Hello to all, have just joined the forum today and came across this thread - glad to find others with a shared interest in vintage binoculars !
I have found most people just "don't get it" when it comes to this area interest and look at me as though I were crazy when I tell them I own a number of vintage binos as well as new ones. The reply I usually get is "Why do you need more that one set of binoculars, I don't understand?"
But ... more to the point of "What's good in vintage binos?"
I just acquired a vintage Japanese-made Swift Audubon 8.5 x 44 model 804 binocular this past Friday via eBay. Circa 1961, very good condition externally, but most importantly: crystal clear optics, perfect collimation !
Photos attached for reference.
I own a French made 60s era 7x35 bino that is on par with other contemporay European binoculars, as well several Japanese-made binoculars from the "Golden Era" of the Japanese Telescope Inspection Institute (JTII)
in 7x35, 7x50 and 10x50. They are all solidly built binos with very good optics from a time when the JTII imposed strict production and quality standards on Japanese binoculars and affixed the little gold or silver JTII oval sticker you see on those old binos.
This Swift Audubon outdoes them all in image quality, build quality and refinement.
Overall impression:
Superb image quality, especially considering its age - 1961! Clear, sharp image with minimal distortion at edges of field of view and good control of chromatic aberration (ie: distortion of colors especially at the egdes of an object you are viewing). They also produce a remarkably bright image even when dark, such as during dusk/dawn so very good light-gathering ability.
I am sure modern fully multi-coated high end binos can outdo these, but to me they lack the appeal of the black, all metal-pebble-grain era of the vintage binos! And with these Swifts I don't feel I am giving much up at all in image or build quality. (I can find absolutely NO plastic parts on these, not even the Inter-Pupillary Distance scale !)
Without any doubt, the best image quality of any binocular I own. On a par with or better than some high-end binos I have personal experience with, to include the modern Japanese made Nikons we own for birdwatching, the US military issue M22 Steiner & M22 Fujinon binoculars - as well as various allied forces Hertel & Reuss, Carl Zeiss, Leica, Kern binos I have had an opportunity to use during a 20 + year career in the US Army.
I was also surprised at some of the other features of this 53 year old bino:
- screw-up/down aluminum eyecups with a 5mm range of adjustement.
- 22mm ocular lens diameter. Significantly larger than most binoculars, is of the 'Erfle"-type 5-piece ocular design - a different design than most typical porro prism binoculars.
- BaK4 prisms
- Fully Multi Coated optics (though the prism cover plates only read "FULL COATED OPTICS" )
- Neoprene seals - designed to keep internal optics clean
(NOTE: just sealed, not dry inert gas-purged so weather resistant but not waterproof or fogproof)
All this is verified by a research paper on the History of the Swift Audubon 8.5x44 bino - link to download this 3-part research paper is at post #15 on another thread on this forum:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=42944
other data:
Stamped on front of objective end of hinge arms:
JB45 - which indicates Tamron Co., Ltd., Tokyo as the final assembly company.
JE47 - which indicates Tokuhiro Koki Seisakusho Inc., Tokyo as the manuf of the bino body.
In summary:
Excellent binocular for bird watching & most other use. Sharp bright image which allows you to discern even minor variations of a bird's plumage, color, beak shape and all the other small details other binoculars often cannot pick up.
The Swift Audubon binoculars were designed specifically for birdwatching from the very first model - they have been in continuous production since approximately 1960 - and it is abundantly obvious when you make use of them. I now understand all the accolades this bino has gotten over the years and why it has achieved near-iconic status.
Highly recommend it if you can locate this bino. There are usually several posted on eBay. You could also consider the current version now made in a roof prism as well as a porro-prism model; the new ones have the advantage of being dry-nitrogen purged & O-ring sealed and thus waterproof and fogprooof. The Swift Sport Optics company is a US Company that is still owned and managed by the same Swift family that founded it in the 1920s.
All the best,
Pierre