Cosmetic Issues (1 Viewer)

SUPPRESSOR said:

Lee,
As you say it is very puzzling and I don't have an answer for it I only posted what I see. There is a photo on the web (just type in zeiss sf binoculars and go on to images) that shows exactly what I had on my pair,the photo shows a pair of sf bins,collins bird guide, and a zeiss leather folder of some kind the grease marks are just like the ones I had.

Do you have bionic hands that could explain it!!

When the Zeiss Rep comes next week I am asking him to advise Zeiss to ship a tube of colgate extra white toothpaste and a toothbrush with every pair of SFs!!

It will be interesting to see if other future owners report the same marks as time goes on.
peter

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Pepsodent might work better. As the old TV jingle claimed:

"You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent."

I did a search for a discolored SF but couldn't find it. Could you post a link to that photo? I Am Curious Yellow

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brocknroller said:

Pepsodent might work better. As the old TV jingle claimed:

"You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent."

I did a search for a discolored SF but couldn't find it. Could you post a link to that photo? I Am Curious Yellow

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Brocko

Here is the link: https://twitter.com/birds_central/status/476653074967064576

Interested to hear what you think of the pic.

Lee

Troubador said:

Brocko

Here is the link: https://twitter.com/birds_central/status/476653074967064576

Interested to hear what you think of the pic.

Lee

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Other than the inside of the left barrel, which looks a little yellowish, and the outside edge of that same barrel opposite the focuser, I don't see it, and those yellowish shadowed areas could just be the color balance of the camera since the "B" in Bird Guide is also yellowish.

Wait a minute, I've got an idea. I just put on my Ambervision sunglasses, which I use to cut down glare at night while driving, and lo and behold, the whole bin looks yellow! :eek!:

I don't see it, but I believe that he can. Digital photos often do not bring out subtleties in color or texture. Even worse, they sometimes add "artifacts" that aren't really there. That happened with photos of some bins I was selling, which looked like they had spots on them. Those areas that looked lighter were due to reflection of the flash.

OTHO, digital photos can pick up stuff that's really there but that you can't see easily such as fine dust particles.

Brock

brocknroller said:

Other than the inside of the left barrel, which looks a little yellowish, and the outside edge of that same barrel opposite the focuser, I don't see it, and those yellowish shadowed areas could just be the color balance of the camera since the "B" in Bird Guide is also yellowish.

Wait a minute, I've got an idea. I just put on my Ambervision sunglasses, which I use to cut down glare at night while driving, and lo and behold, the whole bin looks yellow! :eek!:

I don't see it, but I believe that he can. Digital photos often do not bring out subtleties in color or texture. Even worse, they sometimes add "artifacts" that aren't really there. That happened with photos of some bins I was selling, which looked like they had spots on them. Those areas that looked lighter were due to reflection of the flash.

OTHO, digital photos can pick up stuff that's really there but that you can't see easily such as fine dust particles.

Brock

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Brockie
All kinds of photo media have created all sorts of illusions not just digital.

So, yes photos can be misleading. Gary's Dialyt 6x42 Skippers look blue in his on-line photo gallery and had me thinking they jumped a gun on the blue Terras by several decades but it turns out they are grey like the SFs.

Going back to the SF photo, the effect you can just about see could have any number of causes including reflected light from something out of picture. I don't want to make light of Suppressor's problem but rather want to get to the bottom of it.

Lee

I cant really see it either, I'm wondering if it's a discoloration similar to what I get on my Leupold Yosemites. The natural colored armor gets a little dingy very quickly. In the case of the Yosemites it's just oil from skin and dust and dirt. They live in a pretty dirty environment.

Takes a lot of scrubbing to clean, so I dont clean them.

Troubador said:

Brockie
All kinds of photo media have created all sorts of illusions not just digital.

So, yes photos can be misleading. Gary's Dialyt 6x42 Skippers look blue in his on-line photo gallery and had me thinking they jumped a gun on the blue Terras by several decades but it turns out they are grey like the SFs.

Going back to the SF photo, the effect you can just about see could have any number of causes including reflected light from something out of picture. I don't want to make light of Suppressor's problem but rather want to get to the bottom of it.

Lee

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Troubie,

Well, you're not helping his case with that photo!

True, analog cameras can create reflections and such, but digital cameras, particularly the point & shoot variety that I have (Coolpix) can really make some weird stuff happen. For example, digital zooms are crap. I was trying to take a photo of a squirrel in the backyard that I fed a peanut because it looked like it had something sticking out of its head, I suspect a bot fly nest, but the digital zoom under rather dismal conditions didn't do it much justice. Boosting the light control only made more "noise."

If I had my old Canon SLR analog camera with 100 ISO film, I could have increased the exposure or opened up the aperture and gotten more detail. Perhaps expensive higher pixel DSLRs with optical zooms can perform similarly, but not my Coolpix. For $99 + $39 for the memory card, it performs adequately in normal light, but under less than ideal conditions, the autofocus doesn't work, the digital zoom makes the image fuzzy, and the resulting pixelation shows artifacts that aren't there (or that only exist in a parallel world inhabited by pixies).

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I know of one SF that has been used by a professional for a year and spent a lot of time in Africa and shows no finger marks, so this case is quite curious. I see the OP has sold his SFs via the classifieds.

Lee

I actually got some of those stains on my bin today. It seems they appeared after I had been handling the rubber winged eyeshields I just bought. Maybe there's a reaction with the rubber? I scrubbed the stains off with household soap.

HN

I used to work in the rubber industry and all of the black rubbers I knew of were coloured black by the inclusion of 'carbon black' in the rubber compound.

I don't know if other means of making rubber black are available. None of the black rubbers made by the company I worked for left stains on your hands but maybe this could be possible from cheaply manufactured black rubbers and maybe this could transfer to the Zeiss armour.

A few days back I was handling quite a few black rubber o-rings several time but didn't get any marks on my hands afterwards.

Have you been handling those Steller's Eiders???

Lee

Troubador said:

Have you been handling those Steller's Eiders???

Lee

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Haven't handled any Steller's Eiders, as they have flown away to Siberia for the season. I did handle some crisps though (sour cream and black pepper to be exact), so that might also be an explanation!

HN

HighNorth said:

Haven't handled any Steller's Eiders, as they have flown away to Siberia for the season. I did handle some crisps though (sour cream and black pepper to be exact), so that might also be an explanation!

HN

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Ah. Cheap Soviet crisps made from worn-out armoured-personnel-carrier tyres. You will never have clean hands or clean conscience ever again :-O

Lee