?? for Leupold Cascade porro owners. (1 Viewer)

I just received a brand New Leupold Cascade 8x42 internal focus porro binocular and had a couple ?'s. First of all the view looks as if it is going to be great and will compliment the other binoculars that I have if...I can fix a couple issues with them.

1. The first is an issue with the look through the lenses looking different in terms of color hue. The essence of the problem was apparent when I went to do the adjustment on the diopter setting. What was real weird was when I closed one eye or covered it to do the setting adjustment the view was much different in each eye when it came to color hue. It was almost like you were looking at different coatings applied to each side. It was a sunny day here and at first I was looking at a Douglas Fir tree to set the adjustment and when I looked through the (L) lens it looked through looked clear enough but when I looked through the (R) lens it had a real apparent warm -almost yellow amber cast to it. I thought " boy that is weird". I closed each eye back and forth slowly and it was real apparent that there was a big difference in the apparent color. I then looked to the North about a mile across our valley where the sun was shinning on some dirt on a hillside and also at a big area of some pine needle droppings on the ground under some firs. It was the same thing-the right side was much more of an amber hue. It was not just me, I had my Wife and Son look through them and they said the same thing. The view through them is outstanding but this difference in hue is just weird.

I spoke with Leupold today about it and they said it was probably an alignment issue that they can probably fix.
The Leupold Tech said color issues can show up with alignment problems. The thing is -the collimation looks fine.


2. The only other thing that I noticed was the focus on them really favors the far counter clockwise part of the focus wheel rotation. The overall focus travel on them is real long which is ok, but when you look about 600 yards to a mile away you are almost bottomed out at the far end of the counter clock wise rotation. There is not much room at all to rotate any further after that. It seems as if even through there is quite a bit of turning involved with the full range of the focus wheel-most of the effective range of the focusing is in the far end of the rotation on the counter clockwise side. I don't know if that is normal for these or not, I just thought that it was different.

Overall, I think these are going to be great; I will just need to have Leupold look at them. If anyone has any insight-please let me know.

Stephen B - Perhaps an optometrist or opthamologist or an optics engineer can give an explanation that makes sense. Regarding hue, you should be seeing only one hue when using both eyes. One of my eyes sees color more brilliantly than the other, but when using my binoculars, there is only one hue. I guess the brain organizes these things for us.

It is possible that one the optical elements (objective lens, ocular lens, prisms) and the coating differs in each barrel. The assumption that all optical elements are made from the same batch of glass may be incorrect. Also, the number of coatings may vary slightly.Looking at the reflections of a light bulb from the objective end, do all reflections show the same color?

I had a pair of Zeiss binoculars which had different reflected colors from the coatings, but it was optically excellent. The really important thing is how the binocular resolves details. AS long as you can reach infinity when you focus, you are OK. Your Cascade porro is an excellent piece of optics for the money. Some people feel the FOV is too limited, but I find it OK. Really good definition and DOF. John

Thanks John for the response to my ?

I played with them this AM on a cloudy day and the Hue is definitely still different. I have never seen anything like this in any other binocular that I have or have seen. John, you are correct in that I don't notice it hardly at all when both eyes are open.

But one thing I did notice - was with the diopter Adj. wheel is that I have to go almost to the end of the adj. (within less than one setting of the end) counter clockwise to get = clarity. It looks as if the range on these is only about 3.5 -4 markings on these + and - and I am almost at 3 in the counter clockwise direction. On most binoculars I am only about .5 to about 1 setting mark either way depending on the bino to achieve equal clarity. So that tells me that these are probably for sure out of alignment. and the Leupold Tech I talked to yesterday thought that they were just on the basis of the color hue difference.

Another thing I found out today about the focus wheel is that these bino's have about approx. 2 full turns of total rotation. When I checked their actual effective focal range I found out that I am almost to the end of counter clockwise rotation at only about 100-150 yards with only about 1/16 to 1/8 more turn necessary to achieve clarity at about 2 miles (infinity basically as far as focus goes). When I checked focus of the stated close focus of about 11 feet I found I only moved the focus wheel about 1/2 a turn from the max. focus distance. So this focus wheel on mine has about 2 full revolutions and the total effective focus adjustment range on mine is only about 1/2 turn total and it is all in the end range of the counter clockwise rotation. Basically the 1.5 turns to the clockwise direction beyond the close focus direction achieves no purpose.

So I think my pair is defective and I am hoping Leupold can fix them because the Tech said they don't have any more of these porros left. I am not going to be able to return them because I got them from a seller on another forum. He has offered to take them back, but I would like to see what can be done because the view on these is simply fantastic. I compared them to a very well known and well thought of $550 roof bino and these Cascades BLEW them and I mean BLEW them away when it came to brightness, resolution and overall clarity. Thanks for the help and feedback, I appreciate it.

Stephen - Being retired I have much "uncommitted" time, so I took my 8x42 Leupold Cascade porros out for an examination. Just as yours, the complete focus wheel range is two complete turns. However, I can focus down to 10.5 feet - measured from objective end to object, and from there it is one and a half turns to infinity. There is one half turn beyond infinity when the focus wheel stops. Focusing is continuous throughout the entire range. When I set the diopiter on the left barrel when focused down, it stays constant throughout the entire focusing range. It appears that you have a "timing" problem with your adjustment mechanism. The hue thing baffles me. Let us know what you find out is the problem. John

Thanks for the info John. After playing with mine a little more the last few days, I realized that the length of travel in the focus wheel is longer than I thought. From the near focus distance of 10.5 feet to infinity focus the travel on mine is actually closer to just over one revolution. The only thing that I do not like on mine is that when I get to the focus range of 300 yards I am getting close to the end and when I get to infinity focus, I am right at the very end with only about 1/8 inch more of focus wheel travel. It does come into focus at the long distance range, I just do not like the feel of being right at the end. It seems as if there is 2 full revolutions for the focus wheel, it does not have to be that way. Especially when there is not anything going on on the other end of the focus wheel travel in the 3/4 of a turn past the part of the near focus. I as still debating on whether I am going to send these in to Leupold.

I have checked the hue issue and I am ashamed to admit that I missed the boat on this-apparently it is my eyes. I checked with other binoculars that I have including a Swarovski 7x30 SLC and it seem as if my eyes see things slightly different. My (R) non- dominate eye sees things just a little warmer than my other eye. Things were so bright with the Cascades, I thought it was the binocular. I also checked with a 8x32 Nikon SE and same thing-the R eye sees just a little bit warmer hue when I switch my eyes by closing back and forth. I never really noticed this before. It makes no difference when both eyes are open though.

Thanks for the input.

John, -How much room do you have left in your focus wheel on the cascades when you get to the infinity focus? You stated above about a half a turn, I hardly have anything. Thanks

Stephen - I'm not sure my private message reached you or not. When at infinity my wheel continues past that for a half turn, and of course the focus changes.
I have never disassembled a Cascade porro, unlike dozens of the traditional porros, so I don't know how the internal focusing mechanism works or how it looks. Yours may be a "timing" issue. But I really can't tell without "breaking into one." I guess as long as you can close focus and reach infinity without difficulty, why go to the bother of returning them? On the other hand Leupold may do something to change things. John

There has been some discussion here recently about how far a binocular will focus beyond infinity. This seems to be important to people who are very near sighted and have big corrections for it on the glasses they wear. I can't remember the details but maybe someone will jump in here and explain it further?
Bob

Bob: overrun beyond "infinity" is of use to short-sighted folks (myopes) without glasses who need negative correction. Underrun at close focus is needed by far-sighted folks (hyperopes) without glasses who need more positive correction.

Is stephen b a little short sighted and using the bins without glasses?

My Cascades have about 0.3 to 0.4 turns of overrun.

Stephen B: My eyes also render color differently, with a red bias in my left eye. Simply flipping the binoculars right to left is the best way to test whether it's you or the optics.

Regarding infinity overrun, my Yosemite 6x30 run substantially past infinity. I am extremely myopic and I can focus on medium to distant objects without glasses.

John,- Maybe my PM system is not working right. It says I have lots of capacity, but have not received one from you. I sent you one also, did you get it?

I think I am reaching the focus with the infinity range, but it is right at the end and there is no more room. As to my eyesight-I am somewhat (20 /35-20/40) nearsighted and do wear glasses, but I do use my binoculars quite a bit with out them on for long term viewing. so yes this from Kevin is correct: "Is stephen b a little short sighted and using the bins without glasses?"

I think I am going to just send these up to Leupold and see if a simple correction is needed to balance this out for me so I have a little more room for rotation beyond infinity.

David- Thanks for that simple tip. I never thought about turning them around to check. I did confirm it was indeed my eyes when I checked other binoculars. I never really noticed it until I went to set the diopter on these cascades.

Thanks for all the input, I really appreciate it.

Stephen - Yes, I did. Sounds like you need to send them back to Leupold. John

Kevin Purcell said:

Bob: overrun beyond "infinity" is of use to short-sighted folks (myopes) without glasses who need negative correction. Underrun at close focus is needed by far-sighted folks (hyperopes) without glasses who need more positive correction.

Is stephen b a little short sighted and using the bins without glasses?

My Cascades have about 0.3 to 0.4 turns of overrun.

Click to expand...

Well I learned something new today and something about these binoculars today.

Kevin was right on about the glasses issue. Thanks. I had only been trying out these Cascades with out my glasses on since I do quite a bit of my binocular work without my glasses on. Well, with my glasses on I found out that I do indeed have about 1/3 to 1/4 more focus wheel rotation beyond infinity with my glasses on. I had never really had an issue with other binoculars before without my glasses on, so I never even thought of that being The issue. It just bugged me that I was at the very end of focus wheel rotation with infinity focus. I guess all that should have mattered was that I could indeed focus at that infinity range.

I must say I feel a bit embarrassed about not figuring this out earlier. Thanks for the help guys. I guess I would have found this out when I put my glasses on eventually and would have realized that was the issue. I guess I jumped to a conclusion that it was the binocular since I had not experienced this before.

Thanks again- I will try not to jump so fast to conclusions in the future.