Vintage and Classic Binoculars (1 Viewer)

[OPTIC_NUT]

Oh My God...phew! Happy.
Woulda been a 'long slide for an out' otherwise, as they
say in baseball. When I open the AMCs again I'm going to try the quick torch.
It's murder putting those Plossls together and I might be able to "flash-n-clean"
the last 2 elements without re-stacking the whole thing.
Now go spark up a brandy and an overture.

Something special about 6x30s. Understated but extra-sharp and easy to look through.
6x30s with super oculars are very rare indeed.

 

[Bencw]

Another addition - Ross Stepruva 9x35

Another addition to my collection,( http://www.flickr.com/photos/95019762@N07/ ) a very nice British made 9x35 by Ross, who where one of the best of the British binocular makers in the sadly long gone heyday of British optics production. This model is very nice to use, the field of view is not so good as the 7x35 Stepnada I have, but I find the shallow eye cups on the Stepnada a bit uncomfortable, this Stepruva however has better eye relief for me, it's bright and clear and is very comfortable to use. It is a nice example, and for a vintage binocular, in surprisingly good condition, clean as a whistle inside and the lenses are perfect. The only little fault is that the center focus wheel has a bit of play in it, which would be annoying if this was a binocular for regular use, but as a collectable I am not sure it is worth worrying about as everything else is fine.

 

[OPTIC_NUT]

I wish all the binocs went back to those ribbed bakelite eyecups. So easy to
do glasses, and you don't worry about vinyl aging. Nice power/size.
Nice condition. I had two focusers with play where it was between shaft and wheel.
The coupling was originally dents in the wheel, though, so a chicken out on taking the
focuser out and pounding things. A arbor press would have done nicely.

 

[OPTIC_NUT]

I just took delivery on a pair of Bower 6x15, No.1789 (Field 8.5 degrees)
and I'm really surprised. I had sworn off that size because of all the bare-knuckle
silver binocs whose contrast never quite cleaned up for haze.

These had two boxes for the prisms, a high-precision focuser, and the
"front-spectacles" yoke for the objectives, just like mini Bushnell Customs.
I have an eye out for features descended from the smaller "Mirador-made"
binoculars that became the Custom line. Mirador made cool officer and spy
binocs in WW2 but they died in the early 50s.

Anyway. these dinky 6x15s are sharp and have contrast that shames a lot
of other binocs. Totally jars my assumptions about size. Movement is
silky smooth and the image is almost as crisp as the smaller customs.
They can't do miracles with brightness at 6x15...they are a bit dim.
Love the 8.5 degree FOV...sure beats the usual. Real "teeny-Customs".
The pure-luck part was: no nicotine or mold. I don't even have to go into
these guys... Surface-cleaned. They have a faint violet hard coating.

Took a chance. I have a pile of chances that didn't work out..
but these did! Awesome pocket glancers. They just need a little daylight.

 

[Bencw]

I just took delivery on a pair of Bower 6x15, No.1789 (Field 8.5 degrees)

Nice catch O-N,
thats an impressive FOV for 6x15, about 446ft@1000yds?

 

[OPTIC_NUT]

Yes...that's how the tangent works out. They printed it in degrees.
It casts some light on the expensive (premium parts) Nikon commemorative 6x15
knuckle-binoc. If it's better than this it's really super. Still possible in a 6x15.
So many duds in the used bins, I'm not looking for another, though. Keep your eyes
out for the Bower "black boxes".

Just got another stealth-Custom.
It's a Bushnell Ensign 7x25 but it has much better optics and mechanics than the later
"box" Ensign that sold under many brands, and it has a 9.3 degree FOV. ...good scouting.
After that the eyepieces got more plain and the FOV went to 7 degrees. Not that the FOV
equals super image, it's a trade-off. Contemporary 7x26 Customs are only 6.9 degrees.
I'm guessing super image quality is involved with that decision.
After this batch of Customs and twins I'm going to cut back auction activity and clean up.

I didn't find 6x30 wides. Not enough around now. Lots of 7 and 8 degree. 9 or 10
would be amazing.

 

[Bencw]

Leitz Binuxit Restored

I posted some time back about this Binuxit 8x30 I picked up, with a view to restore. It was very poor condition, filthy, but not "yellow" when viewing, just a dirty film. Had a cracked prism and another stained.,damaged eye cups, way out of alignment and some paint needed. Took a while, and some patience, but finally finished. Re-sprayed the objective caps and front prism covers, touched in the ocular prism covers where needed, and then a clear lacquer final spray to finish them all. Eye cups replaced, and replaced the two prisms with Zeiss ones which seem fine. After careful cleaning I found the ocular and objective lenses were good too, I thought the objectives had some separation but it was just dirt or maybe the retaining rings were not tight before. Now it's all clean inside it has amazing clarity, a very sharp and bright view. The 4 photos are 2 before and 2 after restoration, quite pleased with the result. Thanks to all who gave suggestions and help along the way.

 

[OPTIC_NUT]

Haha....wow! That looked like King Tut's Binuxit in the 'before' picture.
After the looters ran away. Major work. I noticed lens recoating can be done.
I don't dare ask the price. Coating some WW-I prismatics would be great..
they are sharp. They do grow coating with age though...that's how coatings
were discovered.

 

[OPTIC_NUT]

Just cleaned and repaired some 7x35 Uniscope 41-8017's (11 degree extra-wide).
A little salt and sand but I was able to work things out without galling.
Much crust and dust but 20 gentle Q-tips later and a WD40 leather/plate rub
and all is well.
The biggest oculars and prisms I've seen. View: dead flat, brightness flat, focus
slips away just at the rim. As nice as the AMC603's but easier to work on.

Out of the last 7 oldies, this is one of six with gouging
in the focuser clamping screw. Once again, I cleaned the rubble and applied the
blue Loctite. Lightly...I'm doing a bit more cleaning later. For now the view is
nice enough and I can have another light session later. The focuser is now
rock-steady. The bakelite on this one looks really old.. Sharpness is super. Won't
know about contrast until the next cleaning. If you get oldies at goodwill make
sure you know how to rehab the focuser clamp...bungers seem to get dropped there.
Might earn someone demerits on EBay. Still, these were $5 and $14 shipping,
so...risk is priced in. The clamps aren't the worst thing that can happen..

 

[Pinewood]

I posted some time back about this Binuxit 8x30

Hello Bencw,

Nice work, indeed!


The Binuxit i sa great binocular, for its age. The short eye relief is its major shortcoming.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur :hi:

 

[Bencw]

Thank you Arthur.

 

[Steve C]

Very useful source for inveterate vintage binocular tinkerers.

http://www.surplusshed.com/pages/category/binocularparts_1.html

There are largely military parts, but there is a lot there that can be used elsewhere, particularly they have a lot of new prisms for around $4.00 each. Lots of stuff most of it quite inexpensive.

 

[OPTIC_NUT]

The page looked dull until I checked out the page count below..wow!
I've been to surplusshed and the binocular section but I hadn't hit that
'binocular parts' section due to some oversight. Thanks for pointing out a
treasure cave I've walked past many times before! I have a little fleet
of derelicts that could use some parts.

 

[Steve C]

This is a free ebook on Google Play Books. It is now on my Nexus 7.

https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=QUoYAAAAYAAJ&rdid=book-QUoYAAAAYAAJ&rdot=1

Complete ordinance manual for dissassembly, service and repair of military binoculars. There is 289 pages.

You can also get this from milsurpmanuals from AbeBooks for $5.00. I paid the $5 then found the link to Google.

 

[OPTIC_NUT]

This is a free ebook on Google Play Books. It is now on my Nexus 7.

https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=QUoYAAAAYAAJ&rdid=book-QUoYAAAAYAAJ&rdot=1

Complete ordinance manual for dissassembly, service and repair of military binoculars. There is 289 pages.

You can also get this from milsurpmanuals from AbeBooks for $5.00. I paid the $5 then found the link to Google.

Aha...a copy of this post would be nice in the
"binocular repairs and cleaning thread" below

 

[porrofan]

Hi
I'm sorry to jump into a thread, but I have just bought a really nice old Kowa 10X50 7.0 deg that are a bit battered on the outside but with perfect collimation and very clear optics. I'd imagine that an internal cleaning would do wonders.

Serial number on the front is 10765


I had a Kowa 7x35 10deg that I gave someone as a very special gift (they bought an overseas holiday for my whole family), but I really miss them.

Both the Kowas carried the nomenclature Prominar Coated Featherweight, and both have the flat outer objective lens. As a 10 year old I was given a Kowa 8x30 that I used until I left them at a lake by mistake about 30 years later. I feel that I have finally replaced them with something comparable.

Anyway I did some informal testing on the width of field and at about 120m the Kowa 10X50 covers about the same number of trees as my Swift 804R but my Nikon Tropical 7X50 7.3 deg seems to be narrower.

 

[Binastro]

. Hi there porrofan,
welcome to the forum.

Is the flat surface at the front of the objectives an optical window or do the objectives really have a flat front surface?
if it is an optical window, there will be two flat surfaces which will reveal themselves on reflecting a lightbulb or torch.

 

[porrofan]

Glad to have joined you guys.

I don't exactly know what to look for but I'll try to describe as clearly as I can what I see.

I'm shining a light down onto the objective lens from about 3". Looking from the side and higher up I see 4 little ghost lights reflected in a row. The one closest to me is mauve in colour and the other three are white. The bottom one is larger, and identical in size to the mauve one. When I move the light from side to side, they slide in and out of alignment.

On the Nikon Tropical, there are only 2 reflections
On the Swift, there are also multiple reflections, and the middle one is green!
So maybe I'd guess the Swift and the Kowa have optical windows?
Could you tell me what kind of coating on the Kowa produces the mauve colour?
Thanks

 

[Binastro]

Hi,
White reflection, bright, is uncoated.
Green, likely multicoated.
Mauve, possibly single, double or multicoated.

If an optical window, reflection is as would be from window glass, but possibly coated rather than white reflection uncoated.

 

[LPT]

For information about color of AR coatings see: http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthre...ber/45530/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/o/vc/1