Vintage and Classic Binoculars (1 Viewer)

At a flea market this a.m., I picked up a pair of Selsi " lightweight Amber Coated 525' @ 1000 yards Luminous" 7x35. All metal, very well built. Not the best eye relief but it does have roll down eye-cups. Came with the original case, and do not think it was used much. A piece of gold thread was still attached holding a plastic badge that says "extra wide angle binoculars". strap attached. Inspection stickers intact. Gold plastic eyepiece and objective covers.

They are surprisingly good, optically. I do not get the full 10 degrees, having to wear glasses, but I do get I estimate about 8.5.
Not bad for $3.:t:

Good find Jay, I have many wide angle 7x35 and 8x40's in my possession they are all a pleasure to look through.

How best to sell old binoculars? I used to collect them, mainly British ones, but no longer interested. I have for example 10 Ross binoculars, ranging from 6x30 wide angle, circa 1930, a 9x32 of similar vintage, through 7x42 "Tropical" former Royal Danish Navy to my 10x70 ex WW2 Royal Navy binocular. All with cases (except the 10x70) and all usable and as clean as one could expect given their ages.
I also have 7 or 8 Kershaws inc 9x36, 10x50 and 12x50 and a batch of Barr & Strouds inc. 10x42, 12x50 and 15x60. Similar conditions to the Ross's.
Nearly all purchased off ebay and cleaned professionally as required.


Ron

PS also a 1930s Ross prismatic telescope in a solid leather case.

PPS and a batch of Wrays

You could sell them on ebay, you get good prices, but PM me with the list if you would?

You could sell them on ebay, you get good prices, but PM me with the list if you would?

what time period are we looking at to class a pair of binoculars as vintage.

Almost anything within reason I think.

Here are three classic German Porro 7x50's
All three are single coated The first is the Jenoptem, a wide angle binocular with good optics sharp and fairly well controled image. Later T3M versions have a slight warm tone but this example is neutral.
Then the Busch Marlux, the same FOV as the Jenoptem, not quite as good in image sharpness and not quite as bright. This may well be due to the tenable condition this binocular was in before restoration.
And at the bottom the Leitz Marseptit, the best central resolution of all three, but narrow in FOV.
For overall performance the Jenoptem wins, but my favourite is the Leitz.

Simon S said:

Here are three classic German Porro 7x50's
All three are single coated The first is the Jenoptem, a wide angle binocular with good optics sharp and fairly well controled image. Later T3M versions have a slight warm tone but this example is neutral.
Then the Busch Marlux, the same FOV as the Jenoptem, not quite as good in image sharpness and not quite as bright. This may well be due to the tenable condition this binocular was in before restoration.
And at the bottom the Leitz Marseptit, the best central resolution of all three, but narrow in FOV.
For overall performance the Jenoptem wins, but my favourite is the Leitz.

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There's something about these old Leitz... I recently acquired a circa 1950's Leitz 10X60 Decimarit fairly inexpensively because the leatherette was badly flaking off, a common failing. I planned to restore and then sell for a small profit, but it is optically so good it has quickly become one of my favorite 10X's and there's no way I'm selling it now. It is a very large binocular and has a somewhat narrow 5.8 deg FOV but the image is just so sharp and so easily brought into focus. It is one of the most comfortable 10X's I have ever used just like the Leitz Binuxit from the same time period is one of the most comfortable viewing 8X30's I have.

Tasco Safari 6x24 roof

Hi all, anyone there who knows anything about this 70's model from Tasco?
It sports a whooping 184 m /1000 m FOV and is fully coated.
I'd guess it has a very short eye relief and a smallish sweet spot, but am wondering whether it is a decent model or not?

//L

Fan Tao used to maintain the 'binofan' web site, which was a treasury of information on earlier vintage gear, including several wide angle Tasco models. I've lost the link unfortunately, but perhaps some other fan of his will supply that.
Meanwhile, 184 meters FoV is not that ambitious for a 6x glass, the old Leica Amplivid mirror/prism 6x24 glass offered 212 meters, albeit with eye relief below 10 mm, or at least it felt like it.

Simon S - Have enjoyed looking at your binocular collection. Some observations. You show a Canon 7x35. Apparently, Canon marketed two different 7x35s. One was so-so and the other outstanding. Yours is the so-so model. Buying sight unseen through the mail is not that helpful. One has to examine them to see the difference. The only clue without actually having them is the case it comes with. If it is black, it is so-so; if brown, superior. Of course I'm generalizing.

I once recommended on Bird Forum the Canon 7x35 without differentiating between the two models. A fellow bought one and was disappointed. His was the so-so model your collection displays. I rate the later model to provide a better image than the B&L Zephyr, and it allows eye glass wearers to get the full view (w/ eyecups removed).

Your Bushnell Rangemaster 7x35 FPO must be a the first generation. Strange that it doesn't have high index prisms. I have two FPOs, with and without silver trim - both are outstanding. Both have high index prisms. Evidently, the Japanese manufacturers went through an evolution of sorts when they began production.

I note figgy 2010's reference to his Rangemaster FPO (silver trim) as one of the last binoculars, if not the last he would part with. I agree with him. The FPOs are so well made, and have a truly wide field with a huge sweet spot, and the 3-D effect is so
pronounced, that I defy anyone looking through them to come away without being highly impressed.

Here we have a sixty-year old model with old coatings which will rival anything in its class today. The view is like looking through the Nikon 8x32 SE without sharp edges. The FPO is that good. I'm not given to exaggertions, but if a reader doubts me, get a hold of the Rangemaster 7x35 FPO and look for your self. Better yet, try to talk an owner of one of these into selling it to you.

A glass like this confirms my belief that all these so-called great advances in binoculars today ignore the fact that the Japanese were on the cutting edge with old technology sixty years ago.

Your collection certainly is a wonderful thing to share with all the optical "nuts" out in cyber land. Thank you.

John

etudiant said:

Fan Tao used to maintain the 'binofan' web site, which was a treasury of information on earlier vintage gear, including several wide angle Tasco models. I've lost the link unfortunately, but perhaps some other fan of his will supply that.
Meanwhile, 184 meters FoV is not that ambitious for a 6x glass, the old Leica Amplivid mirror/prism 6x24 glass offered 212 meters, albeit with eye relief below 10 mm, or at least it felt like it.

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Thanks, I'll try to find it. The 63 degrees AFOV of this binocular may be quite modest, but it seems very few binoculars of this low magnification have wide AFOVs, compared to those ultra-wide 7x35s and some 10x50s.
63 degrees is about what we have come to expect from modern 8x32s.

A well-made, modern 6x24 or 7x30 roof with a really wide AFOV would be great to use. I doubt the Trinovid or Amplivid 6x24 are as good as the pricing suggests.


//L

Looksharp - Many years ago I succumbed to the Leitz propaganda and latched onto every model the Trinovid series had including the 6x24. Had several of those and kept thinking the image would improve by repeated viewing. But alas, it didn't. Now all the Trinovids were beautifully crafted, and the 6x24 was a cute little thing. But optically it couldn't match a pair of Bushnells off Ebay costing $30. I was intrigued by the exorbitant price asked for the 6x24. Evidently, it tickled someone's fancy, because people bought and traded for them. Such is the reality of a scarce commodity some collector just has to have. Or some girl friend or wife just plain likes. Or what status sometimes becomes. Anyway, a Bushnell Custom 6x25 with its 8 degree field costing less than $100 is the way to go. IMO.

John

Just to add a bit of color, the Amplivid was an extreme challenge to assemble correctly, as the mirror elements were a beast to align. So maintenance outside of the factory was about impossible. Additionally, the mirrors turned out to be much more prone to aging than the glass elements, so the visual performance decayed fairly rapidly from a very good start. The glass has a cult following despite these issues, another example of the extreme quirkyness of binocular aficionados.

Thanks guys!
The Tasco 6x24 would hardly be better than the Amplivid, and since I'm not really into collecting, I pass it by.
etudiant, would the technical difficulties of the 6x24 apply to the old Trinovid 7x35 and 7x42 models as well?
It seems there are more of them out there than the Dialyt 7x42, and the prices are more reasonable. Does this suggest that the Dialyt's image quality is superior?

//L

I'm no Leitz expert, but afaik, the 6x24 Amplivid was a unique design which was never carried over into any other Leitz model, perhaps for good reason. The Trinovids that came after it all were conventional roof prism glasses, no mirrors.
That said, there was a lot of variation in the Trinovid designs, if the FoV specs are any indication.
If memory serves, the 8x42 for example came in variants with 140, 128 and 110 meter FoV over the years, with the field shrinking gradually, perhaps because eye relief was increasingly recognized as an important parameter, but also maybe because of cost constraints.
The Leitz 7x42 did not quite match the Dialyt's 150m FoV, which may account for its less exalted status among collectors.
There is probably a technical history of Leitz binoculars somewhere, something akin to the documentation Company Seven has on the web regarding Zeiss, but I'm not aware of it.

I don't have any Trinovids although I have several circa 1950's Leitz Porros (Binuxit 8X30, Decimarit 10X60, Mardocit 12X60) and these are superb binoculars. It's my impression that optically the Uppendahl prism Trinovids were not equal to the Porros they replaced although ergonomically they were far superior which was their great attraction. Opinions??

LPT said:

I don't have any Trinovids although I have several circa 1950's Leitz Porros (Binuxit 8X30, Decimarit 10X60, Mardocit 12X60) and these are superb binoculars. It's my impression that optically the Uppendahl prism Trinovids were not equal to the Porros they replaced although ergonomically they were far superior which was their great attraction. Opinions??

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Good ergonomics really make a difference.
I've never had a glass as handy as the Leitz 7x35, even though its optical performance was no match to the comparable Zeiss or Leitz porros. Add in some water resistance (it was rubber armored) to seal the deal, it was the glass that came along.
It may be that roofs were at an inherent disadvantage optically until the emergence of phase matching coatings.

i have had a few pairs of binoculars over the years rubber armoured 10x40 by tasco circa
1978, in very recent times a pair of 10x50 prinz,s from the 1990,s the lense,s always
closed together when you opened them due to their weight i gave these away to a good cause to conservation issues in africa they obviously just wanted tightening up in the
middle to prevent them closeing, but the pair of binoculars i have done the bulk of my birdwatching from are a pair of 8x30 charles frank frank nipole coated optics with a field
of 7.5 circa 1971 from glasgow all metal and leather grips, their light weight along with
their comfortable feel in your hands have made them a good working binocular, the downside on them is that they steam up quickly in cold conditions and the barrel
wheel along with the focusing eye piece can get quite stiff at times in cold conditions.
in early june jane turner had mentioned in the bird forum a pair of WW11 KRIESGMARINE
7x50 binoculars that were up for sale in her local auction carl zeiss jena early coated optics circa 1939 for coastal artillery would have liked to have seen how they performed
in the field for one or two days.