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

What has happened to ZenRay? (1 Viewer)

NDhunter

NDhunter

Experienced observer
United States
For several months there have been very few posts about the
ZR optics, under 10, and more than that concerned about
quality and build issues.

The ZR Prime was to be the next Alpha beater, and we have not
heard much of a whisper.

Even the boosters have moved on to other brands.

Jerry
 
Jerry,

From an optics, build quality, and customer service standpoint, Z-R are fantastic. From a Quality Control standpoint, I still have my complaints - my 7x43 ED3 appears to be a very poor sample as the rubber armoring appears to be detaching from the underlying body and the outer sheath of the focus-knob separated. To the credit of Z-R, they quickly responded to my email and will likely replace the binocular with a better sample. I have looked through the 7x42 SLC Neu and 7x42 Trinovid BN and though I prefer other things, ergonomically, with those models, I believe the ED3 is distinctly superior from an optics standpoint.

I have not handled the Z-R Prime, but owned the Leupold BX-4 McKinley which is a very similar binocular. For me, it ranks right below some of the alphas I've handled (my favorite being the 8x42 SLC HD). Sharp, little CA, quite flat throughout the FoV but not a strong "rolling ball" effect, great ergonomics (personal), very good mechanics/build quality. I believe its issue is primarily that the large eyecups made the binocular unusable by some; Leupold is releasing a BX-4 with redesigned eyecups and I wonder if Z-R will follow suit.

Justin
 
QC issues seem to come and go now in makes from $80 to $800 and beyond.

When a pair had the (JTI) sticker from Japan, you knew the thing was solid and
on-track for the model. They need something like that now in China.
 
jremmons said:
Jerry,

From an optics, build quality, and customer service standpoint, Z-R are fantastic. From a Quality Control standpoint, I still have my complaints - my 7x43 ED3 appears to be a very poor sample as the rubber armoring appears to be detaching from the underlying body and the outer sheath of the focus-knob separated. To the credit of Z-R, they quickly responded to my email and will likely replace the binocular with a better sample. I have looked through the 7x42 SLC Neu and 7x42 Trinovid BN and though I prefer other things, ergonomically, with those models, I believe the ED3 is distinctly superior from an optics standpoint.

I have not handled the Z-R Prime, but owned the Leupold BX-4 McKinley which is a very similar binocular. For me, it ranks right below some of the alphas I've handled (my favorite being the 8x42 SLC HD). Sharp, little CA, quite flat throughout the FoV but not a strong "rolling ball" effect, great ergonomics (personal), very good mechanics/build quality. I believe its issue is primarily that the large eyecups made the binocular unusable by some; Leupold is releasing a BX-4 with redesigned eyecups and I wonder if Z-R will follow suit.

Justin
Click to expand...

You say the build quality is excellent? But, isn't that what your complaint is surmised of build quality?
And how is the Zen optically superior to the SLC neu?
You have them both in possession?
I've never even seen a review with both in a sentence?
If you have I would like to read it.

Bryce...
 
stereotruckdriver said:
You say the build quality is excellent? But, isn't that what your complaint is surmised of build quality?
And how is the Zen optically superior to the SLC neu?
You have them both in possession?
I've never even seen a review with both in a sentence?
If you have I would like to read it.

Bryce...
Click to expand...

The reason I asked is because I had both 8 & 10x Zen primes.
So when someone makes a bold statement saying Zen is superior,
It brings up a red flag real quick.

Bryce...
 
Bryce,

I guess I should have said design or something as opposed to quality; everything from baffling, to the eye cups, to the focus knob "felt" great. I've read few reports with issues to similar to mine so I assume it is the control of the quality as opposed to the design itself that is the issue.

I found the ED3 to have a larger sweetspot and better CA control than the SLC Neu. I tested them side by side in the field for about 30 min - as you may note from my other posts I get the chance to look through a wide range of binos due to my work at a few heavily birded Wildlife Refuges. The Neu may have been brighter. Sharpness and control of stray light seemed quite similar - superb in both, at least to my eyes.

A lot of people seem to have issues with the Z-R Prime/Leupold McKinley. I think it has more to do with the eyecup design than the optics themselves - I think the McKinley/Prime are very comparable to other sub-1000 optics (e.g. Conquest HD, Meostar HD) but then I didn't have an issue with poor eye-related ergonomics.

I will state that everyone's opinion may greatly differ from my own experiences; different eyes see differently, and different people are more sensitive to certain aberrations than others.

All the best,
Justin
 
Last edited:
Justin, I'm not picking on you personally.

I own the 7x42 SLC, the one I have now is last year of manufacture.

I have had the lenses upgraded to easy clean.

Its my favorite binocular so I'm very familiar with its traits.

Bryce...
 
For several months there have been very few posts about the
ZR optics, under 10, and more than that concerned about
quality and build issues.
Click to expand...

Happy ZR costumers are probably spending their time using their optics in the field. I have had 4 diferent ZR models (I own 3 now) and only my 7x36ED2 after 2 years of daily use had a diopter drift problem wich ZR costumer service promptly resolved.
 
Perhaps, but I suspect there are also people like me who may have had one problem or another and got tired of the silence after multiple attempts to contact ZR.


Rui_Caratão said:
Happy ZR costumers are probably spending their time using their optics in the field. I have had 4 diferent ZR models (I own 3 now) and only my 7x36ED2 after 2 years of daily use had a diopter drift problem wich ZR costumer service promptly resolved.
Click to expand...
 
Jerry, thanks for checking in on us. We at Zen-Ray have been focused on continuing to improve the product quality and consistency in the last 12 months. It is the type of work that does not involve much glory or spotlight like introducing new products. But I am happy to report that we have seen great deal of improvements over the last few months.

Even with other commitments, I am always happy to be part of the BirdForum community. If you need any assistance immediately, please feel free to PM me here.

Happy Birding.

Charles

BTW, did I mention a new BirdForum Contest/Giveaway is coming up soon? ;)
 
ZEN-RAY said:
Jerry, thanks for checking in on us. We at Zen-Ray have been focused on continuing to improve the product quality and consistency in the last 12 months. It is the type of work that does not involve much glory or spotlight like introducing new products. But I am happy to report that we have seen great deal of improvements over the last few months.

Even with other commitments, I am always happy to be part of the BirdForum community. If you need any assistance immediately, please feel free to PM me here.

Happy Birding.

Charles

BTW, did I mention a new BirdForum Contest/Giveaway is coming up soon? ;)
Click to expand...

Contest? Where do we sign up?
 
Hi all, First post and just getting into bird watching. I have a pair of 10X43 Zen Ray binoculars that I bought several years ago. About half of my friends have asked me to send them the info on them after looking through them. I've been extremely happy with them. Just saved up enough money to buy a spotting scope too. Decided on the Zen Ray prime HD 82mm scope. The scope arrived the other day and as with the binoculars, the build quality is excellent. I did however notice immediately that the image has almost like tiny specs or bubbles in it. I've looked though about 20 different scopes on my quest (not the Zen Ray, took a chance) and never saw what I'm experiencing in my scope. It's quite strange and I'm not sure if it's normal, you don't actually see the specs in the picture when your eye is in alignment and the eyepiece is filled with the image, but if I move my eye to the side where I can see black, or if I pull my eye back a few inches to where I'm seeing the image as a smaller circle surrounded by black, and look "into" the scope body instead of at the image, I see tiny spots. They don't look like dust specks, but almost like bubbles. I have no idea what to make of it. Not sure if this is a manufacturing defect or not. I've contacted Zen Ray through their site a few days ago, but have heard nothing. I'm concerned that the retailer won't take it back if I don't get this resolved shortly. I'll follow up on this post once I find out more, but the QC issue concerns may have some merit.
 
Hello gwh68 and welcome to the forum.

I also have a Prime 82mm scope with the wide angle eye piece. I believe I understand what you are describing, so I pulled out my scope to see if I could duplicate it. I was hand holding it, but I did not see any spots or bubbles. What you describe does not sound normal and you are smart for getting it checked out.

Have you removed the eye piece from the body to see if you could determine which component has the spots?

I have found that sometimes Zen-Ray will drop an e-mail. If you have not heard back by the next day, then do a resend. I get the impression there is a lot going on without a very big staff. They may be somewhat disorganized, but they have been good in ultimately handling product issues.
 
Hi Bruce,
Thank you for the reply. Great idea about separating the two pieces and inspecting them. I took out my 800 lumen cree flashlight and carefully inspected both pieces. I couldn't see anything telltale in either of them, but when I put them together and looked through at the light shining on the wall, and pulled my eye back and looked into the body, I could see the dots again. I even carefully took the supplied lens cloth and cleaned all the surfaces, but these definitely don't look like dust (which I've seen in camera lenses) and the effect it has on the image, these are just like tiny little bubble looking things. I can only see it when looking at bright images such as looking at the mountains the other day from my bedroom window, or looking out over the lake. The light seems to highlight them. I took your advice and sent a direct email over instead of relying on the form on their site, I'll give them a few days. I'm sure they'll get back to me, I've heard very good things about their customer service.
Thank you again for checking, makes me feel better to know that this isn't normal and I'm not just being high maintenance!
 
Definitely keep pressing and get them repaired. Charles will take care of the problem eventually. I've seen issues like this with less expensive scopes, either internal dust or specks that don't show up until the focus is just so.

I think Bruce is right that they must be short staffed and overworked, many times we have had posts here on this forum from someone saying "where is Charles? I'm emailing and calling and no response!" Thankfully Charles' heart is in the right place and their customer service always makes good.... Eventually. But frankly it's frustrating to see and somewhat unacceptable for a company of their growing stature.

I know it's tough with a small business but IMO there is no excuse for ignoring customer queries for days, that's business 101 there. And it's a reason why Zen-Ray is well behind an upstart-made-good like Vortex which has phenomenal service and rapid turnaround time for repairs.

Every time I've dealt with Vortex/Eagle Optics for repairs they have been not only fast but responsive. I get an email notification signifying receipt when the product gets there, and always within a week another notification that repairs were made and it's on the way back. Contrast that with the times I've dealt with Zen-Ray, I send something in and kind of hang out and twiddle my thumbs for a couple of weeks and then start sending follow up emails until I finally hear back from Charles that the repairs are being done.

Now I don't want to scare you -- again, Charles is awesome and has ALWAYS made good in the end. And I've owned quite a few of their products, and the optics-to-dollar ratio is always first rate. But I think if they can't solve their issues with QC consistency and customer responsiveness it's going to impede their ability to survive long term.
 
To gwh68,

I apologize for the problem that you are experiencing with the spotting scope. Since I haven't seen similar problem previously, could you please send it back to us so we can take a look what the issue is? We will take care of this until the problem is completely resolved.

Thanks

Charles

P.S. For all fellow BF members, instead of posting a question on the forum, it is better to PM me directly if you need any assistance with purchasing or service. It is the best way to escalate any issue to my personal attention. I promise you that I will respond to your PM within 12 hours or less.
 
Thank you Charles,
I'll pack it back up and send it to you on Monday, I did receive your email as well so thank you for the reply. I was at the Raptor facilities that I volunteer at today and was looking through the owner's Leica scope at a owl in its nest and a pair of redtail hawks. Kept looking for any sign of these "dots" to see if it was just normal, but his was picture perfect so it must be something with this particular unit.
I'll keep everyone in the loop,
Brian
 
Got my response from Zen Ray. Maybe I'm being too picky, but I don't think there should be anything, whether in the optical cone or not that can show within the lens under any circumstances. This makes me question their quality control and what other issues may be looming with this scope and the conditions under which they might present themselves.

Response from Zen Ray:
Hi Brian,

I spent this afternoon to try to replicate the phenomenon you described. Finally I got it. What you and I see is the optical artifact outside the nominal optical zone (outside the exit pupil of the eyepiece). It is combination of lighting condition that shows the some internal sidewall of the eyepiece. I won't worry about it. It is completely normal. The optical performance is optimized in the visible optical cone as defined by the exit pupil of the device.
 
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