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Rainguards and objective covers (1 Viewer)

A

AGPank

Well-known member
I own a couple pair of nice binoculars SLC HD 8x42 and Trinovid 10x42 (and have owned others Meostar, Razor). With any investment like this I'm always concerned about protecting the lenses whether casual use and birding or harder hunting. For the most part I'm not satisfied with factory offerings of rainguards and objective covers.

I've been most satisfied with the SLC rain guard, it's durable and adjustable with the center hinge. I used it to replace the Meostar as it broke shortly into use. Everyone seems to have the same concept on objective covers and I'm always concerned about losing them.

Has anyone found a good solution for both? A concept I'm trying for objective covers are the Butler Creek rifle scope caps. These are available in many sizes and should fit many binoculars. They are harder plastic and have spring loaded hinges and snap closed.

Meopta has a Meocap, that looks similar for rainguard options.

I curious what others have found that works too.
 
I bought some green rubber objective covers from surplusshed in USA, they are I think made for the 7x50 Steiner and have tabs on, but they fit my Swaro 7x42 and my Zeiss BGA Dialyt 7x42 perfect, just trimmed the tab off. They are ony a few dollars for 10,
I have found the green rubber rainguards they sell good for most porro binoculars as well.
 
AGPank said:
I own a couple pair of nice binoculars SLC HD 8x42 and Trinovid 10x42 (and have owned others Meostar, Razor). With any investment like this I'm always concerned about protecting the lenses whether casual use and birding or harder hunting. For the most part I'm not satisfied with factory offerings of rainguards and objective covers.

I've been most satisfied with the SLC rain guard, it's durable and adjustable with the center hinge. I used it to replace the Meostar as it broke shortly into use. Everyone seems to have the same concept on objective covers and I'm always concerned about losing them.

Has anyone found a good solution for both? A concept I'm trying for objective covers are the Butler Creek rifle scope caps. These are available in many sizes and should fit many binoculars. They are harder plastic and have spring loaded hinges and snap closed.

Meopta has a Meocap, that looks similar for rainguard options.

I curious what others have found that works too.
Click to expand...
Eagle Optics is a good source for rainguards and objective covers.

http://www.eagleoptics.com/binocula...vortex-tethered-objective-lens-covers-x-large
 
pete_gamby said:
We put our ranges of both up on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Opticron-43mm-BGA-Binocular-Rainguard/dp/B005XXZM2U

http://www.amazon.com/Opticron-Rubber-Objective-Covers-40~42mm/dp/B00I3ZZZOA

HTH

Cheers, Pete
Click to expand...

Opticron objective lens covers are a good choice when looking for a replacement set. There is a very good range of sizes ; useful for when the originals do not fit well, if at all, or if one goes astray.

The larger sizes with a pronounced lip to the cover are excellent, and you can always fix them to the objective barrel using a cable tie or gorilla tape.

Butler Creeks do snap closed but they can also snap off!

Mix and match amongst the brands for rainguards can work out well, Vortex do nice deep ones.


Best wishes,
 
AGPank said:
I own a couple pair of nice binoculars SLC HD 8x42 and Trinovid 10x42 (and have owned others Meostar, Razor). With any investment like this I'm always concerned about protecting the lenses whether casual use and birding or harder hunting. For the most part I'm not satisfied with factory offerings of rainguards and objective covers.
I curious what others have found that works too.
Click to expand...

I purchased optical lenscaps for my Maven B2 and am exceptionally pleased. No apparent image degradation and total confidence in the field, especially with rain. If you have a binocular with threaded objectives, UV or Skylight filters will do the same, and will provide real peace of mind.
 
Last edited:
chartwell99 said:
I purchased optical lenscaps for my Maven B2 and am exceptionally pleased. No apparent image degradation and total confidence in the field, especially with rain. If you have a binocular with threaded objectives, UV or Skylight filters will do the same, and will provide real peace of mind.
Click to expand...


Are these for camera lenses? I'm not familiar with these, do you have some product information you can share?
 
etudiant said:
For a cool $66, Swaro is offering the 'bino guard', a neoprene flip cover for the oculars.

http://www.swarovskioptik.com/nature/bino-guard-c21010806/bino-guard-p5006114

While the price is exorbitant, the design seems good, easier and less finicky to use than conventional hard covers. Has anyone had experience with this item that they might share?
Click to expand...

Monarch offer a similar bino jacket, in a choice of greens or camo, which covers both the oculars and objectives.

It is a reasonable £15.95 ($23.95), and can be bought with a matching harness :

http://www.monarchcountryproducts.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=62&product_id=127.

LockDown offer a combined lens protection and harness product for $44.99 (£29.99) :

http://www.s4gear.com/pages/products/lockdown.php.

There are others (BinoBro, FHFGear) spec'd and priced to suit.

Best wishes,
 
Swissboy said:
They do not even protect the objective side. What a rip-off, I'd say.
Click to expand...

In fairness to Swaro, they appear to offer a superior design, a cover that one finger flicks out of the way while one raises the glass.
My thought was that the objectives are less a concern, the glass hangs down plus the surfaces have hydrophobic coatings, but real life experience may be different. It would be nice to get some users to comment.
 
Samandag said:
Monarch offer a similar bino jacket, in a choice of greens or camo, which covers both the oculars and objectives.

It is a reasonable £15.95 ($23.95), and can be bought with a matching harness :

http://www.monarchcountryproducts.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=62&product_id=127.

LockDown offer a combined lens protection and harness product for $44.99 (£29.99) :

http://www.s4gear.com/pages/products/lockdown.php.

There are others (BinoBro, FHFGear) spec'd and priced to suit.

Best wishes,
Click to expand...

For general use the s4gear lockdown harness is great.
 
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