Hello I am new to the is forum having found it while looking up info. on the Zeiss Dialyts(8x30)I just bought on Ebay. I have been an avid optics user for 40 years and always thought that the latest was the greatest but now i am intrigued by the idea of vintage glass. I love my Zeiss Dialyts they are the best bins I own and they are 50 years old. So now I want to get some vintage porro prism bins. I live in Rochester NY just a few miles from the old B&L factory; home of the famed Zephyr. (A fact i just learned on this forum.) but i understand they have a short eye relief and i am a lifelong eye glass wearer. I want to find really nice vintage porro bins. with a long eye relief , any suggestions? Thanks so much.
-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
vintage bins. with long ER (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Canoe13
- Start date
Steve C
Well-known member
Welcome to BF. You will not find any vintage porros with real ling eye relief. 12-13 will be about tops. There may be a couple I'm not aware of.
My B&L is something like 10 mm. There were a lot of wide angle porros those days, but eye relief was not a real concern back n the day. My interest is in the wide angle ones.
Hi Canoe13 and welcome to BF!
There are lots of vintage porros with long eye relief, the glitch is that they are usually military IF designs, so they are a pain to bird with.
The Zeiss Jena 7x40DF has superb eye relief, well over 20mm, as does the Russian 8x30BPO counterpart. Both are still reasonably available, optically excellent and very robust. They were designed to be used while wearing a gas mask, so long eye relief was essential.
If your purse is really deep, pick up an old Zeiss 8x60 UBoat glass, still probably a peak in binocular performance, great ease of view, but of course hugely expensive, big and heavy.
The modern equivalent to these may be the Fujinon 7x50FMTR, also big and heavy, also optically superb.
If big and heavy does not bother you, the best modern porro by far in my biased opinion is the Canon 10x42ISL, superb glass in a modern image stabilized configuration. At under $1500 on Amazon, it is a bargain.
There are lots of vintage porros with long eye relief, the glitch is that they are usually military IF designs, so they are a pain to bird with.
The Zeiss Jena 7x40DF has superb eye relief, well over 20mm, as does the Russian 8x30BPO counterpart. Both are still reasonably available, optically excellent and very robust. They were designed to be used while wearing a gas mask, so long eye relief was essential.
If your purse is really deep, pick up an old Zeiss 8x60 UBoat glass, still probably a peak in binocular performance, great ease of view, but of course hugely expensive, big and heavy.
The modern equivalent to these may be the Fujinon 7x50FMTR, also big and heavy, also optically superb.
If big and heavy does not bother you, the best modern porro by far in my biased opinion is the Canon 10x42ISL, superb glass in a modern image stabilized configuration. At under $1500 on Amazon, it is a bargain.
Almost every model produced in Japan with hard eyecups from 1947-1970
has 15mm eye relief or better once the eyecups are unscrewed.
It was considered a matter of proper design to support eyeglasses.
Most models also have the little half-round donut spacer to place them against glasses
without having glass-to-glass contact (and grinding). I sometimes tap a tiny bit of flexible
black shirt paint on the donut to eliminate all scratching.
The sharpest detail of any binoculars, esp. over 100 yds. , comes from
the SeeFar 7 x50s I have (Tokyo Kogaku, 'micro-screw' focuser).
They leave the 6.5x32 Meopta MeoPros behind in haze or glare.
They also have an eye relief of 20mm. They are quite rare, though.
A great deal more common is the Stellar 7x50 Independent focus,
Similar in having extremely deep contrast and long-distance performance,
a bit softer in focus at the edges.
The Scope 7x35 Amber Custom (Model 3010) has an extremely flat crisp field,
good color, a solid precision focuser, and 15+ mm eye relief. It may take a trace of
WD40 and some light butter-knife tapping to free up the eyecups.
The Kowa 7x35 Prominar, circa 1970, also has an excellent field, but unfortunately
the hard rubber eyecups demand more torque than I dare use to free them, so I
leave them in non-eyeglass mode.
The Tower 7x35 Featherweight has the best field of all Japanese oldies I have,
but just ekes out 13-15mm. It works for me with small glasses.
None of these models have 'blackouts'. It's a question of how close you
need to be to see the whole field.
A need for inner cleaning is one important aspect with classics.
Almost-perfect outer condition, other than a little dust, usually bodes
well for the prisms. A life in the back of Granpa's closet can yield
some amazinf specimens. A life in the garage or the bait-shack
leaves trouble. Scuffing of the paint on the front is not necessarily
a problem. Dents and puckers....beware.
Independent-focus models fare on average much better
for clean insides, but finer models of center-focus can be great.
Many oldies will need grease replacement on the diopter and WD40
loosening in the hinge and focuser. Bel-Ray bearing grease is great.
Lithium grease turns to glue in ~20 yrs. (I know, I have baked it out).
Old Bushnell Customs can be very easy for eyeglass use and have an excellent view.
Ditto for almost any old Fujinon.
A nice model, with maybe a comprehensive cleaning by Mssrs. Suddarth or others,
could make you and 2 more generations very happy. And...make sure the leather gets
a nice little sip of clear boot polish.
has 15mm eye relief or better once the eyecups are unscrewed.
It was considered a matter of proper design to support eyeglasses.
Most models also have the little half-round donut spacer to place them against glasses
without having glass-to-glass contact (and grinding). I sometimes tap a tiny bit of flexible
black shirt paint on the donut to eliminate all scratching.
The sharpest detail of any binoculars, esp. over 100 yds. , comes from
the SeeFar 7 x50s I have (Tokyo Kogaku, 'micro-screw' focuser).
They leave the 6.5x32 Meopta MeoPros behind in haze or glare.
They also have an eye relief of 20mm. They are quite rare, though.
A great deal more common is the Stellar 7x50 Independent focus,
Similar in having extremely deep contrast and long-distance performance,
a bit softer in focus at the edges.
The Scope 7x35 Amber Custom (Model 3010) has an extremely flat crisp field,
good color, a solid precision focuser, and 15+ mm eye relief. It may take a trace of
WD40 and some light butter-knife tapping to free up the eyecups.
The Kowa 7x35 Prominar, circa 1970, also has an excellent field, but unfortunately
the hard rubber eyecups demand more torque than I dare use to free them, so I
leave them in non-eyeglass mode.
The Tower 7x35 Featherweight has the best field of all Japanese oldies I have,
but just ekes out 13-15mm. It works for me with small glasses.
None of these models have 'blackouts'. It's a question of how close you
need to be to see the whole field.
A need for inner cleaning is one important aspect with classics.
Almost-perfect outer condition, other than a little dust, usually bodes
well for the prisms. A life in the back of Granpa's closet can yield
some amazinf specimens. A life in the garage or the bait-shack
leaves trouble. Scuffing of the paint on the front is not necessarily
a problem. Dents and puckers....beware.
Independent-focus models fare on average much better
for clean insides, but finer models of center-focus can be great.
Many oldies will need grease replacement on the diopter and WD40
loosening in the hinge and focuser. Bel-Ray bearing grease is great.
Lithium grease turns to glue in ~20 yrs. (I know, I have baked it out).
Old Bushnell Customs can be very easy for eyeglass use and have an excellent view.
Ditto for almost any old Fujinon.
A nice model, with maybe a comprehensive cleaning by Mssrs. Suddarth or others,
could make you and 2 more generations very happy. And...make sure the leather gets
a nice little sip of clear boot polish.
Last edited:
John Dracon
John Dracon
Optic... I have to echo your comments to Canoe 13, particularly about the Bushnell Custom line. They are extraordinarily well built. How many binoculars a half century old are still as functional as the Customs? Unless they are used in the fungus belt (high humidity, warm temperatures, the Borneo area, etc.) they are usually very clean and rarely out of collimation. They often can be picked up for less than $75.00 in the used binocular market. And Fujinon made? Most are absolutely superior. The Bushnell 7x35 Custom interestingly enough can differ slightly in body length. I have three pairs with three different lengths. From a distance they look identical. But they aren't. I picked up a pair of Fujinon Custom 7x35s with case at a pawn shop two weeks ago for $55. They are out there. Ebay will often have good buys. With the nylon inserts turned down on the 7x35, most eye glass wearers will get the full view.