scampo
Steve Campsall
I wonder if any of you can help. Last week, I bought an Opticron ES80 from the Infocus shop at Rutland Water. To my surprise at the time, I had to go through three scopes until I found one without a mark on the inside of its objective lens.
However, today at Rutland Water I noticed what seem to be tiny air bubbles within the lenses of the zoom eyepiece as I was birdwatching. These were especially evident when a blank sky was being looked at and look like tiny circular brighter marks with a dark perimeter within the view of the lens. There are about five altogether and they are only evident at 20x, disappearing immediately on zooming from this magnification.
As I was there, I took the scope back to Infocus but the salesman there couldn't see them yet was willing to swap the scope. But he went on to say very convincingly that all lenses have such things as it was impossible to produce a dust free perfect lens. I looked through two further Opticron scopes without eyepieces and they certainly did have a mark or two which looked like it was within the coating on the rear of the front element. Anyway, as is the way of these things, the salesman convinced me I was being over particular. But back at home the "bubbles" are indeed very clear if a lamp is looked at to give a bright plain yellow view through the scope (i.e. out of focus).
I checked my son's Swarovski and a friend's new Nikon and they are 100% clear.
Can anyone advise me on this - for instance, is the salesman generally right (he also said he had worked for Zeiss and that was the case with their lenses)? Obviously for all intents and purposes the air bubbles could be said not to matter as they are only tiny (less than 0.5mm, maybe) and can only be seen at 20x. But I am a perfectionist and feel a little let down and disappointed. Certainly in many years of photography I have never such a thing in a quality camera lens.
In every other way the Opticron is a fine scope.
However, today at Rutland Water I noticed what seem to be tiny air bubbles within the lenses of the zoom eyepiece as I was birdwatching. These were especially evident when a blank sky was being looked at and look like tiny circular brighter marks with a dark perimeter within the view of the lens. There are about five altogether and they are only evident at 20x, disappearing immediately on zooming from this magnification.
As I was there, I took the scope back to Infocus but the salesman there couldn't see them yet was willing to swap the scope. But he went on to say very convincingly that all lenses have such things as it was impossible to produce a dust free perfect lens. I looked through two further Opticron scopes without eyepieces and they certainly did have a mark or two which looked like it was within the coating on the rear of the front element. Anyway, as is the way of these things, the salesman convinced me I was being over particular. But back at home the "bubbles" are indeed very clear if a lamp is looked at to give a bright plain yellow view through the scope (i.e. out of focus).
I checked my son's Swarovski and a friend's new Nikon and they are 100% clear.
Can anyone advise me on this - for instance, is the salesman generally right (he also said he had worked for Zeiss and that was the case with their lenses)? Obviously for all intents and purposes the air bubbles could be said not to matter as they are only tiny (less than 0.5mm, maybe) and can only be seen at 20x. But I am a perfectionist and feel a little let down and disappointed. Certainly in many years of photography I have never such a thing in a quality camera lens.
In every other way the Opticron is a fine scope.
