Loose armour on Trinovid (1 Viewer)

I purchased a new Trinovid 8x42 a few months ago and have been rather happy with its performance. However, I recently became aware of some kind of clicking sound when I press its armour down with my thumb. On close inspection, I noticed the rubber armour bending very slightly when pressed down, less than 0.5 mm. It doesn't seem to be attached to the metallic body in about 2/3 of its surface on one barrel. Luckily the edges of the armour are attached to the body. When the finger pressure is released, the armour pops up a bit and because there is still some stickiness between the rubber and metal, it "clicks" when getting detached from the metal. This happens on one barrel only.

I contacted Leica and they asked me to send the Trinovid in for inspection-loose armour is covered by the warranty.

I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience and is this something I should be concerned about at all? The armour doesn't actually feel loose and if it wasn't for the clicking sound, I wouldn't be aware of it. Is this likely to get worse?

I am deliberating because my holidays are approaching and I somehow don't think this will be a quick fix.:C I would like to have my binoculars with me.
Thanks,
Joseph

Joseph:

Welcome to Birdforum ! If you are going on holiday be sure to take your new
Leica. This issue will not affect the performance, so enjoy using them, and send
them in for repair later.

Jerry

Joseph,

I don't know how long before you go on holiday, but even if Leica could guarantee that the Trinniy would be repaired and back before then, you never know what could happen to cause a delay, particularly if they have to be sent to Germany. I'd take the bin on holiday as is, and then send it for repairs after I got back. It's not a critical issue that will affect the bin's performance. But do get it fixed, you paid good money for it, it should work properly.

Brock

I have an Ultravid, and sometimes the armour also feels a bit loose (if I look for it and squeeze it ...), especially in very hot weather. The armour is not glued to the body, that is normoal, it won't come off, so in principle nothing to worry about. If it really bothers you, send it in later when you don't need the bins for some time.

Thank you all for your replies. This loose armour seems not to be uncommon, I wonder if Leica will regard this as a "normal condition".
I just went to check what the armour is like on my wife's Vortex Viper- guess what: it is also loose in the middle. Should I really consider this as a normal condition then?
You are right about the timing, the binoculars will still be under warranty by the time I am back from holidays, so there is no reason to rush.
Joseph

Hi Joseph,
I recently bought a pair of the new Trinovid 8x42 and they appear flawless, no loose armour anywhere. Whether it loosens up over time is yet to be seen but I'd be sending them in after you return from holidays to be repaired or replaced.
They are great binoculars, I'm very happy with mine.

jhorvath, post 1,
I think that the armour of many binoculars is not fully glued to the body. It will be quite a difficult taks to replace damaged armours if the armour is glued allover.
Gijs van Ginkel

I have an impression (but may be wrong) that the armour expands in cold temperatures (the same happens with my tent, it is very tight in the heat of the day, but it gets sloppy in cold nights). Many people said the armour is not glued across all of its area and I remember it felt quite tight in the summer. But then again, this is the opposite to what Florian says above.
Joseph

I wouldn't lose sleep over it. You can find a video by a lady (posted here somewhere) who leads birding tours who took her Swarovski to SONA for refurbishing and you can see the woman who was in charge of the refurbishing tearing the covering of it off with only her painted finger nails! Although her nails suffered no damage we also can conclude that the covering on it was good enough to protect the binocular. The covering of the Leica looks like it is even tougher so it should be OK.

Bob

I would definitely have it checked after your vacation. It may well be that the loose area expands with time and you get an actual bubble. I had something like that happen to my Zeiss FL 8x42 some years ago. No more such irritations now, after they redid it.