modern military binoculars (1 Viewer)

Hi,

actually late 60s with Made in Germany sounds fine as the government of the german democratic republic decided on May 7th 1970 to replace the Made in Germany with Made in DDR / GDR much to the chagrin of CZJ employees and those of other export oriented industries who though of it as a stigma rather than a quality label at first.

Source (sorry, german only): http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/spiegelspecial/d-59462242.html

Also the London agreement between Zeiss West and CZJ over naming rights etc. which might have had an influence here only happened in 1971...

Joachim

If one peels off the front bezel of say the 80mm f/2.8 Biometer for Pentacon Six, one may find a different name underneath.
There were no name Contaxes also.

Someone peeled off the name on my Konica Auto Reflex, half frame full frame beast, and there was another name underneath. I wish he hadn't.

jring said:

Hi,

actually late 60s with Made in Germany sounds fine as the government of the german democratic republic decided on May 7th 1970 to replace the Made in Germany with Made in DDR / GDR much to the chagrin of CZJ employees and those of other export oriented industries who though of it as a stigma rather than a quality label at first.

Source (sorry, german only): http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/spiegelspecial/d-59462242.html

Also the London agreement between Zeiss West and CZJ over naming rights etc. which might have had an influence here only happened in 1971...

Joachim

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Thank you, a very informative read.
I did not know that the Made in DDR was something that only appeared after the wall was built.

jring said:

Hi,

interesting... the usual source has the Septarem as a pre WW2 7x50 model - but there are indeed some references found to a rare 7x40 post-war CF model of the same name elsewhere on the web...

http://home.europa.com/~telscope/zeissbn2.txt

http://www.fernglasmuseum.at/museum/zeiss_septarem_7mal40w/zeiss_septarem_7mal40w.html

Thanks for mentioning it!

Joachim

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Ah, yes, the Super S, I have seen one or two of these come up for sale, they always command a high price, around £400+ I think.

Zeiss Jenna Df 7x40b Ga

Well, the binocular arrived to day, photo's as promised. First thing to say, it is totally mint, boxed, as new and never used. It came boxed with all original paperwork. I bought it from a collection dispersal together with a Swift Sea Hawk 7x50 and a Swift Osprey 7x42 both also mint. I will post the Sea Hawk in the swift section. I paid £80 for this, but have no idea if that was good or too much. It gives a good sharp image, but as Joachim mentions, it has a very definite yellow cast, which makes it a little dark. It is also heavy at 980g, the FOV is 131m@1000m, there is a lot of data in the booklet, but all in German, I think it say's eye relief is 20mm. Overall i'm pleased to add it to my collection for awhile, but it is not a binocular I would use very often.

Bencw said:

I paid £80 for this, but have no idea if that was good or too much. It gives a good sharp image, but as Joachim mentions, it has a very definite yellow cast, which makes it a little dark. .

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Hello BenCW,

You did rather well: 80 quid is about a third of what it would cost on this side of the Pond.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur Pinewood :hi:

Hi Ben,

congratulations on a great score, 80 quid is a steal for this rare pair. The normal EDF usually command several hundred euros on ebay...

The serial number (if I read it correctly as starting with 6064) shows this as made in 1984 - so CZJ sold what is essentially the general issue optics for the east german army to the enemy at the height of the cold war - with a warranty card in english to boot...
Well, at least they seem to have left out interesting bits like the recticle with (tritium based) illumination and the infrared detector...

The yellow tint is quite natural then as the EDF used a radiation resistant glass called SF3R for the objective negative element and the first eyepiece lens which leads to the color bias.

More info on the EDF can be found on the following pages (in german only - try google translate). Holgers excelent english pages have already been linked above...

http://www.akoehler.de/fernglas/edf7x40/index.htm
http://home.arcor.de/thuernagel/edf.htm

If you have specific questions on the german paperwork, just post an image and I'll translate...

Joachim

Thanks Arthur, Joachim, at least nice to know I got it for a good price. Joachim, if there is anything in the paperwork I think I need, I will take your offer, thanks.
Ben

back again with some better news, after having my ior's pretty much messed up by to my knowledge? the last optical repair company left in the uk i was not going to send my zrak's for the same treatment!
i have been busy with work but had a quiet day today and after some though set about fixing the zrak's myself...

they had a few issues... mechanically, loose center hinge. optically, some prism lean with a little haze on the back of the prism in the right side. as you can imagine it is a little scary as i spent quite a bit on these and im under no illusions as to how difficult it is do!

first thing i notice is there doesnt seem to be any concentric rings around the objective for fine collimation which for me is worrying!
secondly there doesnt appear to be any provision for nitrogen purging?... i screw or other port?

to fix the center hing i had to make a tool using some tool steel and two drill bits the correct size to fit the holes in the center hinge fastner at the front. i managed to turn it about half a turn and that seems to have tightened it sufficiently so thats one job done!

to unscrew the objective i had to remove the beauty ring which is threaded onto the front plate after removing a locking ring (again i had to make a tool to fit) then unscrewed the objective bell using an oil filter wrench with leather padding. the front plate is held with a single screw

now i can see the gimble holding the prisms and noticed the front prism is positioned with concentric screws. knowing i have prism lean and having a couple spare prisms to see which way i need to rotate to correct i at least know which way i have to go

first thing though is i have to clean the prism back which means removing the prism assembly! its held with three screws and once undone the whole assembly lifts out.
after cleaning the prism back leaving the prisms in place i re fitted the prism assembly into the barrel. with the screws done up loose i refitted the objective lens minus the front plate to check alignment which was very close, after tweaking the position of the gimble with a small screwdriver prying on the gimble edge the alignment was good. i removed the objective and tightened the screws and re fitted the objective to check. i had to do this several times.

regarding the prism lean, i new which direction i had to rotate it in so loosened one concentric screw slightly and tightened another until the lean was gone and checking collimation while altering the ipd and it seems to be spot on! the binoculars are vastly improved! much easier on the eye when using now and as far as i can tell just fine the sharpness seems improved now as well with both images aligned also luckily i managed to keep everything pretty clean inside so very pleased with myself!

An impressive performance imho.

Don't think there are many who could do this kind of job without fluffing things up beyond hope.

Good on you!

typo said:

I saw elsewhere the contract value was £6,000,000. If that was the final price it would make them £400 each.

David

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Seems to be a bit less than that. A £5.5 m contract divided by 14500 is £379 BUT, that appears to be only the initial delivery.
Anyone know the true unit cost and if these are German made or disposable Chinese xmas cracker quality ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCQZikILqWQ

If they are Chinese they'll have tiny microchips for Chinese surveillance installed.

Binastro said:

If they are Chinese they'll have tiny microchips for Chinese surveillance installed.

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They already have 'control' of telephone exchanges....

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/oct/10/huawei-international-blacklisting

First of the British Army Steiners showing up on eBay! Some enterprising squaddie making a bit on the side. £90 with a day to go!

A good price, but he might regret it.

Mono said:

First of the British Army Steiners showing up on eBay! Some enterprising squaddie making a bit on the side. £90 with a day to go!

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Finally went for £230

The beat up ones go for around £70

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EX-ARMY-S...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Army surplus dealers have been selling unissued 8x30r in MTP pouches for £185 BIN. Thanx MOD for wasting tax payers money!

http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayI...nterval=30&mPg=10&keyword=162416371053&page=4

Hi,

all the links are broken... on purpose btw - who had the great idea with this viglink abomination?

Regarding the bins - these look suspiciously like the german army Fero D12, also by Steiner. Let's just say they were not a big success...

Joachim

Joachim,

In the US, too many people place unrealistic expectations on binoculars with German (or German sounding) names. I think it would be illuminating and helpful for you to share what your countrymen think—in general—of Steiner binoculars—not the myriad models coming from Asia, but those still made in Germany.

Some people in the Seattle area shared with me that they had seen a photo of Carl Steiner standing next to his Mercedes with one tire up on a Steiner to show how tough it was. He wanted to know what other bino supposed to be THAT tough. I told the fellow it was almost impossible for a very strong man to crush an egg (held length-wise) with his hands because although the shell was little more than paper thin, it’s structure—at least lengthwise—was incredibly strong.

During the flapping of my gums, I located one of the “good, bad examples” of binoculars (an inexpensive Tasco) from its place of honor, grabbed a towel, and, with the customer checking out this crazy ‘nocklar fixer, stepped to my truck. I wrapped the towel once around the bino and eased my truck’s left tire upon the paperweight. I left it there for about 3 minutes, while the customer just knew all sorts of bad things were happening to the bino.

With the test over, we went back inside and I placed the instrument on the collimator. Not only were no parts broken, collimation was only offset by 3 or 4 minutes, a distance largely inconsequential to most observers.

Sometimes, photos used in advertising can be as misleading as words. :cat:

Just a thought,

Bill

maico said:

The beat up ones go for around £70

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EX-ARMY-S...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Army surplus dealers have been selling unissued 8x30r in MTP pouches for £185 BIN. Thanx MOD for wasting tax payers money!

http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayI...nterval=30&mPg=10&keyword=162416371053&page=4

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Not just the MOD is it, almost every Gov dept does this, even the NHS scrap perfectly good stuff, walking frames, sticks, wheelchairs etc, saying it's cheaper to buy new ones than get used ones cleaned. That is rubbish, it cant be can it, especially when you look at the inflated prices their contractors charge. The British tax payer is a cash cow for entrepreneurs these days.