye relief is not the correct way to describe it. The problem is that the eyecups are wrongly designed so they are not possible to extend enough.

 

[Dennis Mau]

Almost all pocket binoculars have eye relief that is too long for the eye cups, making them floaters. The fact that the eye cups are usually smaller in diameter makes the situation worse because they tend to go further into your eye sockets. The Zeiss Victory 8x25 has way too long of eye relief for the eye cup length. Many birders replace the eye cups with after market eye cups that are thicker or bigger in diameter, and some use o-ring spacers to increase the length of the eye cups. The Nikon LX 8x25 and Swarovski CL-P 8x25 are two pockets that are better in this regard. The eye cup length matches the eye relief pretty close.