EDG II Loose Hinge (1 Viewer)

I purchased a pair of EDG IIs a little over a year ago and have been happy with them. I have a buddy that, after trying my pair, bought a pair from Eagle O. a while back. The hinge on my pair has gotten progressively looser and one day in conversation, I learned he was having the same issue. He emailed me several months ago stating that he had sent his pair in for warranty service due to the loose hinge and had gotten them back in just 3 weeks. He was happy with the stiffness and I thought all was well. My pair is so loose now that the weight of the strap causes them to fold - so I was going to send them in. The Nikon site says that east of the Mississippi, you send repairs to NY and west goes to LA. I live in NC, so when I printed my label and it indicated I was shipping to LA, I emailed my bud to see if he had sent his to LA. He indicated that he had, that the hinge was still tight, but.....now he has a slipping diopter?

SO.....I have not sent mine in yet - and I hesitate to open the whole slipping diopter miasma - but here it is anyway.

Anyone else having loose hinge issues?
Anyone sent them in for repair?
Anyone know how to DIY the hinge?

I am on hold while I think through the tradeoffs here?

Does the EDG have a Tripod Adapter built into the front of the hinge?

If it does, unscrew the blind cap over it and see if there is a slot in the adapter which can be used with a screwdriver to tighten the hinge. Some of these have 2 pin holes to use for tightening the hinge in which case you will need a pin wrench to do the job.

Bob

Argon .... There is a thread discussing how to adjust the hinge tightness on an EDG. Check it out. Hope it helps.

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=240792&highlight=hinge

Thank you, Bruce. I had looked under the tripod adapter cap and saw the cap with the multiple holes. Looking for an opinion here - I don't think that tightening the hinge in this manner would affect the diopter? Any thoughts?

Argon said:

Thank you, Bruce. I had looked under the tripod adapter cap and saw the cap with the multiple holes. Looking for an opinion here - I don't think that tightening the hinge in this manner would affect the diopter? Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

I was just looking at my 7X42 EDG-II and I think it would be extremely unlikely that tightening the hinge would impact the diopter. The only thing I saw was that the frame of the left barrel is close to the edge of the diopter ring. If tightening the hinge caused the frame to contact the ring, then the diopter setting would change when the IPD was adjusted. There just does not seem to be any play in the hinge spacing to cause that to happen.

In regards to your friend, I am thinking his hinge repair and diopter setting issue is unrelated. The focus knob acts like a "cap" covering the diopter ring. Pushing the knob/cap forward after adjusting the diopter only covers the ring, it does not lock it. The ring is always free to rotate. If the user were to press very hard on the forward edge of the focus knob, there is enough flex in the "cap" to come into contact with the diopter ring and thus change the diopter setting when the focus knob is rotated.

Second, if the focus knob is not pushed all the way forward, then a small part of the diopter ring will be exposed and can come in contact with the finger used to adjust focus. It is then possible to rotate the diopter ring when rotating the focus knob.

Third, if the focus knob/cap is some how out of round, then it could come in contact with the diopter ring and change the diopter setting when rotated.

I would suggest he look for those three things before sending it back to Nikon.

He sent his EDG in for the loose hinge and they also corrected "impact" damage that he says he was unaware of? At any rate, after reading through that other thread, I am pretty sure that I can come up with a way to tighten the hinge without shipping them across country. I went to the hardware store and an automotive parts store during lunch and looked at a couple pairs of split ring pliers tha I think might do the trick. Key will be if the points on the pliers fit the holes on the binocs.

Argon said:

He sent his EDG in for the loose hinge and they also corrected "impact" damage that he says he was unaware of? At any rate, after reading through that other thread, I am pretty sure that I can come up with a way to tighten the hinge without shipping them across country. I went to the hardware store and an automotive parts store during lunch and looked at a couple pairs of split ring pliers tha I think might do the trick. Key will be if the points on the pliers fit the holes on the binocs.

Click to expand...

Will this work?

http://www.garrettwade.com/adjustable-pin-wrench/p/29J03.03/


Bob

The smaller sized spanner wrenches should fit the application.

http://www.micro-tools.com/store/~/C-SPN/Spanner-WrenchsLens-Tools.aspx

These have replaceable tips which can be modified to fit the small holes on the adjustment nut.

Regards,
FK

The hinge of my EDG II 8x42 is also loose. I have had my bino for about one year now. I also have some problems with the rubber armoring - both on the binocular body and on the focusing wheel. There are some "bubbles" on the body and the armoring on the focusing wheel is loose.

How about fitting a Vortex bino lock ?

http://www.vortexoptics.com/product/vortex-binoc-loc-binocular-hinge-lock

BEWARE

I looked at the loose hinge problem some time ago and advise you to proceed with caution it you attempt to tighten it yourself.

The adjustment is through a small multi-holed screw/nut that requires a pin wrench to move it. There is a very small locking screw in one of the holes that needs to be unscrewed first to allow the nut to be moved.

After looking at it, I decided not to proceed, but if you have the correct tools then it shouldn't be a problem to adjust. However, the width between the barrels is quite limited so a pin wrench needs to be small and some of those suggested will not fit. I would also be concerned about using a pin wrench with conical points as these can slip more easily that straight pin type. If you do damage the the nut, which is quite small and delicate looking, it could be used by Nikon as an excuse to nullify the guarantee.

If you have the correct tools and the confidence to do it, go ahead, but otherwise my advice is to send it back to Nikon. You can ask them to sort out the diopter problem at the same time.

In relation to the other concern you have. There doesn't seem to be any connection between the hinge adjustment and the diopter adjustment.

Stan