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Problem with Leupold Yosemite BX-1. Need help. (1 Viewer)

drabina

Member
I have the Leupold Yosemite BX-1 6x30mm binoculars. They are great optic-wise, not too big and heavy and the price was good too. My kids and I enjoy those binocs for our new bird watching hobby.

The only problem we have are the eyecups. They rotate and extend out but they will not lock or stay in the extended position. A little pressure would make both or one of the eyecups to contract to closed position. While carrying the binoculars around my neck, every time I want to view something, I have to first make sure that the eyecups are extended all the way. I would say 95% of the times they are not.

Is there anything that I am doing wrong or a way to have the eyecups click or lock in the extended position? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
:hi:
Hi Drabina,

Welcome to Bird Forum!

Typically, after you twist the eye cups fully out, a final slight twist should lock them into position. You should feel them clicking into place. Did you do that? If that doesn't happen the eye cups could be faulty.

Some eye cups have up to 3 intermediate positions with click stops. Some only have one position. In any case they should lock in the position you will be using them. I assume you checked the instructions in the manual you got with the binocular.

Bob
 
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Thanks for replying. The eye cups on my Yosemite have no intermediate positions. The twisting travel is smooth and there is no locking at the end of the travel. I was actually surprised by that, but since I bought the binocs new from a reputable retailer, I thought it was by design.
 
Thanks for replying. The eye cups on my Yosemite have no intermediate positions. The twisting travel is smooth and there is no locking at the end of the travel. I was actually surprised by that, but since I bought the binocs new from a reputable retailer, I thought it was by design.


I'm sorry to hear that but it is not unexpected.

These are Chinese made and there are many clones of these little binoculars sold under different names. They look much alike and suffer from similar problems caused by indifferent quality control but when they are made right they are excellent binoculars.

I have an 8x30 clone made for Cabelas and I note that there is a difference in feel between the two eye cups. The right one has an intermediate position and the left one does not. Neither one seems to lock in the extended position but they do stay in place for me.

There are some fixes you can do yourself to keep them extended using rubber bands or O rings or short segments of an old bicycle inner tube to hold them in place as Samandag notes above. The rain guard will still work whether they are extended or not so you will have that available in case of rain.

Or you could call the place where you purchased yours and see if they will replace it after they test the eye cups on the new one.

Bob
 
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Hello Drabina .... another welcome to the Forum.

I bought the same model Yosemite recently to give to my nephew for use with his young children. It is a great choice for kids because of the light weight, lower power, reasonable cost, great optics, and especially the ability to set them up for kids with their more narrow distance between their eyes (IPD-Interpupillary Distance). I finally got over there and gave to him yesterday!

They are a good binocular for you purposes but there are two issues and one is the extremely loose eye cups. The one I bought has the same eye cup characteristics as what you described. I called Leupold and had a nice discussion able it. Bottom line is that is the nature of this beast. They are all this way. To confirm, I checked an 8X Yosemite out at Bass Pro and it behaved the same.

Good news is there is a simple fix. I went to Ace Hardware and bought two rubber "O" rings. The inside diameter should be just slightly smaller than the diameter of the columns holding up the eye cups. (I used a caliber to measure the cylinder diameter but can not remember the measurement.)

Once you have the O rings, stretch it out and then slide it down over the eye cup so it fits around the column. At that point, slide the O ring up to the base of the extended eye cup and that will keep them from sliding down. You can still lower the eye cups if needed because the O ring will slide down the column, but the eye cup will not go all the way down because of the space taken up by the thickness of the O ring. Sorry that I do not have the binocular now to take a photo.

The other issue is the focus knob. After sitting for a period of time, the knob becomes very still and may be difficult to rotate at first for a small child. Once it is rotated about 90 degrees each way, the grease or what ever is causing the tightness breaks free and then all is fine. I suggest you first rotate the knob a couple of times before giving to the child to use. This is also a common issue with all the units. I would also suggest you teach your child to use the neck strap upon handing them the binocular.

Hope this helps. Please let me know if you need any additional information. Your kids should get some great views out of the Yosemite!


Edit: One reason for using the black O rings compared to rubber bands, etc, is you can still lower the eye cups most of the way if needed and it looks nice and blends in with the binocular. Cost is cheap. Another option is to put a drop of glue between the cylinder and each extended eye cup, but the O ring is a better option because it is easy to remove them if desired.
 
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Thanks for all the replies. I will try the o-ring fix. Hopefully that's going to help the eye cups to stay in place. I also have the stiff focusing knob which indeed has to be turned couple of times for a smooth operation. That doesn't bother me too much though.
 
The rubber O rings well definitely do the trick. The secret is to get the right sized O rings. Let us know how things work out.
 
My Yosemites are pretty secure in the full out postion if you give them a firm firm twist open. But since I wear glasses, they are never out. I do have a pair of bushnells that needed the O-Ring and it does the job perfectly.
 
Question, since Leupold has some of the best customer service on the planet, along with Swarovski, why haven't you contacted them?
They are usually very good about taking care of problems and they may have a fix or may replace.
Just saying, if you buy a product from a company with great customer service why not use it.
I know if there are problems with my Leupold "stuff" they fix or replace it.
Same with Swarovski.
Get it taken care of by calling them (Leupold) and see what they say.
Art
 
Question, since Leupold has some of the best customer service on the planet, along with Swarovski, why haven't you contacted them?
They are usually very good about taking care of problems and they may have a fix or may replace.
Just saying, if you buy a product from a company with great customer service why not use it.
I know if there are problems with my Leupold "stuff" they fix or replace it.
Same with Swarovski.
Get it taken care of by calling them (Leupold) and see what they say.
Art

I think in one of the post Drabina did say they had contacted Leupold and was told, it's the nature of the beast.
 
Problem with Leupold Yosemites BX-1. Need Help.

Please forgive me, I certainly do not want to start a fight but a check of previous e-mails does not show Leupold was contacted.
It is worth a try to call them, maybe his pair was the victim of the dread tolerance stacking and having the eyecups changed out might get rid of the problem.
It is certainly worth a try to call Leupold, I do know one individual who called, the customer service rep took her name, address and phone number and told her they would call back in about five days, four days after her call she received a new pair of binoculars and a note asking her to return her old pair along with a shipping label.
Like I said it is worth a try.
Art
 
Please forgive me, I certainly do not want to start a fight but a check of previous e-mails does not show Leupold was contacted.
It is worth a try to call them, maybe his pair was the victim of the dread tolerance stacking and having the eyecups changed out might get rid of the problem.
It is certainly worth a try to call Leupold, I do know one individual who called, the customer service rep took her name, address and phone number and told her they would call back in about five days, four days after her call she received a new pair of binoculars and a note asking her to return her old pair along with a shipping label.
Like I said it is worth a try.
Art

No problem, I was mistaken, it was Bruce who contacted Leupold and was told it was the nature of the beast. Mine dont lock out either but since I keep them all the way in I never notice.
 
Please forgive me, I certainly do not want to start a fight but a check of previous e-mails does not show Leupold was contacted.
It is worth a try to call them, maybe his pair was the victim of the dread tolerance stacking and having the eyecups changed out might get rid of the problem.
It is certainly worth a try to call Leupold, I do know one individual who called, the customer service rep took her name, address and phone number and told her they would call back in about five days, four days after her call she received a new pair of binoculars and a note asking her to return her old pair along with a shipping label.
Like I said it is worth a try.
Art

And by the way, you are correct, never hurts to make a phone call and ask.
 
Just some opinions. When the Yosemites first came out, I bought a few of the 6x30s, which I found superior for my needs over the 8x30s. Perhaps the initial "dump" on the market was the batch where QC was consistent. No way of knowing that. Vendors will change when mass production takes place over the years. Perhaps the later models lacked the QC of the initial batch. But that is simply just speculation on my part. No real knowledge to support my speculation.

And since I'm like Peterra ( am a committed eye glass wearer) the issue of eye cups, has no real relevancy.

What really amuses me about the criticisms of a bargain level binocular costing under $100 is the fact that some alphas costing over $2000 have focusing problems. Yet that doesn't seem to be the problem with the Yosemite.

John
 
I have the original series Leupold Yosemite 6x30 and the eyecups turn to adj at any position and stay at that position, even with me pushing down pretty hard. Both sides. There is not enough length [outward travel] to the eyecups for non eyeglass use for me. Eyeglass use , I can adj. the eyecups perfect for me. I would not say the focuser is easy to turn, even after turning it some back and forth some. Does any of this bother me no, I bought it used at a good price! It would not bother me if I paid full price. $79.95 shipped8-P

Young kids have lots of focus accommodation, so would not have to focus that much I would think.
 
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Young kids have lots of focus accommodation, so would not have to focus that much I would think.

That's a most important aspect, indeed. I recall using a 7x50 model in fix-focus mode for years when I was in my teens.
 
Bumping this thread up because I wish I thought about the O ring trick. I returned a pair of 8x30 Yosemite for this exact reason. The right eye cup was always falling down and was extremely irritating. I replaced them with the Vortex Raptor which has superb eye cups and excellent focus dial for a $95 bin, but it also has a downfall. The diopter ring on the Raptor is not good at all vs the very good one on the Yosemite.
I may have to buy the Yosemite again because I thought it was optically fantastic for its price, and then use the O ring trick.
If Leupold would upgrade the eyecups on the Yosemite, and if Vortex would upgrade the diopter ring on the Raptor, then there would be nothing to complain about at all for these two great little poros
 
Another clone is Opticron's Savanna whose eyecups are quite stable (my sample...). The O-ring trick is sometimes needed even for expensive brands---Kite Lynx 8x30 was sold some time ago with 4 thick O-rings for the eyecups....
 
Bumping this thread up because I wish I thought about the O ring trick. I returned a pair of 8x30 Yosemite for this exact reason. The right eye cup was always falling down and was extremely irritating. I replaced them with the Vortex Raptor which has superb eye cups and excellent focus dial for a $95 bin, but it also has a downfall. The diopter ring on the Raptor is not good at all vs the very good one on the Yosemite.
I may have to buy the Yosemite again because I thought it was optically fantastic for its price, and then use the O ring trick.
If Leupold would upgrade the eyecups on the Yosemite, and if Vortex would upgrade the diopter ring on the Raptor, then there would be nothing to complain about at all for these two great little poros

At that price point, variation in some less expensive parts is to be expected. If you would have sent the Yosemite to Leupold, they would have fixed it. One thing about Leupold, their service is second to none.

You have two binocular with the same basic design and optical formula, likely from the same factory. You could just as easily have the problem in reverse. Send the Raptor to Vortex, same deal as with Leupold.

There are a bunch of Yosemite style clones out there, and all will have the potential for some of the problems you mention. The solution is to use a company, send it in under warranty. We can't fix it here. The optics on all likely are first rate considering the price.
 
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