Nikon Premier Se Binoculars (1 Viewer)

elkcub said:

Sorry, Brock, I missed your post. I see it as a cry for help, so I'm passing on an interesting website dealing with several of these matters. Don't overlook the "Other Topics" at the end.

http://www.visualexpert.com/Resources/inattentionalblindness.html

Good luck,
Ed

Click to expand...

More like a "Cry in the Wilderness" but if the CA or rolling ball or excessive pincushion or field curvature or astigmatism get to me, I will tie myself to the barn like George Kennedy did in the movie in case I go mad.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071374/

Thanks for that link. I will peruse it after I get this next issue of the Bedford Marcellus Gazette to bed.

Brock

Sancho said:

I frequently forget where I put my keys, can easily forget about CA, but I simply can't forget all the stupid and embarrassing things I've done in the last five decades. And I prefer EII's to SE's. Does this make me a bad person?

Click to expand...

I hope not since I would also be a bad person since I also prefer the 8x EII. However, with the supersaturated humidity we've been having this week (along with tornadoes), the EII's armoring is starting to expand, so I had to switch to the 8x SE.

If I could find black body 8x EII that was as sharp, bright, and contrasty as my gray body, bubbly armored version, I'd sell the SE even though it has less "CA Conspicuity" than the EII in high contrast situations.

I will wait until I complete my CA "intentional blindness" training by listening to the Chemical Brothers on my MP3 player while I'm birding.

Brock

Sancho said:

I frequently forget where I put my keys, can easily forget about CA, but I simply can't forget all the stupid and embarrassing things I've done in the last five decades. And I prefer EII's to SE's. Does this make me a bad person?

Click to expand...

We are both bad, I loooove my EII. Just came back from Switzerland and looking at the Alps through them was breathtaking. Their wide AFOV (70 degrees, which IIRC is 10 degrees more than the SE) was ideal for the amazing panoramas. It's so addictive I cannot imagine now using anything with the AFOV below 65-ish. I was also very pleasantly surprised the CA was FAPP nonexistent despite the difficult, brilliant, purely black and white subjects like snow and rocks.

The moderately sub-zero temperatures on mountain peaks caused the focusing mechanism to stiffen a bit - it never locked up. When going down quickly on a cable car I kept the bin in a partially unzipped small camera bag I bought for it (Case Logic, never liked much the original Nikon pouch) and it never fogged up.

This reminds me of an old saying on film forums that all threads eventually end up discussing Andrei Tarkovsky. Here it seems all threads eventually talk about the Nikon 8x30 EII.

JanPB said:

This reminds me of an old saying on film forums that all threads eventually end up discussing Andrei Tarkovsky.

Click to expand...

:-O

JanPB said:

This reminds me of an old saying on film forums that all threads eventually end up discussing Andrei Tarkovsky. Here it seems all threads eventually talk about the Nikon 8x30 EII.

Click to expand...

I have a set of Tarkovsky Stalkers. 7.5x38. Way before their time for Soviet bins. though I think they ended up being OEMed in the West. The first to use with pro-reflective coatings and introspective "The Mirror" coatings on the prisms too.

Nice bins though you were never sure quite what you were looking at.

Kevin Purcell said:

I have a set of Tarkovsky Stalkers. 7.5x38. Way before their time for Soviet bins. though I think they ended up being OEMed in the West.

Click to expand...

In Italy, I believe |:d|

The first to use with pro-reflective coatings and introspective "The Mirror" coatings on the prisms too.

Click to expand...

He was also fond of his 1.0x model.

I think there are 2 other non scientific reasons for the uptick in CA reports over older glass. 20 years ago there was no such thing as a global community of scientifically minded citizens scrutinizing every little detail of their binoculars. Most high end consumers just didn't have the education about the product that they do today mainly from places like Birdforum and Starry nights. You could talk about it with your peers but you weren't debating CA issues in practical real time with people on the other side of the planet.

Plus the more expensive these get the more we expect out of them. You can buy a reliable used car for what a lot of alpha 42mm glass costs. This leads to people expecting every single little detail to be as perfect as possible. I know the best has always been expensive but alpha binocular prices seemed to have climbed relative to other goods faster than other things.

And one last factor, with phase coating and better lens coating tech the image and light transmission are much better now which probably makes the CA more visible or it leaves it as kind of the last thing to complain about because it seems like we are very near the limit of how good an image a compact lens system can produce. There will probably be no more huge jumps in technology. Well until the get a digital pair or perhaps a dieecletric prismless system if such thing is possible.

brocknroller said:

Nessus,

How did you get "audience" with a Nikon technician? I was told by more than one Nikon customer service rep that technicians aren't allowed to speak to the public (not sure if they are concerned that a confederate from the competition might call in and try to extract proprietary secrets or if they just don't want to waste their time, given they probably make good money).



Brock

Click to expand...

You are correct it was a service rep but he was no mere phone jockey. I pulled out all of the jargon and he was talking about all of the technicalities right there with me. I would have lost any salesman long before that point, the guy was extremely knowledgeable to the point that he might have even been a tech busted down to phone service, who knows. All I know is he knew his stuff just like the posters here and he worked for the company and told me without equivocation that he was dead on certain there wasn't a damn bit a of difference between the coatings on the slightly older pair of SE's I have and the new one's. For whatever that's worth.

Nessus said:

I think there are 2 other non scientific reasons for the uptick in CA reports over older glass. 20 years ago there was no such thing as a global community of scientifically minded citizens scrutinizing every little detail ............................................................................................

And one last factor, with phase coating and better lens coating tech the image and light transmission are much better now which probably makes the CA more visible or it leaves it as kind of the last thing to complain about because it seems like we are very near the limit of how good an image a compact lens system can produce. There will probably be no more huge jumps in technology. Well until the get a digital pair or perhaps a dieecletric prismless system if such thing is possible.

Click to expand...

And then, will that be a sign that we have taken one more step to put all our trust into digital technology and machines over the infinite analog variety of the human eyes, brain, mind and it's imagination?

Dare I even question whether this is progress?

Bob