Poorly treated Audubon (1 Viewer)

Bencw · Nov 24, 2013

As there has been nothing in the Swift section for awhile, I just thought I would post something just for the sake of it.

I found this Audubon gold going cheap, no wonder as it has been in the wars.
The front cap missing, battered, scraped, dented, one objective cap dented, bit of scuffing to one objective lens, but these must be pretty tough old bins as it performs as good as my almost mint one. Clean inside, super clear sharp wide angle view, in alignment despite the rough time it has obviously had.

A2GG · Nov 24, 2013

It has character

Binastro · Nov 24, 2013

. It is almost mint compared with some binoculars I've seen.

A few years ago a collector of vintage cameras with rather more money than sense came in to the local camera shop showing off his proud new Olympus OM 2 that a dealer had sold him as mint. It was a complete mess but the proud owner was convinced he had brought a mint camera.
he had previously brought in a similar condition Hasselblad thinking that was also mint

It's all in the mind, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Binastro · Nov 24, 2013

. This is off topic I know but perhaps this cautionary tale might be useful.
I was the honorary binocular and telescope adviser at the above camera shop.
The following I actually witnessed.
A gentleman came into the camera shop and the staff there spent quite a long time showing him a £1000 videocamera. But it was quite clear the person involved was going to get this thing elsewhere probably on the Internet.

As it so happened when he went out of the door there was shall we call her a lady with a holdall with a large zip. She indeed had a brand-new identical videocamera and she said she would sell it to him for £200 as she didn't need it.
He didn't have the money but she said she would wait till he went to the hole in the wall to get the £200 cash.
he came back with the money and she gave him the holdall. the transaction took place outside the front door of the shop.
This gentleman then I would say rather stupidly came back into the shop to say that he had bought the same camera for £200.
He then began to unzip the holdall to show us the videocamera but the zip would not move.
The zip was firmly sewn up and could not be moved.
He unpicked this with a pen knife.

In the holdall was a house brick and the so-called lady had vanished.

Bencw · Nov 24, 2013

Binastro said:
.

In the holdall was a house brick and the so-called lady had vanished.

Dear Binastro,

Good story, very true that if something seems to good to be true, it usually turns out this way. Also reminds of a similar trick a work friend fell for in Prague, many years back, he thought exchanging money from a street dealer at a better rate was a good idea, needless to say, he ended up with a few notes wrapped around a bundle of newspaper.

Chosun Juan · Nov 25, 2013

Annabeth2 said:
It has character

A candidate for a "beater bin" perhaps ...... |

|

Chosun :gh:

Simon S · Dec 2, 2013

I have a few pairs of these one really nice, and one a pair for spares with an eyepiece missing.
A nice wide fov and I prefer the view with the rubber eye cups removed from the binocular.

mayoayo · Dec 4, 2013

Binastro said:
. This is off topic I know but perhaps this cautionary tale might be useful.
I was the honorary binocular and telescope adviser at the above camera shop.
The following I actually witnessed.
A gentleman came into the camera shop and the staff there spent quite a long time showing him a £1000 videocamera. But it was quite clear the person involved was going to get this thing elsewhere probably on the Internet.

As it so happened when he went out of the door there was shall we call her a lady with a holdall with a large zip. She indeed had a brand-new identical videocamera and she said she would sell it to him for £200 as she didn't need it.
He didn't have the money but she said she would wait till he went to the hole in the wall to get the £200 cash.
he came back with the money and she gave him the holdall. the transaction took place outside the front door of the shop.
This gentleman then I would say rather stupidly came back into the shop to say that he had bought the same camera for £200.
He then began to unzip the holdall to show us the videocamera but the zip would not move.
The zip was firmly sewn up and could not be moved.
He unpicked this with a pen knife.

In the holdall was a house brick and the so-called lady had vanished.

I was that guy..I learned my lesson

OPTIC_NUT · Dec 18, 2013

The cover plates and end-trim almost always take a beating. I have a fair amount
of 'scrapped' binocs I can salvage for trim, but sometimes the dents can be tinkered
out with rounded nylon bolts and a little hammer. Sometimes they won't even come
off, though. time to cut. Cracking vinyl eyecups is another problem.
Sometimes a short piece of black HDPE pipe will do.
I really love the old bakelite eyecups....such great ribbing and drkness.
Perhaps I can splice them onto more modern binocs

Yours look in pretty good shape, though.
I cannot stand the ergonomics of any lens caps, myself. Poly gallon bags are
so much faster, more complete, and provide a fantastic condensation shroud
when coming in from the cold. I ignore the lack of caps when buying. Extra delay
in bringing the binocs to bear on the subject.

Poorly treated Audubon (1 Viewer)

More options

Bencw

Well-known member

Attachments

A2GG

Beth

Binastro

Well-known member

Binastro

Well-known member

Bencw

Well-known member

Chosun Juan

Given to Fly

Simon S

Well-known member

mayoayo

Well-known member

OPTIC_NUT

Well-known member

Similar threads

Users who are viewing this thread