Swarovski EL 10x32 SV Eye Cup Mod (1 Viewer)

It too long ago, I started a thread asking what I could do to help with the problem that the eye cups were did not extend out enough for me as I was getting back out in my ELs.

It was suggested to me to take a cross section of a bicycle tire inner tube to create a make shift eye cup extender. This worked great, however, I could not get over the fact that it didn't look so great.

I explained the problem to Swarovski and they decided to send me new eye cups to see if they would help at all. Well, this gave me the idea to try to modify the new eyecups.

I pulled of the rubber on the eye cups. This was quite easy to do as they weren't glued on too tight.

I bought a package of square cut o-rings:




Next I cut the o-rings to size and glued two o-rings to the rubber part of each eye cup. After the glue cured, I then glued the modified rubber parts back onto the metal housings.

Here's a picture of the finished product before it was reinstalled.




Note that I used two o-rings in each cup to get the height I was looking for.

Also, here's a picture of a non modified and a modified eye cup at full extension.




Finally I reinstalled the eye cups back on the bins and voila!

Here's a picture of one original eye cup and one modified eye cup on the bins.



You can see that I'm getting about 4-5mm more extension with the modification.

No more blackouts for me and the bins look close to factory fresh!

Bloodstriker said:

It too long ago, I started a thread asking what I could do to help with the problem that the eye cups were did not extend out enough for me as I was getting back out in my ELs.

It was suggested to me to take a cross section of a bicycle tire inner tube to create a make shift eye cup extender. This worked great, however, I could not get over the fact that it didn't look so great.

I explained the problem to Swarovski and they decided to send me new eye cups to see if they would help at all. Well, this gave me the idea to try to modify the new eyecups.

I pulled of the rubber on the eye cups. This was quite easy to do as they weren't glued on too tight.

I bought a package of square cut o-rings:

Next I cut the o-rings to size and glued two o-rings to the rubber part of each eye cup. After the glue cured, I then glued the modified rubber parts back onto the metal housings.

Here's a picture of the finished product before it was reinstalled.

Note that I used two o-rings in each cup to get the height I was looking for.

Also, here's a picture of a non modified and a modified eye cup at full extension.

Finally I reinstalled the eye cups back on the bins and voila!

Here's a picture of one original eye cup and one modified eye cup on the bins.

You can see that I'm getting about 4-5mm more extension with the modification.

No more blackouts for me and the bins look close to factory fresh!

Click to expand...

Very nice. Simple and effective.

Now, how can we get Swaro to offer eyecups that get us closer to the eyepiece. There's a lot of room between the rubber eyecup edge and the lens.
Do you have a photo of what the metal eyepiece looks like with the rubber cup removed?

Sorry, I forgot to take photos while everything was apart. I got a bit to excited to start on the project.

Bloodstriker said:

Sorry, I forgot to take photos while everything was apart. I got a bit to excited to start on the project.

Click to expand...

Not a problem. I realized after I mentioned it that the rubber eyecup touches the bin rim when fully closed so it's really the eyecup that needs to be shortened, not the supporting metal sleeve. Come on Swaro...make a set that gets us a little closer. Leica made the same mistake with the Trinovid/Ultravid. The Trinnies eyecup was much flatter and allowed for closer contact. The soft Ultravid eyecup (an improvement?) reduced effective eye relief enough to notice.

I do not get it: why you have not placed the o-rings UNDER the eyecups in their tubes around the eyepieces. That's exactly what I did to prevent blackouts in my SV 8x32 and it's an operation that does not require any...operation.

Peter

pesto said:

I do not get it: why you have not placed the o-rings UNDER the eyecups in their tubes around the eyepieces. That's exactly what I did to prevent blackouts in my SV 8x32 and it's an operation that does not require any...operation.

Peter

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you mean by placing the O rings under the eyecups? Could you provide a picture?

He means you can unscrew the eyecups, put rubber gaskets around the exposed threaded eyepiece, then screw the eyecups back down. Obviously they can't be screwed down as far as they did prior to adding gaskets, and you get the same result. I've had to do this very thing with 8x30 SLC and a Cabelas/Meopta 8x32 HD. The problem I ran into adding the gaskets was that depending on how many gaskets you had to add, you may be left with very few threads in which to screw the eyecups back onto.

jgraider said:

He means you can unscrew the eyecups, put rubber gaskets around the exposed threaded eyepiece, then screw the eyecups back down. Obviously they can't be screwed down as far as they did prior to adding gaskets, and you get the same result. I've had to do this very thing with 8x30 SLC and a Cabelas/Meopta 8x32 HD. The problem I ran into adding the gaskets was that depending on how many gaskets you had to add, you may be left with very few threads in which to screw the eyecups back onto.

Click to expand...

I'll be honest and say that I never thought of that solution. D'oh!