Zeiss: Recent Optical Evolution (Large Bins) (1 Viewer)

Zeiss: Recent Optical Evolution

Hi

See the attached document to compare the optical trains of recent large format Zeiss bins from venerable Dialyt 8x56 to the new SF.

The move towards ever thinner objective lenses is clear.

THE ATTACHMENT HAS BEEN CORRECTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH HENRY'S POST BELOW.

Lee

Hi

In the attachment you can follow the changes of the Zeiss Schmidt-Pechan prism binoculars from Dialyt to SF.

Lee

Troubador said:

Hi

See the attached document to compare the optical trains of recent large format Zeiss bins from venerable Dialyt 8x56 to the new SF.

The move towards ever thinner objective lenses is clear.

Lee

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Nice find Lee:t:

jan van daalen said:

Nice find Lee:t:

Click to expand...

Thanks Jan

Like several folks on BF I have had these drawings lurking in my files for ages and I thought it would be useful to copy and paste some together.

As Henry has pointed out the older cutaways are works of art, while the later ones are, ahem, functional :smoke:

Lee

Thanks for posting those, Lee. One correction needs to be made. The center binocular in the first attachment is the original Victory 8x56, not the 8x56 FL.

Henry

henry link said:

Thanks for posting those, Lee. One correction needs to be made. The center binocular in the first attachment is the original Victory 8x56, not the 8x56 FL.

Henry

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Dead right Henry and thanks for pointing that out so quickly. :t:

Do you have an FL sectional drawing or the computer-generated sawn-in-half image?

Lee

Lee,

This is the only cutaway of the 8x56 FL I've seen. Somewhere I have a brochure with a similar one for the original Victory 8x56.

The biggest difference you can see between the 8x56 FL and other Zeiss binoculars is the doublet focusing lens instead of a singlet. I've never been able to figure out whether the eyepiece is four elements or five.

Henry

henry link said:

Lee,

This is the only cutaway of the 8x56 FL I've seen. Somewhere I have a brochure with a similar one for the original Victory 8x56.

The biggest difference you can see between the 8x56 FL and other Zeiss binoculars is the doublet focusing lens instead of a singlet. I've never been able to figure out whether the eyepiece is four elements or five.

Henry

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Thanks Henry,

Yes thats the only one that I have found and you are right about the eyepiece. Can't quite see what is happening there for certain, even dragging the pic out into the biggest size possible.

Lee

That's a good compilation, Lee! The SF definitely follows a design philosophy that differs from the Victory line. Most notably a return back to the cemented doublet on the objective side, then - unusually - a positive focusing lens, and then the field-flattener on the eyepiece side. The eyepiece is of considerable complexity, which is no surprise, since it has to cover such a wide apparent angle of view. The simplification of the objective, if it performs well, is certainly a great achievement of Seil's design. Making a good triplet is probably a challenge every average optical designer can take, but given the low number of degrees of freedom of a doublet it requires a master designer to succeed.

Cheers,
Holger

Holger Merlitz said:

That's a good compilation, Lee! The SF definitely follows a design philosophy that differs from the Victory line. Most notably a return back to the cemented doublet on the objective side, then - unusually - a positive focusing lens, and then the field-flattener on the eyepiece side. The eyepiece is of considerable complexity, which is no surprise, since it has to cover such a wide apparent angle of view. The simplification of the objective, if it performs well, is certainly a great achievement of Seil's design. Making a good triplet is probably a challenge every average optical designer can take, but given the low number of degrees of freedom of a doublet it requires a master designer to succeed.

Cheers,
Holger

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Thanks Holger.

SF is certainly a startling departure for Zeiss and I understand it took Seil and Dobler some 'sleep-overs' in the office before an optical solution was found to satisfy the concept. After that came many months of optomising opposing requirements.

Will the production SF be perfect? Of course not. Bins are the sum of a great many compromises that we find fascinating here on BF. Will it be a great instrument? I believe so.

Perfection in bins is hard to define to everyone's satisfaction and impossible to achieve. Zeiss's FL achieved popularity despite some enthusiasts' dislike of it's astigmatism and distortions. Certainly these factors did not disturb my enjoyment of them. Meantime Swaro's EL SV with rolling ball that makes a few feel nauseous and an uneven focus tension that annoys others, has been a great success in the market, and deservedly so.

I think SF has the potential to be seen as a landmark instrument but we need to evaluate production units to be sure about this and it is nice to think that the first units are already out there in the UK and Netherlands.

Lee