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How do old Zeiss Dialyts and Leitz Trinovids stand up? (1 Viewer)

MacGee

Well-known member
I was watching an episode of 'The Life of Birds,' in which David Attenborough was using what looked like a nifty pair of old Leitz Trinovid binoculars. I thought they looked quite elegant, and there were no primary colours or geometrical shapes anywhere. I've read that roof prism binoculars must have BaK-4 prisms and be phase-coated and fully multi-coated, but I've also seen much praise heaped on the Leitz Trinovids and Zeiss Dialyts (pre red dot and blue square). Yet presumably they can't have all these modern blessings. Are they still worth buying?

Michael.
 
The Zeiss may be worth buying, depending on the date they were made. I suggest you go to the Zeiss Forum herein and read the various threads from 10/18/06 onward to familiarize yourself with what the initials on the various Zeiss binoculars stand for. That way you will be able to tell if they are "phase coated" etc. Apparently Zeiss added it's new improvements to the Dialyts as they "invented" them.

The Leitz Trinovids used "Uppendahl" (do I have that right?) Roof Prisms which Leica stopped using with their new Trinovid BN models which replaced the old Leitz Trinovids in 1995 or so. Parts are probably hard to get for them by now. I'll find out soon. I have a Leitz 7 x 42 Trinovid BA which suddenly developed a collimation problem. I'll be shipping it off to Leica in a few days for an estimate. I hope it can be fixed because it is still a very sharp, bright binocular when in working condition, even without phase coating.

Cordially,
Bob
 
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MacGee said:
I was watching an episode of 'The Life of Birds,' in which David Attenborough was using what looked like a nifty pair of old Leitz Trinovid binoculars. I thought they looked quite elegant, and there were no primary colours or geometrical shapes anywhere. I've read that roof prism binoculars must have BaK-4 prisms and be phase-coated and fully multi-coated, but I've also seen much praise heaped on the Leitz Trinovids and Zeiss Dialyts (pre red dot and blue square). Yet presumably they can't have all these modern blessings. Are they still worth buying?

Michael.

The binoculars are Zeiss 10x40,. Schmidt Pechan prism
 
mak said:
The binoculars are Zeiss 10x40,. Schmidt Pechan prism

What comes after the 10 x 40? By this I mean, what initials, abbreviations, asterisks etc come after the 10 x 42? (Like 10 x 42ClassiC/B/GA/*P----etc.)
That info will tell you the relative age of the binocular and the type of coatings it has, etc.

See Zeiss forum thread: Zeiss 7 x 42B/GA-----dated 10/19/06. And other recent threads posted at that time.
 
mak said:
The binoculars are Zeiss 10x40,. Schmidt Pechan prism
Probably he uses more than one pair in the series. The ones I'm thinking of appear in episode 4, The Meat Eaters, 48 minutes in. I've enclosed a picture.

Michael.
 

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MacGee said:
Probably he uses more than one pair in the series. The ones I'm thinking of appear in episode 4, The Meat Eaters, 48 minutes in. I've enclosed a picture.

Michael.
Its hard to tell from the picture, but I think it looks more like a Leitz Trinovid than a Zeiss Dialyt.
 
MacGee said:
Probably he uses more than one pair in the series. The ones I'm thinking of appear in episode 4, The Meat Eaters, 48 minutes in. I've enclosed a picture.

Michael.
Mr. MacGee, is that you in the thumbnail?
 
The binoculars that you ask about are nice collectable instruments, but they do not compare favorably with the fully multicoated/phase coated instruments of today.
A Dialyt or a Leitz from the 1970' or early 1980' will be surpassed optically by almost any $400 roof prism sold today.
Sorry to break the news to you.
 
My Leitz 7x42 B+BA bought in 1990 are still excellent bins. I've used them a fair amount and taken them on trips and they are still in perfect shape mechanically and optically. They haven't been knocked around as much as bins I use when hunting... though they do seem solid and sturdy they are a bit heavy and not water resistant or water proof.
 
Lou H said:
My Leitz 7x42 B+BA bought in 1990 are still excellent bins. I've used them a fair amount and taken them on trips and they are still in perfect shape mechanically and optically. They haven't been knocked around as much as bins I use when hunting... though they do seem solid and sturdy they are a bit heavy and not water resistant or water proof.

The binoculars in the picture are most likely Leica/Leitz Trinovids. But they are the pre-"tank" version. I have a pair 10x40 which is very small compared to the later Trinovids. I bought them around 1974 or 75. They are by no means of comparable quality to the later Trinovids. At the time, I had always wondered why my wife's relatively cheap 8x40 porros were right up to the Leicas in picture quality. I have since learned here on BF that roof models are inherently inferior as long as they don't have phase coating on the prisms. And those old Trinovids have no phase coating.

As an aside, as those 10x40s are so incredibly handy, compared to what is generally used today, I wonder whether there would be a market for them in a phase-coated version!
 
Swissboy said:
As an aside, as those 10x40s are so incredibly handy, compared to what is generally used today, I wonder whether there would be a market for them in a phase-coated version!

My recollection is that the Leitz 10 x 40 Trinovids are approximately the same size and weight as the Zeiss 10 x 40 Dialyt Classics, which for the latter part of their production run were phase coated. Despite the limitations of the design (showerproof, not waterproof, and old timey roll down eyecups), the Zeiss 10 x 40 Classics are still optically formidable and very handy, indeed. Just a thought.
 
chartwell99 said:
My recollection is that the Leitz 10 x 40 Trinovids are approximately the same size and weight as the Zeiss 10 x 40 Dialyt Classics, which for the latter part of their production run were phase coated. Despite the limitations of the design (showerproof, not waterproof, and old timey roll down eyecups), the Zeiss 10 x 40 Classics are still optically formidable and very handy, indeed. Just a thought.

Yes, I had been evaluating both types before I got those Leicas in the 70's. What made me get the Leicas was the fact that there was this (to me) very annoying rolling effect when panning. Leica says they purposely added a bit of edge distortion to avoid that effect. Whatever one thinks about that, it worked for me.

I should add that I did have problems because the bins are not fully waterproof.
 
chartwell99 said:
My recollection is that the Leitz 10 x 40 Trinovids are approximately the same size and weight as the Zeiss 10 x 40 Dialyt Classics, which for the latter part of their production run were phase coated. Despite the limitations of the design (showerproof, not waterproof, and old timey roll down eyecups), the Zeiss 10 x 40 Classics are still optically formidable and very handy, indeed. Just a thought.
How can you tell whether a particular Dialyt/ClassiC is phase-coated? The one in this auction, for example? And are they worth buying at all if not phase-coated?

Michael.
 
The ones that are phase coated are marked P* (T*P*). The one in that auction is T* only, not phase coated. Way overpriced. For that money you can still find a few T*P* versions. They sell for $700 on US online sites and are well worth the price.
 
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Luca said:
The ones that are phase coated are marked P* (T*P*). The one in that auction is T* only, not phase coated. Way overpriced. For that money you can still find a few T*P* versions. They sell for $700 on US online sites and are well worth the price.
Thanks. I know that might seem obvious, but I remember reading that, at some point, Zeiss stopped using the P* designation because by then all their binoculars were phase-coated.

Does anyone know the history of the ClassiC; when it was introduced and when it was discontinued? I believe phase coatings began in 1988.

Michael.
 
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MacGee said:
Thanks. I know that might seem obvious, but I remember reading that, at some point, Zeiss stopped using the P* designation because by then all their binoculars were phase-coated.

Does anyone know the history of the ClassiC; when it was introduced and when it was discontinued? I believe phase coatings began in 1988.

Michael.

I know that between 1995 and 2005 all the ClassicC sold in US had the T*P* mark. The ones not marked P* are most likely older that 1988-1989 and are not phase coated.
ClassicC 8x30 can still be found for less than $600 at moosegear.com
 
Luca said:
I know that between 1995 and 2005 all the ClassicC sold in US had the T*P* mark. The ones not marked P* are most likely older that 1988-1989 and are not phase coated.
ClassicC 8x30 can still be found for less than $600 at moosegear.com

All the markings on my 1990 Zeiss 7x42s...

SF
 

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