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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Zeiss Triple XXX Monocular 3x12B review (1 Viewer)

Lou H

Well-known member
This is a 3x12 monocular with a plastic adapter that allows it slide into the eyepiece cup of Zeiss Victory binoculars and triple the bino’s power. It is not waterproof. At the going $320 street price it didn’t interest me sufficiently to buy one, but poking around on the Zeiss website I found it offered for $183 so I bought one.

http://stores.cccpromo.com/Zeiss-consumer/Default.asp

As a little (1.2”x 2.3”x 2oz) 3x monocular, it works nicely enough yielding bright crisp views with a field of view of ~660’ @ 1000 yd yielding a modest ~36 degree apparent field of view. One interesting characteristic of this little monocular is that it has a close focus of just over 7” at which point its power is closer to 6x…good for looking at insects maybe?

In all the product descriptions I’ve seen, the adapter works for all Victory binos. I have a new Victory 8x32 and found that the adapter was too large in diameter to fit into the eyecup. I fashioned a new one out of a PVC female pipe coupler spacing the objective of the mono at the exit pupil of the bino. This spacing is not critical.

There is nothing new or startling in how the mono triples the power of the bino it attaches to. For a person with normal vision, the focused bino provides a virtual image of the object at approximately infinity with an angular magnification equal the power of the bino. The mono simply magnifies that virtual image by its magnification, in this case 3x. For 8x binos, you wind up with 24x. You could daisy-chain any binoculars, monoculars, or telescopes in this way, and with the right adapter, this mono could work with just about any binos. The major downside to this is that you wind up with about twice the glass and number of surfaces than needed for a single instrument of equivalent power. This increases light loss and increases aberrations. For example, with the coupled monocular and binocular, there are two objective groups, two erecting prisms, and two eyepiece groups.

With the mono coupled to the 8x32 Victory, I have a 24x32 telescope with an apparent field of view limited by the mono to 36 degrees yielding a ~80’ @ 1000 yds fov. I compared the views through this to a 60mm dia obj Bushnell Spacemaster with a fixed 22x eyepiece and the usual 15-45x eyepiece. The Spacemaster won hands down with a significantly brighter, better contrast, wider, and sharper images in daylight. The gap in performance was even more evident in low light conditions.

The 24x view, though not great, could be useful at times you need more power but aren’t carrying a scope. Considering its small size and 2oz weight, you could always have it at hand when you’re carrying your binos.
 
Good review.

I have the same monocular for my 8x42 FL's. I agree that the image leaves something to be desired on the surface. However, when you consider that for a couple hundred dollars in addition to the cost of the binoculars you can have a 21x,24x, or 30x monocular (and 3x monocular and magnifier of course) and 7,8 or 10x bino, it's not really a bad deal. Plus you can use the other barrel to line up with. I use mine mostly for either bird watching at the feeder, observing the moon (very good for that) or as a spotting scope for long range shooting. The resolution is really quite good considering it is high magnification at 42mm, but you definitely don't want to be digiscoping with it.

-joejack
 
Joejack said:
Good review.
Agreed!

I use it with the Nikon 8x32SEs and the Swaro AT80HD scope with the 20xSW eyepiece. I have wrapped some layers of adhesive tape around the larger plastic adapter so that it fits snugly on both the bins and the scope. I really enjoy the wide field of view of the 20xSW - and still have that 60x available when necessary.

Ilkka
 
I'm interested in a Zeiss monocular, with the adapter for the 20-60x zoom eyepiece, and to use for star testing.

From the information at Zeiss and B&H Photo, it's difficult to figure out which adapter to be ordering for the zoom eyepiece.

Also has anyone seen these at an enhanced price lately?

Mike
 
For star testing you might consider getting a Zeiss Astronomy Eyepiece adapter and a good quality short focal length eyepiece which could provide a useful high power. There are a number to choose from in the $200 and up range, still cheaper than the Zeiss 3x monocular.

The focal length of a Diascope 85 is 502mm. For example, a 5mm focal length eyepiece such as a Televue Radian ($250) or Nagler ($300) you would yield 502mm/5mm = 100x. Meade makes similar performing eyepieces (e.g. 4.7mm Ultrawide) and they are available for <$200.

Lou
 
I agree that a short focal length eyepiece might be more useful than the monocular if your only reason for buying it is to star test the 85mm Diascope. You really don't need an expensive eyepiece, a cheap Ortho will do just as well. However, you don't need more than the 60x of the zoom eyepiece to see defects quite well and also get a pretty good idea of the aberrations in the Diascope. Expect considerable spherical aberration. It comes with the low focal ratio.
 
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Mike,

I use the 3x12 Classic as a booster for testing both with resolution targets, real stars and artificial stars. I would like it to have full multicoatings for better light transmission, but even as it is, it is a very convenient little thing. I have tried a couple of lower-quality monoculars with higher magnifications, as well as an Opticron 2.5x booster. All of them except for the Zeiss suffered from having the roof prism roof edge show in the image. Not only did it show, but it caused a diagonal line of unsharp image to cross the image circle. The Opticron would otherwise have been very good, since it was a bit brighter than the Zeiss and since the 2.5x magnification would have been even better for many instances.

As far as fitting the Zeiss mono on various and sundry other optics, I do not use the Zeiss adapters since I do not own any of the Zeiss gear they are designed to fit. Instead, I have made my own adapters by super-glueing a selection of collar rings out of different types of closed-cell-foam gasket strips that are available by the length at our local specialty rubber and plastics store. These rings stretch onto the monocular and squeeze into the ocular eyecup. Very easy to make and works very well on any eyecup which has an inner diameter appreciably greater than the outside dia. of the Zeiss.

Solely for using as a high-power eyepiece on the Zeiss scope, Lou's suggestion above will give you a brighter image and better contrast, but it will be slower to use and less flexible. As far as sharpness, even though the daisy-chained eyepiece-booster combo is not optimally sharp, at magnifications above about 100-120X the scope objective will be the limiting factor (and that is if you have a good rather than a poor sample of the scope).

Kimmo
 
henry link said:
I agree that that a short focal length eyepiece might be more useful than the monocular if your only reason for buying it is to star test the 85mm Diascope. You really don't need an expensive eyepiece, a cheap Ortho will do just as well. However, you don't need more than the 60x of the zoom eyepiece to see defects quite well and also get a pretty good idea of the aberrations in the Diascope. Expect considerable spherical aberration. It comes with the low focal ratio.

Yes, agreed, a much less expensive eyepiece could be used for star testing. However, a high quality eyepiece can have the benefit of yielding very nice views if the scope and conditions are up to it. I'll admit that such high powers are of pretty limited use in birding, but they sure can provide some nice lunar, planetary, and cluster viewing when it's too dark to see birds. Add a relatively inexpensive solar filter:

http://www.baader-planetarium.de/zubehoer/zubsonne/astro_solar_folie/astro_solar.htm)

and you can also see nice detail in many sunspots.
 
Joejack said:
Good review.

I have the same monocular for my 8x42 FL's. ...-joejack

Is there anyone who can compare this set-up with the one EO is offering: Eagle Optics 2.5x Universal Eyepiece Extender? Except for a different magnification, the two seem to serve the same purpose.
 
I bought an eagle 2.5x extender for to use with my Eagle Platinum Ranger 6 x 32 binocular. I never could get it to fit securely over the eyecup. FOV was very narrow and it was quite dim at it's 20 x 30 magnification. It was too much bother to use and I returned it. I thought it could have been built a bit better for a proprietary supplement to the binocular.
 
ceasar said:
I bought an eagle 2.5x extender for to use with my Eagle Platinum Ranger 6 x 32 binocular. I never could get it to fit securely over the eyecup. FOV was very narrow and it was quite dim at it's 20 x 30 magnification. It was too much bother to use and I returned it. I thought it could have been built a bit better for a proprietary supplement to the binocular.

I'm not sure what you mean with 20x30 magnification. I would assume that with this 2.5x extender, the total mag should be 15x in your case. So in essence, you have a 15x32 binocular, which is by the very nature of the physical facts rather darkish. However, it is definitely very unsatisfactory if it does not at least fit on the models they claim it is intended for. My son is going to bring one over this month. I hope to use it on my 8x42 FL. We'll see how well it works in this case!
 
Swissboy said:
I'm not sure what you mean with 20x30 magnification. I would assume that with this 2.5x extender, the total mag should be 15x in your case. So in essence, you have a 15x32 binocular, which is by the very nature of the physical facts rather darkish. However, it is definitely very unsatisfactory if it does not at least fit on the models they claim it is intended for. My son is going to bring one over this month. I hope to use it on my 8x42 FL. We'll see how well it works in this case!

You're right. It's 15x. I didn't use my fingers when doing the math. The major problem was the inability of the extender to remain firmly seated on the eyepiece which is very annoying with what was, as you said, a 15 x 32 telescope. Hope it works out better for you.

Bob
 
Hi;

I just received one of the 3x12B's with "V" adapter. How do I remove the adapter from the monocular body? I need to buy or make other adapters. Thanks.
 
In the case of the adapter I had, the plastic adapter simply slipped off the end of the monocular. It was just a friction fit.
 
Thanks Lou;

I have pulled and twisted on this and not got it to budge. It feels like metal and appears to have threads inside. I will try again this evening.
 

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Even if it does not feel like it, it does snap on. Do not twist it, since the objective end of the monocular is knurled aluminum and might twist off instead of the adapter coming loose. I have the monocular and have looked at the adapters. They are an extremely tight fit, and since I don't have any of the binocular models they are made for, I decided not to try them on my monocular, thinking (rightly, it seems) that they would be somewhat hard to get off.

Kimmo
 
Thanks Kimmo;
I have tried both pulling and twisting. These came with the adapter installed. If it is just a press fit over knurled section and not threaded I will give it a good pull tonight. The adapter is to large for anything I have or want to use this (interested in using for a booster). I appreciate the help. Thanks
 
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