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

Decent price for Zeiss bins? (1 Viewer)

Alexis Powell said:
I had my Zeiss 7x42 Classics out the other day and had the same reaction that I always do--wow! They're so easy to look through, and fit my hands and face better than any other. I've bought a lot of bins in an effort to find something that surpasses their performance, including the 8x32 FL that Dennis thinks is so superior, but I'm not sure any are as satisfying as those 7x42. Other bins may surpass them in one respect or another, but w/respect to their overall performance, for me, these are competitive with all the latest and greatest. I don't feel the same way about any other roof prism bins of their era.

--AP
Click to expand...

I think Alexis hit the nail right on the head. I own and use a bunch of bins but my two favorites are my 8x42 Ultravid and 8x32 Nikon SE. That said I am a bino nut, maybe not to the level of most here, but I try as many high end ones as I can find, in stores, outside, taken home for a weekend, borrowed from friends, ect. I have tried all of the latest Zeiss, Swaro, Nikon and Leica, and find things about each that I like, but for my eyes (this is very individualistic), I have never been "wowed" by the Zeiss FLs, they are great but always come in 3rd or 4th place against the other alphas.

Then one day out at a birdwatching refuge I came across a group of bird watchers and noticed this one lady was holding a 7x42 Zeiss Classic. I asked if I could look through them. I know that technically the newer Zeiss FLs are brighter, have better coatings on lenses and prisms, are more streamlined and lighter with better water proofing, but one look through those gave me that "wow" that I had been missing. And it's not just a seven power thing as I tried a 7x42 Ultravid against my 8x42 BRs and didn't really notice that much difference. I can't say that I would trade my Ultravids for them, but I think you would be very happy with them, and $800.00 is in the ballpark, I have seen mint 7x42 Classics go as low as $750.00, but that was last year.

John

edit: I just saw the $700.00 price. Now I want to buy them!
 
Last edited:
longbow said:
Is this @20% degradation of which he speaks enough to be of concern, in your estimation?
Click to expand...

For me, it would quite discouraging. There's simply no reason for the coatings on a bin to measurably degrade through use (excepting the cosmetically unfortunate but often practically insignificant odd ding due to an accidental fall or other unfortunate event that brought the objectives against a hard object), so to me, a claim of 80% of original condition is an indication of a history of abuse.

--AP
 
Thanks again for all the great input, its very nice of you all to go to the trouble.

Alexis, wouldn't wear of the coatings be a natural occurrence over time if one was simply a tad less vigilant about cleaning than he should be? I know over the years my bins have not infrequently been subjected to a wipe with a shirt-tail.
 
longbow said:
Thanks again for all the great input, its very nice of you all to go to the trouble.

Alexis, wouldn't wear of the coatings be a natural occurrence over time if one was simply a tad less vigilant about cleaning than he should be? I know over the years my bins have not infrequently been subjected to a wipe with a shirt-tail.
Click to expand...

Doesn't Zeiss have some kind of no-fault warranty? I'm sure I have read stories of folks sending in old damaged Zeiss bins, and Zeiss fixed them up, good as new, for free. Even if they charged something reasonable, it would be worth it to have good as new Zeiss Classics.

I'm also doubting the coatings are really worn off without any sign of scratching, they might be perfectly fine. I don't have any idea how a guy would be able to say they have lost 20% of their coating.
John
 
John M Robinson said:
Doesn't Zeiss have some kind of no-fault warranty? I'm sure I have read stories of folks sending in old damaged Zeiss bins, and Zeiss fixed them up, good as new, for free. Even if they charged something reasonable, it would be worth it to have good as new Zeiss Classics.

I'm also doubting the coatings are really worn off without any sign of scratching, they might be perfectly fine. I don't have any idea how a guy would be able to say they have lost 20% of their coating.
John
Click to expand...


John:

I think most of the stories you have heard about the company offering the superior service on damaged binoculars would be Swarovski.

I wonder what 80% coatings really means. It seems very hard to imagine,
does that mean there is a lot of scratches, but 80% remains, HA! That would be unbearable and unsalable to most people here. Scratches beyond the coating into the glass would be unacceptable. But, at the right price these optics may be just what someone can use. Some have reported that with careful polishing some of these scratches (microscratches) can be removed.

When watching optics for sale some sellers mention a scratch, mark, etc. defect that cannot be seen when in use.

This can be a topic all in itself.

Jerry
 
longbow said:
Alexis, wouldn't wear of the coatings be a natural occurrence over time if one was simply a tad less vigilant about cleaning than he should be? I know over the years my bins have not infrequently been subjected to a wipe with a shirt-tail.
Click to expand...

I guess it depends on what you mean by a tad less vigilant. I usually clean lenses in the manner I learned through Nikon's recommendation a long time ago: I remove everything I can with blower and soft brush, sop with a bit of alcohol (ethanol, isopropanol, or similar such as Zeiss lens cleaner) or water or both, then gently remove/dry using fresh clean natural cotton balls, final polishing done very gently with cotton balls with maybe a bit of condensed breath. In other words, nothing fancy. In the field, I've been known to use a seemingly clean corner of a fleece garment (=essentially the same as a microfiber cloth) to gently lift off big drips of water or remove other distracting items. After years of hard use in diverse situations, I don't think I've ever noticeably damaged a lens by cleaning it. Maybe, with very close inspection, you could find a very few microfine scratches here and there, but they might be due to encounters with brush or other things. Certainly much less than 1% degradation. But I have seen binos and camera lenses that had 20%+ degradation. They look like they've been cleaned with a Brillo pad. Abused.

--AP
 
With my reckless kind of cleaning I managed to remove half the coating of a Leica Trinovid BN 10x32 years ago. I sold them for a ridiculous price to someone who didn't mind.

My reckless kind of cleaning involves just breathing on the lenses, or licking off the small bits, then wiping with a cotton handkerchief, never damaged the lenses of my Zeiss 7x42 FL's nor Zeiss Diascope 65, nor my Canon IS's. Even after minute research of the lenses close up with a loupe, I could not detect even a minor scratch.

Modern coatings are tougher than one might think!
Don't baby them so much!

Regards,

Ronald
 
KorHaan said:
Modern coatings are tougher than one might think!
Don't baby them so much!
Click to expand...

Maybe true of the latest top-end, but otherwise I think it's good to be careful, especially if you are in an environment with sea spray (=salt crystals) or lots of silica dust. Some coatings, like those of Bausch&Lomb, seem especially soft.

--AP
 
Thanks Mates, I emailed the guy low-balling an offer of $600 asking him not be feel insulted. Don't expect him to go for it, but will advise.
 
Well, by golly, the fellow went for it (bless his heart).:t:
It'll be a couple of weeks before I get hold of them, will sitrep back after I've ogled them some.
Thanks for the help.
 
Shazam!

Well, I got them today. Holy smokes, gee whiz, zounds and wowee. I only had a couple of hours of daylight left by the time I got them home from the PO, but they are amazing.

Great, sharp, crystaline view, very wide and bright, fantastic depth of field. I also love the long tubes and the ergo's of how they hang in my hands. Great focus, snap right in. Best $600 bucks I've spent in a long time.

Only possible reservation is that there may be a bit of play in the focus wheel, but will take more use to be sure.

I know from what I've read on this forum as well as the responses to my initial query that many of you opti-geeks would find things to be less than enthusiastic about compared to the latest of the alphas, but these suit me right down to the ground. There is a nice bit of retro vibe to them as well as a sense of solid old-time quality. Thanks to all of you for the feedback.

Lens covers were not present, I wonder if any one could say where I could score some?

Man, I'm happy with these.

Think I'll sleep with them tonight.:t:
 
There are no objective covers for the bin -- they used a variation of the traditional Zeiss stay on leather case.

Eagle Optics sells a Zeiss rain-guard that works well with these bins. I think it is the same as that originally provided.
 
longbow said:
Well, I got them today. Holy smokes, gee whiz, zounds and wowee. I only had a couple of hours of daylight left by the time I got them home from the PO, but they are amazing.

Great, sharp, crystaline view, very wide and bright, fantastic depth of field. I also love the long tubes and the ergo's of how they hang in my hands. Great focus, snap right in. Best $600 bucks I've spent in a long time.

Only possible reservation is that there may be a bit of play in the focus wheel, but will take more use to be sure.

I know from what I've read on this forum as well as the responses to my initial query that many of you opti-geeks would find things to be less than enthusiastic about compared to the latest of the alphas, but these suit me right down to the ground. There is a nice bit of retro vibe to them as well as a sense of solid old-time quality. Thanks to all of you for the feedback.

Lens covers were not present, I wonder if any one could say where I could score some?

Man, I'm happy with these.

Think I'll sleep with them tonight.:t:
Click to expand...

Congratulations. Oh, yes, they are fantastic bins. But what about the 80% lens coating condition? Do you see scratches, swirl marks, etc., or was the seller just overly conservative in his description?

Ed

PS. Zeiss will correct little things like play in the focus wheel if you send them in for warranty service.
 
Last edited:
Ed, I can see what he was talking about, but he was commendably over-cautious in his estimation. There is no effect on the view that I can detect at all. No scratches, just a bit of the lustre gone off the blue/purple color of the coatings.
 
Congrats on a great pair of binoculars! I sure like mine. Someday I will let my unborn children fight over them. When you can give them some down time, I recommend sending them into zeiss for maintenance. When I sent mine in, both of the rear lenses were replaced (75.00), the focus was fine tuned, the barrels were collimated, and the internals were lubricated. The turn around time was 2 weeks and the work that they did was top notch.
 
Last edited:
Thanks B, I may well do it in the future, but right now you'd have to beat me about the head and ears to get me to turn loose of them. Had them out again today, still thrilled and amazed. Just precisely what I wanted.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 14 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

Troubador
Zeiss SFL 8x40, A Field Review
28 29 30
Replies
597
Views
88K
HenRun
H
J
New Bins advice needed
2
Replies
38
Views
3K
Jazzyboy
J
S
London Camera Exchange or other sources for Zeiss Victory HT bins?
Replies
0
Views
864
sidpost
S
G
Swarovski SLC. Zeiss Conquest Nikon MHG and Vortex Razors 10x42
2
Replies
33
Views
7K
tenex
tenex
pbjosh
Kowa BDII 6.5x32 XD review
Replies
10
Views
9K
perdu
P

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top