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

modern military binoculars (1 Viewer)

Hi Bill,

over here you won't see many birders with Steiner bins - that's not necessarily due to bad optics but mainly due to the fact that their marketing is not really focused on birders as opposed to the hunting, military and maybe marine sector. Which is kinda understandable - Steiner is owned by Beretta Holding...

Regarding Made in Germany - Steiner touts that all Steiner bins are made in germany - I'll believe it after I have taken a factory tour and seen lenses ground and binoculars assembled - the $50 models too, please!

http://www.steiner-optics.com/faqs

Steiner also marketed IF bins as "autofocus" over here which didn't go well with birders... especially not with 8x and 10x magnifications. So boisterous marketing claims like the story about Karl Steiner are obviously a tradition that's still observed...

The top range - called wildlife XP today and peregrine XP before the facelift - not sure how much was changed optically - is rumoured to be not too shabby - with an MSRP of 2000€ (and street prices a lot below that - around 1250€) it better should be...

Joachim
 
Hi Bill,

over here you won't see many birders with Steiner bins - that's not necessarily due to bad optics but mainly due to the fact that their marketing is not really focused on birders as opposed to the hunting, military and maybe marine sector. Which is kinda understandable - Steiner is owned by Beretta Holding...

Regarding Made in Germany - Steiner touts that all Steiner bins are made in germany - I'll believe it after I have taken a factory tour and seen lenses ground and binoculars assembled - the $50 models too, please!

http://www.steiner-optics.com/faqs

Steiner also marketed IF bins as "autofocus" over here which didn't go well with birders... especially not with 8x and 10x magnifications. So boisterous marketing claims like the story about Karl Steiner are obviously a tradition that's still observed...

The top range - called wildlife XP today and peregrine XP before the facelift - not sure how much was changed optically - is rumoured to be not too shabby - with an MSRP of 2000€ (and street prices a lot below that - around 1250€) it better should be...

Joachim



Hi Joachim:

Steiner has been owned by Beretta since 2008, as far as them “touting” that “ALL Steiner bins are made in Germany,” unless things have changed DRAMATICALLY in the last few years, that’s a bald faced lie.

When the Steiner rep approached me (when I first saw the photo of Karl with his car on the bino) to sell Steiner, he told me: “We sell our binoculars to 22 armies around the world.” Then, when visited by Sven Harms of Pioneer Marketing (then the importer) he told me: “We don’t sell to 22 armies. Just one; the biggest.” One need not have a sensitive nose to smell a rat in all the double talk. But, we had never met and I let him continue.

Then, he started with that auto focus crap. I’ve made some good money writing articles and it all started with my attack on that dishonest sales tactic. Pioneer used it in Steiner ads and again on Navy One—now imported by Weems and Plath.

The text for my book was complete by the last week in December but I am having a hard time remembering my InDesign and Twin Falls is not a hotbed of Adobe help. The Steiner/auto focus connecting is covered prominently therein.

The reason I asked you to relate what the Germany people think of Steiner is because I have heard more than one European say that they’re living on a German name and are really not that popular in Germany. :cat:

Bill
 
Hi,

all the links are broken... on purpose btw - who had the great idea with this viglink abomination?

Regarding the bins - these look suspiciously like the german army Fero D12, also by Steiner. Let's just say they were not a big success...

Joachim

The more expensive military 8x30R model is not the same as the cheap and cheerful Military 8x30 as seen here https://www.adorama.com/st830mm.html
The Military R has similar coatings to the current Nighthunter Extreme which has an exceptional transmission graph http://www.allbinos.com/188-binoculars_review-Steiner_Night_Hunter_8x30_XP.html not that I've ever used one
 
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Hi Joachim:

When the Steiner rep approached me (when I first saw the photo of Karl with his car on the bino) to sell Steiner, he told me: “We sell our binoculars to 22 armies around the world.” Then, when visited by Sven Harms of Pioneer Marketing (then the importer) he told me: “We don’t sell to 22 armies. Just one; the biggest.” One need not have a sensitive nose to smell a rat in all the double talk. But, we had never met and I let him continue.

Bill

I don't understand the quote. If Pioneer sell to the US what has that got to do with the number of countries Steiner export military binoculars to ?
 
I don't understand the quote. If Pioneer sell to the US what has that got to do with the number of countries Steiner export military binoculars to ?

Plenty, if you're a sales rep wanting an account. He was trying to impress me with how many armies bought their product. I was familiar with the product, their primary technique for sales, and not that impressed. However, I was more impressed with the product than the rep. :cat:

Bill
 
The more expensive military 8x30R model is not the same as the cheap and cheerful Military 8x30 as seen here https://www.adorama.com/st830mm.html
The Military R has similar coatings to the current Nighthunter Extreme which has an exceptional transmission graph http://www.allbinos.com/188-binoculars_review-Steiner_Night_Hunter_8x30_XP.html not that I've ever used one

Hi,

the optics were not the problem of the Fero D12 - it was usable when fresh from the factory although the old Hensold DF offered a better view.

The problem was the Makrolon (a kind of polycarbonate plastic) body and the fact that they weren't designed to be serviceable (specialist labor is very expensive they told the german MoD - just buy a new pair, it's a lot cheaper - unfortunately in reality most of the maintenance was done by conscripts back then, who didn't earn a lot and couldn't really be sacked due to the draft).

The result was that my comrades in the maintenance unit who did small optics couldn't do a lot besides cleaning the Fero D12 while many cases of beer changed hands to get pairs of Hensold DF repaired with scrounged parts instead of writing them off and getting a Steiner...

Regarding the Nighthunter - at the price point I'd rather get an E2 if I want good optics for occasional birding or save up a bit and get a Swaro Habicht 8x30 in rubber armor if I expect to drag it through the jungle.

Joachim, who still has a 50 year old Hensold DF in the car and like it a lot
 
I have here two Hensoldt Wetzlar 8x30 monoculars made from a broken at the hinge binocular.
Objectives blue and uncoated.
Eyepieces blue one side, blue and orange other side. One side has the reticle, which is better for me to hold, although I prefer the non reticle view.
 
Hi,

the optics were not the problem of the Fero D12 - it was usable when fresh from the factory although the old Hensold DF offered a better view.

The problem was the Makrolon (a kind of polycarbonate plastic) body and the fact that they weren't designed to be serviceable (specialist labor is very expensive they told the german MoD - just buy a new pair, it's a lot cheaper - unfortunately in reality most of the maintenance was done by conscripts back then, who didn't earn a lot and couldn't really be sacked due to the draft).

The result was that my comrades in the maintenance unit who did small optics couldn't do a lot besides cleaning the Fero D12 while many cases of beer changed hands to get pairs of Hensold DF repaired with scrounged parts instead of writing them off and getting a Steiner...

Regarding the Nighthunter - at the price point I'd rather get an E2 if I want good optics for occasional birding or save up a bit and get a Swaro Habicht 8x30 in rubber armor if I expect to drag it through the jungle.

Joachim, who still has a 50 year old Hensold DF in the car and like it a lot

Why is a polycarbonate body a problem, Nikon Monarchs, among others, use them using threaded metal rings. Does the 8x30r use that construction method ?

Unfortunately Swarovski don't sell a rubber armored 8x30 to the public. I don't know if they even tendered for the British Army contract offering their 8x30 W GA bellow.

Steiner 7x50 marine layout
 

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Why is a polycarbonate body a problem, Nikon Monarchs, among others, use them using threaded metal rings. Does the 8x30r use that construction method ?

Unfortunately Swarovski don't sell a rubber armored 8x30 to the public. I don't know if they even tendered for the British Army contract offering their 8x30 W GA bellow.

Steiner 7x50 marine layout

Swarovski does deliver the 8x30 IF armored to the public.

Jan
 
Why is a polycarbonate body a problem

"The problem was the Makrolon (a kind of polycarbonate plastic) body and the fact that they weren't designed to be serviceable."

As in glued body - no way to open - the repair manual for this type was very short.

Joachim
 
If they are Chinese they'll have tiny microchips for Chinese surveillance installed.


This makes me regret sawing my Chinese military bins in half to make monoculars and then binning them anyway. Had I known, I would have derived some small satisfaction and pleasure to know that I was burdening somebody with the task of surveiling me ;). Alas, they'll now be surveiling the drooling toxic innards of a horrendous landfill dump.
 
Swedish Military Zeiss 6x30b

I'm pleased with this buy This may be an older Military binocular, but it views far better than my CZJ military type 7x40 and many of the later Eastern Bloc offerings. Marked with the Swedish Military 3 Crowns, made by Zeiss west, basically a military version of the Oberkochen Porro, all the rubber is good, the binocular is pretty much mint and the view is bright, sharp, with good colors and no bias or tint. Pretty much a joy to use, except it has a reticule in the right eyepiece, which ideally I would like to remove. I am a bit hesitant as although I have stripped and cleaned Oberkochens before, there may be aspects of this Military version that could be more complex, anyone have an idea of difficulty? Bill ? Frank? .
 

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Very nice, Ben.
I don't know about these, but some Swedish binoculars have I think Czech origins, in that refugees started their own brand in Sweden.
I can't remember the details.
Usually the 3 crowns indicates high quality in cameras and optics.

Sweden did not have an early optics industry and mainly bought in optics and cameras from Germany, Britain etc, and renamed them with their own codes. Particularly for aircraft cameras and lenses.
The Hasselblad was originally an aero camera I think.
 
Hi,

this swedish 6x30 looks more like it's derived from the Hensoldt DF 8x30 than from the Zeiss West 8x30 (Hensoldt was under the control of Carl Zeiss Stiftung since 1929 as an independent company and was integrated into Zeiss West around 1960 or so - after that Hensoldt was the label for Zeiss West military optics branch).

See Holgers page showing both pairs... the Zeiss West looks a lot shorter than the swedish 6x30.

http://www.holgermerlitz.de/zeiss8x30.html

EDIT: it seems there's two versions around... a stubby one looking indeed like Zeiss West and a longer one looking like a Hensoldt DF. Yours looks like the Zeiss on 2nd thoughs...

Hensoldt:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/DF-6x30-schw...hash=item543eedcf50:m:mZy6t7LZe_HmE3tbgE5c3cg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/binoculars/3107409995

Zeiss:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/RARITAT-Carl...839904?hash=item3d34eb48e0:g:O4UAAOSw4A5Yrapc

Joachim
 
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I'm pleased with this buy This may be an older Military binocular, but it views far better than my CZJ military type 7x40 and many of the later Eastern Bloc offerings. Marked with the Swedish Military 3 Crowns, made by Zeiss west, basically a military version of the Oberkochen Porro, all the rubber is good, the binocular is pretty much mint and the view is bright, sharp, with good colors and no bias or tint. Pretty much a joy to use, except it has a reticule in the right eyepiece, which ideally I would like to remove. I am a bit hesitant as although I have stripped and cleaned Oberkochens before, there may be aspects of this Military version that could be more complex, anyone have an idea of difficulty? Bill ? Frank? .

Hi Ben:

If I am the “Bill” you are speaking of, I would say you have a real winner. I’m sure it is much easier to deal with than the famed 7x40 “border glass.” The photos of both ends make it look simple to work on. Also the border glass, was notorious for allowing for “false” colors. Keep in mind that collimation will not be as simple as the myriad “helpful hints” on the Internet would imply. But, conditional alignment MIGHT be a snap. I haven’t worked on that one, so I don’t know with certainty. Either way, it’s a pretty piece.

I’ve lowered my Navy Mk 32 w/case, filters, and straps to $135.00 sold in the US. :cat:

Cheers,

Bill
 
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