Chandler S. Robbins amazing bins

[Kevin Purcell]

This actually started on this thread but I think it's worth hoisting to the top (for a couple of reasons!).

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=1508068

Many thanks Fugolman for IDing these as Chandler Robbins' bins.

That's Chandler S. "Golden Guide" Robbins for those that forgot. Like me. Not that I'll forget again! And the Breeding Bird Survey. And Breeding Bird Atlas. Yikes! Amongst others.

http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/research/scimtgs/2006/presentations/james_Robbins1.pdf

Actually those bins belong to the notable birder Chandler Robbins and are supposedly still in use. Methinks I would have retired them but who knows. . .they could be his lucky bins. |:D|

http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/whatsnew/events/robbins/images/chanleaf_IMG069_lg.jpg

I think in the above pic those may be the same bins with the leather wrapping intact.

There are quite a few pics in various states in the Gallery where the leather armor stands out. And you can clearly see that these are the same bins (with the "field marks" on the end of the left barrel being diagnostic!).

http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/whatsnew/events/robbins/photo_gallery.cfm

Like this one

http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/whatsnew/events/robbins/images/Robbins2.jpg

and more clearly

http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/whatsnew/events/robbins/images/Chan2_lg.jpg

and perhaps best of all

http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/whatsnew/events/robbins/images/chan_dirt_IMG22_lg.jpg

The photo, taken by Laura Erickson, is in Flicker too in the original size too and the meium I've attached to this post.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48014585@N00/3173109880/sizes/l/

Anyone care to ID the bins?

Laura Erickson took this photo on February 17, 2007 and helpfully placed the original photo on Flickr. High resolution is very useful. It shows some lettering around the inside of the barrels. Pushing the exposure in an image viewer and I can read most of them.

The right barrel has " X 50mm" and "7° 10'" (I think) and "FULLY COATED". I think the magnification is "10 X 50mm". It's certainly two characters.

The mangled left barrel appears to have "BUSHNELL" and "...TED" which I presume is "COATED" also. So just those mangled letters after bushnell remain unidentified.

So a fullly coated Bushnell 10x50mm porro. With quite a wide field for a 10x at more than 7 degrees (you won't see that today ... 6.8° seems to be the largest FOV one can find and that only in the "Top Four"). From the 1960s? 1970s?

Any model ID?

The closet descendent I can find is the non-waterproof Bushnell Bausch & Lomb 10x50 Legacy Wide Angle Porro Prism Binocular with 7.2° FOV and 9mm ER. No longer sold (and replaced by a more ordinary waterproof Legacy WP). I presume harking back to even earlier Bushnell wide angle porros.

The leather armor I presume is an aftermarket addition.

Clearly an expert birder using a wide angle 10x bin. Now that's "old school" ;)

[Fugolmann]

This actually started on this thread but I think it's worth hoisting to the top (for a couple of reasons!).

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?p=1508068

Many thanks Fugolman for IDing these as Chandler Robbins' bins. . .

No probs. I figured others maybe interested as well. When I first clapped me peep-holes on those bins I couldn't believe their condition. I would like to know HOW they got so beat up for every dint almost hints at a good story. They are truly a wonder. Hey, maybe one day they will find their way into some ornithological museum. ;)

[SPARTACVS]

Ha ha ha!

When I looked at the picture in the article (other thread), I laughed. Funny joke. Then I realized that the optics was in good shape. Then I told myself "hey, someone migh actually still use them". Hell, good optics is good optics.

I mean I'm still using the Bushnell Audubon 7x26 that are an heritage from my father. He died in 1987... So they are probably over 20 years old and they are still good.

Too bad I cannot post picture here. We should make a thread about old binoculars that peoples still use.

[ceasar]

A question here, if you please, about the left barrel's objective housing. Is it possible it served double duty as a lug wrench?:h?:
Bob

[Kevin Purcell]

I asked Laura Erickson where she took the photo and if she had any more details and she said:

I took the photo at lunch when we were at a lovely little cafe in Guatemala [in February 2007]. He was still very much using them. I don't remember how long he'd had them, but I think since the 60s, and they've been all over the place. He said he never had to worry about them getting stolen. I'll post a few photos of him, some using or wearing the binoculars, on flickr in a moment--had to dig them out.

She also put a pair of photographs of him using those bins in Guatamala in February 2007.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48014585@N00/3636839653/

I love the camouflage Hawaiian shirt (works well in any tropical environment!) ;)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48014585@N00/3636833675/

Bob: it reminded me of a lug wrench too. Though the interesting thing is the housing is messed up but the objective glass is in great condition (see the high res original). I presume these have been repaired a few times.

I guess it probably says something about Chandler's generation: born in 1918 and grew up in the depression and then his early 20s in WW2. Make do and mend, as they used to say in the UK (until about 1955).

[henry link]

Looks like a center focus version of the USOL Featherlights seen on Fan Tao's site here:

http://fantao.home.att.net/fpo10x50.htm

Do I see part of the word "Feather" inside the mangled left barrel?

[Kevin Purcell]

Looks like a center focus version of the USOL Featherlights seen on Fan Tao's site here:

http://fantao.home.att.net/fpo10x50.htm

Do I see part of the word "Feather" inside the mangled left barrel?

Good eye, Henry!

I think you are right. That last piece of text I couldn't read does look like "FEATHER". Just like this photo of a new one.

http://fantao.home.att.net/images/bfl10x50o.jpg

The bin does match in body shape and the FOV. Though the Eps look different.

The spec of the "USOL Version" of the Bushnell Featherlight 10x50 Wide Field

Mfr: J-B138, J-E4
Date: circa 1960
AFOV: ~72 degrees
TFOV: 7 degrees 10'
Eye Relief: ~13mm
Prisms: high index
Weight: ~970g

So at least it has BaK4 prisms!

Fan Tao also makes the comment:

Although externally similar to the FPO version, I do not believe that the optics are identical. The eye lens on this model is smaller than on the FPO and the field of view is slightly larger. To me, the viewing is not as comfortable as with the FPO, though much better if the eyecups are removed.

Which explains why the EPs look slightly smaller in Chandler's photos than in the Fan Tao's photos: Chandler removed the eyecups.

Mystery solved! Those bins are approaching 50 years old.

[Steve C]

I guess when you achieve his status, nobody is going to say much about your binocular. One of the binoculars my Ornithology professor had way back when was a Bushnell 10x50 that looked pretty much like the fan tao pictures (a lot less like Chandler's).

I wonder if he ever had to get them serviced, or if he had some basic repair skills. Hard to imagine dings like that not doing something to collimation. Hard to imagine a company servicing that without replacing it. If I was him, I'd like to keep it too. Sort of a badge of honor or at least personal trademark. Too bad that binocular can't talk.

[Kevin Purcell]

I guess when you achieve his status, nobody is going to say much about your binocular.

There is this anecdote too. I'm sure partially driven by that binocular ...

Over the years, Robbins has also helped point the way for fledgling bird-watchers. His field guide, Birds of North America (coauthored with Bertel Bruun and Herbert S. Zim and illustrated by artist Arthur Singer), has sold more than 5 million copies since its 1966 publication. Alas, not every reader easily connects the authoritative guidebook with the unassuming birdman who wrote it.

NWF staff member Dave Pardoe, a longtime Maryland birder, remembers being on a field trip led by Robbins years ago. One newcomer to Pardoe's local birding club, unacquainted with Robbins, was wondering aloud if the trip leader was properly qualified. "She was saying, Who is this guy? Can we really trust his bird identifications?'" recalls Pardoe. "So I said to her, See that book you have in your hand? He's the one who wrote it.'"

Rule one of meeting birders: "Be careful what you say about the doddery old guys ... they probably are famous"

The book is perhaps better known as the "Golden Guide" or "Zim's" which I really don't think gets as much credit as it should nor gives enough credit to Chandler Robbins. I love the sonograms in there.

BTW, who are the authors of the National Geographic guide ... ;)

[ceasar]

Born in 1918? And still going strong traveling the world!

He is even more remarkable than his binocular!:t:

Bob

[henry link]

I like this photo of David Bushnell displaying his wares from the very early days. It comes from the binocular images at Peter Abraham's excellent site.

http://www.europa.com/~telscope/binotele.htm

There's a very interesting 1999 interview of David Bushnell about the origins and history of the company here:

http://www.europa.com/~telscope/bushnell.txt

[jaymoynihan]

These look familiar. A Bushnell. Frank Nicollete, the former counter at Hawk Ridge in Duluth, MN (and many places prior to that) i think was using these when i first meet him.
They were replaced when someone got him a pair of Leica 10x50 BA's.

[Jonathan B.]

The binoculars may not be able to talk, but Chandler Robbins is happy to. I was just in touch with him. He tells me he still uses these binoculars "several times a week" and did not realize they were heavy until he was in his nineties. He still keeps an office at Patuxent WRC.

[Kevin Purcell]

The binoculars may not be able to talk, but Chandler Robbins is happy to. I was just in touch with him. He tells me he still uses these binoculars "several times a week" and did not realize they were heavy until he was in his nineties. He still keeps an office at Patuxent WRC.

Thanks for that. Nice to see Chandler is still getting out birding (and with these bins!).