Elmer Fudd
Well-known member
Does anyone of you forum members now where these binos are available in the western hemisphere?
http://www.katsuma-optical.com/item.html
http://www.katsuma-optical.com/item.html
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Informations wanted: Glory Katsuma binos (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Elmer Fudd
- Start date
Gijs van Ginkel
Well-known member
Elmer Fudd,
Some models (eg 7x50) look exactly similar to 6x42 porro's sold in the past to the Dutch military. At that time they were labelled Leica Ednar.
Gijs van Ginkel
Some models (eg 7x50) look exactly similar to 6x42 porro's sold in the past to the Dutch military. At that time they were labelled Leica Ednar.
Gijs van Ginkel
jan van daalen
Well-known member
Yes, I've got three of them; a roof and two Porro's.
The story goes that the Dutch army wanted new bins to replace the Nedinsco (read: Zeiss) line and politics decided it had to be European made optics because of the shorter repair/supplie lines. Leica got the order, they contacted the OEM Katsuma who made them under the brand name EDNAR.
The roofs never made it (got the only demostration sample) and the Porro's earned the reputation to break down on the weak hinges.
I will put some pictures coming wednesday.
Jan
jan van daalen
Well-known member
Katsuma made bins.
Several EDNAR's (ex army) are offered regulary on the Dutch Fleebay and go around €300,00.
The thousends Nedinsco's were bought by Army dumpstores and were sold for €10,00. Nowadays these go for 25 times higher in poor condition:eek!:
Jan
Several EDNAR's (ex army) are offered regulary on the Dutch Fleebay and go around €300,00.
The thousends Nedinsco's were bought by Army dumpstores and were sold for €10,00. Nowadays these go for 25 times higher in poor condition:eek!:
Jan
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Hi Jan,
So, the roof you have must be very rare?
Interesting about current selling, I have an EDNAR 6X30 IF military type, green rubber armour, it,s mint condition, binocular, rain guards, straps and case all unused boxed, but I did not pay much for it as I remember, around £40 I think. Optically I think its very good.
Ben
So, the roof you have must be very rare?
Interesting about current selling, I have an EDNAR 6X30 IF military type, green rubber armour, it,s mint condition, binocular, rain guards, straps and case all unused boxed, but I did not pay much for it as I remember, around £40 I think. Optically I think its very good.
Ben
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jan van daalen
Well-known member
Hi Ben,
According to the salesprice on your box, you got a bargain for that price.
I don't know the RRP of Katsuma bins, but they are indeed not bad.
I got the roof model via a medical guy who bought Leica microscopes for hospitals and "arranged" a Leica for himself. They gave him this one (we are talking now in the nineties) and he traded it for a Ultravid in 2016.
I knew that this bin was offered but had never seen one. AFAIK the Dutch army never ordered them. Donn't ask me why not.
Jan
jan van daalen
Well-known member
Well, don't know about the built quality but with a close focus of 10 meters and a poor edge sharpness from 60% of the center makes me wonder about the rest.
It's nice to have all the samples in the collection but to use this model in real life.......nehhh.
The Dutch Navy just ordered a serie 7x50 classics from Zeiss.
Talking about quality???
Now we're talking.
Jan
It's nice to have all the samples in the collection but to use this model in real life.......nehhh.
The Dutch Navy just ordered a serie 7x50 classics from Zeiss.
Talking about quality???
Now we're talking.
Jan
According to the Katsuma website the 6x30 IF rubber without reticle is 21,000 yen (160 euro) ex. tax
The 7x50 without rubber is only 170 euro
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Sounds like Leica managed to swindle the Dutch Government !
Their Twitter account is an interesting read (use the translate function under each post).
In September they sold 300 military binos to Saudi Arabia.
https://twitter.com/katsuma_optical
Multi coated optics (green) single coated (blue)
In September they sold 300 military binos to Saudi Arabia.
https://twitter.com/katsuma_optical
Multi coated optics (green) single coated (blue)
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jan van daalen
Well-known member
Looks fair to me, considering buying direct from the source.
But with keeping a sales organisation in Europe, keeping a stocking wharehouse, a dealer network per country, handling guarantee issues etc. the price won't stay that way.
A bit like the Bushnell Legend M series, $161,00 in the US and 600,00 euro down here.
OEM's putting their prices on the internet will improve the demand for direct sales, but will they go into the "trouble" to sell single pieces.
Jan
Binoculars are small beer to the military, compared to say a Eurofighter or a tank.
One could buy a thousand binoculars for the cost of one high end military lens.
Ex WD auctions here can be interesting. Sometimes items are sold at about 1% the original cost.
But sometimes they have problems. Sometimes not.
One could buy a thousand binoculars for the cost of one high end military lens.
Ex WD auctions here can be interesting. Sometimes items are sold at about 1% the original cost.
But sometimes they have problems. Sometimes not.
