wanderer55
Well-known member
Vanguard Venture Plus 8x42mm
I decided to buy a phase coated roof prism binocular for under $100. I also decided to buy one of the brands that are sometimes looked upon as poor & inconsistent quality, just to see how bad the binocular really would be. It sold on the J&R website for $99 with free shipping. Now let me tell you a little about J&R. I consider them to be a marginal seller. I have seen many problems with them over the years. They were advertising this as the “Endeavor”, which is Vanguard’s top of the line roof prism (non-ED) binocular. That is what I was buying and now you may know why I wanted to take a $279 binocular for $99. It would have been one heck of a price!
It arrived via UPS ground in three days time. Immediately upon opening, I found out it was the Venture Plus (in a blister pack), not the Endeavor. After considerable cussing, I called J&R. A representative told me that “there must have been a mistake on the website” (bait & switch meets the internet). They were selling the Venture Plus, not the Endeavor. The representative said “It’s waterproof & it’s still a nice binocular, don’t you want to keep it?” I told him to give me a shipping label, so I could return it. He said he would do that and send it to me via email. I packed it up to ship out. I really wanted to open the package, but I didn’t want to cut open the Blister pack and have J&R accuse me of using the item and try to refuse an RMA. I called them a second time. This rep told me to go ahead and try it out and it would not be a problem and they would still take it back, if I wanted to return it.
So, here’s the story of what I found and my thoughts on the Venture Plus. As I said, it’s in a blister pack containing the binocular, a soft case, a strap, a manual and a cleaning cloth. (See the photos).
Specifications:
Power: 8
Diameter of objectives: 42mm
Prism Type: Bak4 Roof
Waterproof: Y
View Angle: 6.3°
Field of Viewm@1000m: 110m/1000m
Eye Relief: 19mm
Near focus(m): 2.5m;8.2 feet
Focus System: Inter focusing via central focusing knob
Lens coating: Fully multi-coated
Phase coating: Yes
Dimensions(L x W): 129x148
Weight(g): 650
I did find a cut away drawing of one of the Vanguard bins and it showed a Doublet objective with another lens just behind it and the eyepieces were two Doublets with a single lens between them. I can’t swear that this bin is the one I saw on the net.
I cut open the bin side of the pack first.
Visual impression- dust caps are no good for me. They do fit very snug, but the objective caps are a one piece design just like the eyepiece caps. They are of hard plastic with a strap slot in it, so you pull the dust cover off and it would be held by…. the strap?? How’s that going to work out on the objective end? It won’t work for me, so the objective cap is a waste and not useable. The eyepiece cap is one piece and of hard plastic with the same method of attaching to a strap. It will stay on well. I wouldn’t waste the time using it, so I’m not really concerned about it, but it would do the job.
Fit & finish – I’m really impressed in the fit of the rubber armor and overall finish of the bin. It is much better than I expected, for the price. The eyecups are your basic soft rubber cup that covers the twist assembly for eye relief. The twist adjustment for eye relief has no click stops, just one twist up or down. ¼ turn all the way up or down. There is also no lock at the full up position. I don’t like the lack of a positive lock in the up position or the lack of click stops. Once the cups are turned up, I did not find that pressure would push them down though. They do appear to stay in place. They are as solid as I have seen with the lower priced roof prism bins.
Appearance of the coatings on the lenses is good. It seems even and has the same hue on both objectives. The eyepiece lenses are large. I prefer that. The clearance from the eyepiece lens to the rubber cup (when it’s down) is about 3mm. The objective lenses are recessed over 5mm+, so the objectives are well protected. There are no threads for filters on the objective end. I believe the body is metal. It does not appear to be plastic or composite. The binoculars feel small in my hands. I find that I keep butting my thumbs together and they do seem a little too small for me. I don’t have really big hands either. The grip area is designed to have your thumbs facing forward towards the objective end. I don’t hold that way, so it feels awkward to me. It will take some getting used to. The strap is weird, with quick disconnects on it, so it is 3 separate pieces (see photo). One end of one strap is missing the friction clip that holds the doubled over strap from slipping. I will contact Vanguard about that and find out how good their customer service is. The case is just a cheap soft case with no padding in it.
See second Post for More Photos and the rest of the story...........
I decided to buy a phase coated roof prism binocular for under $100. I also decided to buy one of the brands that are sometimes looked upon as poor & inconsistent quality, just to see how bad the binocular really would be. It sold on the J&R website for $99 with free shipping. Now let me tell you a little about J&R. I consider them to be a marginal seller. I have seen many problems with them over the years. They were advertising this as the “Endeavor”, which is Vanguard’s top of the line roof prism (non-ED) binocular. That is what I was buying and now you may know why I wanted to take a $279 binocular for $99. It would have been one heck of a price!
It arrived via UPS ground in three days time. Immediately upon opening, I found out it was the Venture Plus (in a blister pack), not the Endeavor. After considerable cussing, I called J&R. A representative told me that “there must have been a mistake on the website” (bait & switch meets the internet). They were selling the Venture Plus, not the Endeavor. The representative said “It’s waterproof & it’s still a nice binocular, don’t you want to keep it?” I told him to give me a shipping label, so I could return it. He said he would do that and send it to me via email. I packed it up to ship out. I really wanted to open the package, but I didn’t want to cut open the Blister pack and have J&R accuse me of using the item and try to refuse an RMA. I called them a second time. This rep told me to go ahead and try it out and it would not be a problem and they would still take it back, if I wanted to return it.
So, here’s the story of what I found and my thoughts on the Venture Plus. As I said, it’s in a blister pack containing the binocular, a soft case, a strap, a manual and a cleaning cloth. (See the photos).
Specifications:
Power: 8
Diameter of objectives: 42mm
Prism Type: Bak4 Roof
Waterproof: Y
View Angle: 6.3°
Field of Viewm@1000m: 110m/1000m
Eye Relief: 19mm
Near focus(m): 2.5m;8.2 feet
Focus System: Inter focusing via central focusing knob
Lens coating: Fully multi-coated
Phase coating: Yes
Dimensions(L x W): 129x148
Weight(g): 650
I did find a cut away drawing of one of the Vanguard bins and it showed a Doublet objective with another lens just behind it and the eyepieces were two Doublets with a single lens between them. I can’t swear that this bin is the one I saw on the net.
I cut open the bin side of the pack first.
Visual impression- dust caps are no good for me. They do fit very snug, but the objective caps are a one piece design just like the eyepiece caps. They are of hard plastic with a strap slot in it, so you pull the dust cover off and it would be held by…. the strap?? How’s that going to work out on the objective end? It won’t work for me, so the objective cap is a waste and not useable. The eyepiece cap is one piece and of hard plastic with the same method of attaching to a strap. It will stay on well. I wouldn’t waste the time using it, so I’m not really concerned about it, but it would do the job.
Fit & finish – I’m really impressed in the fit of the rubber armor and overall finish of the bin. It is much better than I expected, for the price. The eyecups are your basic soft rubber cup that covers the twist assembly for eye relief. The twist adjustment for eye relief has no click stops, just one twist up or down. ¼ turn all the way up or down. There is also no lock at the full up position. I don’t like the lack of a positive lock in the up position or the lack of click stops. Once the cups are turned up, I did not find that pressure would push them down though. They do appear to stay in place. They are as solid as I have seen with the lower priced roof prism bins.
Appearance of the coatings on the lenses is good. It seems even and has the same hue on both objectives. The eyepiece lenses are large. I prefer that. The clearance from the eyepiece lens to the rubber cup (when it’s down) is about 3mm. The objective lenses are recessed over 5mm+, so the objectives are well protected. There are no threads for filters on the objective end. I believe the body is metal. It does not appear to be plastic or composite. The binoculars feel small in my hands. I find that I keep butting my thumbs together and they do seem a little too small for me. I don’t have really big hands either. The grip area is designed to have your thumbs facing forward towards the objective end. I don’t hold that way, so it feels awkward to me. It will take some getting used to. The strap is weird, with quick disconnects on it, so it is 3 separate pieces (see photo). One end of one strap is missing the friction clip that holds the doubled over strap from slipping. I will contact Vanguard about that and find out how good their customer service is. The case is just a cheap soft case with no padding in it.
See second Post for More Photos and the rest of the story...........
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