Zeiss (1 Viewer)

8x20 Victory Eyecup Mod

I loved my 8x20's but hated the eyecups. They let in too much back light and had numerous other problems IMO. (Most Mini's do)

So I lengthened and widened them using plastic covers that were meant to go on the bottoms of chairs so you wont scrape your floors. These are not rubber but a tough polymer.



Now the eyecups are about the size of the Pentax (9x28's but still fit nicely in the case.)

Comparison with the Pentax 9x28's http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/692/img4378gn.jpg/ http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/7969/img4379b.jpg

So doing this I fixed all of the stray backlight coming through which was 90% of the stray light during my usage.

I get no eyelash blackouts and can stick my whole eye in there. Just because an objective size is shrunk in half doesn't mean the users eyeball has as well.

I get better perceived contrast because now I have a perfect black circle around the image like when you use a pair of 8x32's.

Much easier to steady or use one handed because you can brace then properly into your upper eye socket.

And the overall viewing experience is INCREDIBLY better.

Here's a closeup, despite those dremel scratches they are smooth rounded and perfectly comfortable. http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/8281/img4376r.jpg

I did this mod once before and the pair was either lost or stolen. When I got the new dielelctric one's I couldn't wait to remod them, the difference is just that huge in how great they are to use.

If anyone is interested I'll go into a little more depth of how they were attached. They come out about an extra 1/4 inch and eye relief is just fine.

I wish Zeiss would make them like this so I wont have to redo them if I get some 10x25's. For the non eyeglass wearer this is as good it gets in a pair of Alpha pocket carry's.


Sorry about the double post, I don't see a delete.

I've never owned a decent compact, but recently tried a Swaro 8x20 in bright daylight, and was pleased with the image quality. The FOV was small, but geez, so was the binocular!

But the eyecups were much too small and short, to the point that, why have 'em? No wonder there are complaints of difficulty of eye positioning with compacts. It's not the small exit pupil so much as the absence of a familiar and comfortable reference to brace against.

Eyecups are the vital link between eye and binocular. Congratulations on your solution to this problem.
Ron

Well done Nessus.

When all the fuss I have made about my FLs and HT has died down, the pair of bins that are always next to my side at home is a pair of Victory Compact 8x20s and I get on with them really well. I wear spectacles so don't have the same face:bins 'interface' that you do, but your solution is great.

Lee

I really love these little things myself. The asymmetrical way they fold so that your finger falls right on the focus wheel is excellent. Plus they were noticeably brighter than the Swaro's and Leica's. A salesman told me that that wasn't the case with the Nikon's but no one ever has a pair in stock to look through.

I mod many of my binoculars. For instance the eyecups on the Pentax Papillo's didn't come out far enough for my liking so I pulled off the rubber eyecups and put two rubber O-rings on each side to space them out a bit farther. I find a good part of the time when people are complaining of eye relief the issue is the cups don't come out enough and not an inherent optical flaw. The original Conquests are a good example of this. The eyecups aren't glued on so If you pull them back 2mm's or so the issue's with black outs simply go away.


It shocks me how much money time and research goes into making good bins only for the manufacturer all too often to blow the experience on badly designed eyecups that would cost them no additional money to do properly.


I'm still waiting for an alpha 7-8x25's. Why wont they make the pair everyone seems to want?

Nessus said:

I'm still waiting for an alpha 7-8x25's. Why wont they make the pair everyone seems to want?

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If you could try this 50$ pair one day ...
http://www.amazon.com/Olympus-Track...id=1363718031&sr=8-2&keywords=olympus+tracker

Giorgio said:

If you could try this 50$ pair one day ...
http://www.amazon.com/Olympus-Track...id=1363718031&sr=8-2&keywords=olympus+tracker

Click to expand...

I actually have tried those and was absolutely blown away, the image was fantastic, I was shocked to find out how cheap they were. The one's I tried were going for $35 but I'm pretty sure it was the same pair.