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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Terra ED (1 Viewer)

kkokkolis said:
I wonder, just for historical reasons, and since Zeiss seems to have tried hard to offer cheaper models to the public a while ago, how is the Zeiss Terra ED optically compared to the Zeiss Diafun of the past? Or the first generation Conquests? Or the first Dialyts?
By the way, the Diafuns and first Victories are among the ugliest binoculars I have ever seen (only in pics, never in person), although I undestand they might look modern then.
Click to expand...

You can not compare a modern Zeiss designed (OK, built/outsourced Far East) and with current technology equiped model with a Zeiss designed (Hungary built) model/equiped from the 90's.
I rate them better than the older models, which never did it for me.
The current Conquest (Japanese origine) is a totally different animal.
Having said this, the 7x42 Dialyt is very hard to beat even by the modern 42 Conquests.

Jan
 
Then why they stopped making (or updating) that Dialyt?
Dialyt may be a neologism btw, but in Greek it means "solvent".
 
Konstantinos - I believe that Dialyt is not a neologism but rather a specific optical term. See Wikipedia for info. The Diafun was "underwhelming" in construction. Super light. So-so optics. And using American western slang, they were "coyote" ugly. The Terra 8x32 while not considered an alpha by the Zeiss hierarchy is a very good binocular for everyday use. For the obsessives who put 30X behind the oculars, some optical faults will be revealed. I say, ho hum! The Terra 8x32 has a slower focus-er than the 8x42 - 1.5 complete turns of the wheel from one extreme to the other. I like it.

Why dropping or upgrading the venerable Dialyt 7x42? My hunch is that it was too funky for some. Also used AK prisms. Also used "old fashion" eye cups ( which work for me) and it is difficult to make really waterproof. Regardless, it is a top notch glass for birders.

John Dracon aka Ioannis Dracopulos. Dracon is Anglicized spelling. Father came to the US as young man known as Theophanis George Dracopulos, sired and abandoned four children and returned to Greece where he died in Athens in 1962.
 
Thanks for all the useful info. So Dialyt(e) is a Greek term after all, meaning the "dialysis", dissolution or splitting of optical elements.
Yes, that Diafun was UGLY! Not fun at all. And Hungary just after the political changes of 1989 had nothing to do with the industrial supergiant of today, China. But I like that about Zeiss, their commitment to give affordable optics to the public. I think they succeeded this after all, since not just Terra but Conquest also are affordable (by me at least).
Your surname anglicisation is very successful Yannis! Best regards.
 
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You probably have watched that American movie titled "My Great Big Fat Greek Wedding"? The stereotyping is hilarious (and here in America quite true)
Remember the father of the bride telling everyone that the Greeks invented everything? So is it any wonder that Dialyt is a Greek term?

Anyway, I find your contributions coming from Greece delightful. Thousands of years ago, we probably had some genetic link.

Regards to you, too.

Yannis
 
Most Zeiss terms are Latin, but they used Greek numbering with Latin terminals in the past, Octarem, Dodecarem and such. They must sound funny in English speaking ears, but not as much as Triskaidekaphobia.
Genetics have nothing to do with such things, it's all about culture.
 
Hi Konnie (hope you don't mind Konnie)

Greek-based words aren't too unfamiliar to English ears although we don't always remember where they come from.

Octarem for example is only a step away from Octave and Octagon and Octapus. Words like archaeology come from Greek and on this forum phrases like chromatic aberration take chroma for colour from Greek.

In the world of biology the scientific names of species are often referred to as 'Latin names' which is quite wrong as a lot of them contain Greek.

Lee
 
Konnie sounds strange for my, call me Kostas if you like.
Greeks had a peculiar civilization that will strike you if you think about it. Greek-Roman civilization is what most of us are familiar with and the mix of Greek and Roman elements is what spermed the modern world. Greece itself continued under this Grecoroman regime (with many romanizations in language) for another 1100 years, as the Byzantine (or Eastern Roman) Empire. Studying etymology (my wife is in linguistics) you see the continuum, as the Ancient Greek languange itself contains even more archaic roots of words and some (then) contemporary from the Phoenicians, Aegyptians, Mesopotamians and Persians. So nothing really started from everywhere, things evolve continuously (something true for optics too, for our great pleasure), and our place in the Eastern Mediterranean sea made our countries a significant node.
 
Kostas

I am surprised to hear of the Persian influence but no mention of arabic (in its many dialects) or aramaic which come from sources closer to Greece.

Lee
 
Troubador said:
Kostas

I am surprised to hear of the Persian influence but no mention of arabic (in its many dialects) or aramaic which come from sources closer to Greece.

Lee
Click to expand...

Arabs came later into the scene (Byzantine times) and Judes adopted Greek language as a lingua franca of the time, rather than the opposite. They wrote most of the New Testament in Greek after all.

Are we off topic now? That wasn't my intention as I didn't expect that much attention.
 
Kostas - Wandering off topic IMO is one way of keeping a potentially boring topic interesting. No harm. Our brains need a rest now and then. Some of us are retired and fighting off boredom constantly.

Ancient Greeks were the world's greatest story tellers in their myths. Almost 3,000 years later we are still learning from them, for "Greek myths abound in vitality and have something to say - wise, witty, bawdy or beautiful - about every conceivable human situation."

Even us innocents studying in Buffalo High back in the 1950s, thinking that a thesaurus was a kind of dinosaur, had read a little bit about the Trojan war.

Yannis
 
This has become, for me, possibly the most interesting one I have read in a long time. I am embarrassed that I have nothing interesting to contribute. But when J and K's people were writing poetry and building temples, mine were collecting each others' heads.
 
Sancho said:
This has become, for me, possibly the most interesting one I have read in a long time. I am embarrassed that I have nothing interesting to contribute. But when J and K's people were writing poetry and building temples, mine were collecting each others' heads.
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I'm also interested in the off-topic discussion (and with my Irish ancestry, I probably have the head-collectors in background :t:).

But also trying to be on-topic, I've posted a review of my Terra EDs in the review section of the forum:

http://www.birdforum.net/reviews/showproduct.php/product/465/

..and I'd be interested to know others' views (whether in agreement or otherwise). Especially so from Konstantinos, who recently has (or has had) the same binoculars as me but is replacing them with the equivalent Conquests. He has talked a little about his reasons, but I (for one) would like to know more, especially the trade-offs between better performance and the (substantial) increase in price. That's not a "right or wrong" thing, more a "how did you calculate the value equation?" thing...

...Mike
 
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I'll read the review and answer later, when I'll have the time.

The interesting thing with the Terra's is that there isn't interest in any of my classifieds (BF, Cloudy Nights and Astrovox, a local astronomy forum) and I said I am open to exchanges and offers. That means that people don't believe how good it is in my opinion, or that it has an unfavorable cost/value quote. So I still have it and I was able to test it with USAF 1951 and see that their resolution difference is so marginal that it might be a placebo.

It seems I will keep it as a guest binocular (and another Zeiss for my kids when I leave this world) and I might add the 32 too, unless I get a Maven B3 for more or less the same money.

The differences between these two Zeiss lines was the first personal experience with the cost/effectiveness curve in binoculars, something I already experienced in other optics using eyepieces from Baader, Explore Scientific and Televue.
 
kkokkolis said:
I'll read the review and answer later, when I'll have the time.

The interesting thing with the Terra's is that there isn't interest in any of my classifieds (BF, Cloudy Nights and Astrovox, a local astronomy forum) and I said I am open to exchanges and offers. That means that people don't believe how good it is in my opinion, or that it has an unfavorable cost/value quote. So I still have it and I was able to test it with USAF 1951 and see that their resolution difference is so marginal that it might be a placebo.

It seems I will keep it as a guest binocular (and another Zeiss for my kids when I leave this world) and I might add the 32 too, unless I get a Maven B3 for more or less the same money.

The differences between these two Zeiss lines was the first personal experience with the cost/effectiveness curve in binoculars, something I already experienced in other optics using eyepieces from Baader, Explore Scientific and Televue.
Click to expand...


I think it's a pricing issue combined with the fact that it easily obtainable. They can still be found for around or slightly more than $300 around here. They are excellent binoculars.
 
Hats of to Dave Barry. The folks who believe they understand mental illness tell us we are all a little bit mentally ill. It is just that some of us control it better than others.
 
John Dracon said:
Hats of to Dave Barry. The folks who believe they understand mental illness tell us we are all a little bit mentally ill. It is just that some of us control it better than others.
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But John, since the people saying this, by definition, are also several layers short of a full multi-coating, can we believe them?? :smoke:

And how do they define mental illness? By someone's apparently inaccurate view of reality? Don't lets get started on reality as seen by different folks or we will end up talking about binoculars again. :king:

Lee
 
Lee - Isn't that what you want, for us to start talking about binoculars again? I'm for that. Just making a comment that was intended to be humorous. That's all.

John
 
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