ksbird/foxranch
Well-known member
I just love the 7x35 porro format. I use many different 7x35s on a daily basis because I can get ultra-super wide angle bins for finding horses who think the grass is really greener in someone else's pasture (or is it the mare in heat, the horse won't say). My fave for searches on hillsides in the distance are 7x35s with a 657 ft FOV at 1000 yards or roughly 13 degree FOV. That bin has eye lenses like dinner plates and is super bright.
I also use Nikon 7x35 Es and Action Extremes, Jason 7x35 Statesman, Tasco International 400 7x35s and a variety of very lightweight German 7x35s. I am very fussy about which 7x35s I buy and use. The 7x30 KOMZ military model just broke into my collection. I was looking for a binocular to replace the Olympus 7x35 Trooper I used to sell to visitors who wanted something to take on hikes and then keep. I think I found it and if any Bird Forum readers are interested, I will try to put you in touch with the seller.
I bought 5 pairs of the Nikon 7x35 Lemurs to loan/sell here at the ranch this year. The seller took the complete stock of some company that used these binoculars for work (land appraisers/surveyors/developers, airport workers, race track workers, I don't know), and she sold each pair for $15-$18 plus shipping (approx $10-12). At first the narrow field of view (7.3 degrees) seemed off, but then I realized it was exactly the same FOV as the Nikon 7x35 Mikron I own/liked.
When the first pair arrived, it was obvious that these bins had all been kept in good condition. In fact some buyers seemed to have gotten bins in unopened boxes. On first test I agreed the FOV was a little narrow (380 ft @ 1000 yds), but the view seemed quite sharp all the way across for about 85% of the total field. The Lemur is a fully multicoated system including the prisms and uses BAK 4 prisms. The view was sharp, bright and contrasty. The bin itself is not waterproof but it is rubber armoured, with huge eye lenses and rubber eyecups that fold down for eyeglass wearers. I have friends who must use eyeglasses for bird viewing and they could see the sharp field stop edges with ease all the way around the FOV. The focus wheel is well placed and easy to turn. The diopter worked well and stayed put between users, The objective lenses are set back into the housing so they are well-protected from accidental scratching. As old as these bins are, the rubber eyecups were still soft and worked very well. I already sold a pair for $35.
What is odd is that Nikon was making other 7x35s at the same time as the Lemurs. The 7x35 E I have has a 9.3 degree FOV and is razor sharp, with various color multicoatings instead of the Lemur's all-green multicoatings. The Lemur was an early "Sky and Earth" inexpensive offering by Nikon. The Action series was already being made by Nikon as well and the Action series had a much larger FOV too.
But the Lemur handles well and it has one feature that will make it a such a favorite we will likely keep a couple of pairs around after we sell a few. Besides being sharp, and handling nicely and having huge eye lenses (and a very wide IP distance that I need), it shows almost no "glow" when the sky is bright and you are looking at a dark hillside at a time when the sun isn't fully behind the hillside but the side of the hill facing you is almost all in shadows. In addition there are some houses on the next hillside and if I time it right I can put the sun directly behind one of the houses on the hillcrest and then I can scan the dark hillside for errant horses. The total lack of flare from the sun nearly being direct-on and only a few degrees off the visible field of view in the Lemur took me by surprise.
I have the feeling that Nikon decided to add cheap extra baffling inside the Lemur's front-end, instead of more expensive widefield eye lenses or field flattener lenses. So while the FOV is a little compressed, there is no flaring, and so one needs to be careful, because during scanning you just might sweep right onto the sun itself without the warning flare you usually get in a binocular. The heavy multicoating also keeps inter-lens reflections to a minimum, so I didn't have the sun-reflected-as-a-group-of-planets effect warning me I was ready to sweep right over the sun. Try as I may, once the leaves come back on the trees here, I will be sitting quietly in my ghillie suit waiting for a bird to continue building its nest, when the sun will fire through the leaves right over the branch where I expected the new nest-mates to be starting their nest building. It never fails. Usually I have to grossly avoid even looking in the general direction of where the sunlight is firing directly through the trees onto me. But with these Lemurs I can easily skirt around that 1/2 degree portion of the sky/tree foliage to watch the nest building without obnoxious flaring lighting up my FOV and obscuring the rare event I'm watching.
I have had trouble contacting this seller at times although all 5 pairs of the binoculars I got were professionally cleaned and in 98% condition. She claimed to have 100 pairs to sell originally. These Lemurs would make excellent second binoculars and they aren't so heavy that kids can't handle them. I recommend them and if anyone comments on them favorably, because of personal experience, it would be interesting. I haven't been able to recontact the seller since the last pair arrived a few days ago (sorry but I wanted to be sure I filled my order first), but she will email once a week when I have questions. Does anyone else have experience with the Nikon 7x35 Lemur?
I also use Nikon 7x35 Es and Action Extremes, Jason 7x35 Statesman, Tasco International 400 7x35s and a variety of very lightweight German 7x35s. I am very fussy about which 7x35s I buy and use. The 7x30 KOMZ military model just broke into my collection. I was looking for a binocular to replace the Olympus 7x35 Trooper I used to sell to visitors who wanted something to take on hikes and then keep. I think I found it and if any Bird Forum readers are interested, I will try to put you in touch with the seller.
I bought 5 pairs of the Nikon 7x35 Lemurs to loan/sell here at the ranch this year. The seller took the complete stock of some company that used these binoculars for work (land appraisers/surveyors/developers, airport workers, race track workers, I don't know), and she sold each pair for $15-$18 plus shipping (approx $10-12). At first the narrow field of view (7.3 degrees) seemed off, but then I realized it was exactly the same FOV as the Nikon 7x35 Mikron I own/liked.
When the first pair arrived, it was obvious that these bins had all been kept in good condition. In fact some buyers seemed to have gotten bins in unopened boxes. On first test I agreed the FOV was a little narrow (380 ft @ 1000 yds), but the view seemed quite sharp all the way across for about 85% of the total field. The Lemur is a fully multicoated system including the prisms and uses BAK 4 prisms. The view was sharp, bright and contrasty. The bin itself is not waterproof but it is rubber armoured, with huge eye lenses and rubber eyecups that fold down for eyeglass wearers. I have friends who must use eyeglasses for bird viewing and they could see the sharp field stop edges with ease all the way around the FOV. The focus wheel is well placed and easy to turn. The diopter worked well and stayed put between users, The objective lenses are set back into the housing so they are well-protected from accidental scratching. As old as these bins are, the rubber eyecups were still soft and worked very well. I already sold a pair for $35.
What is odd is that Nikon was making other 7x35s at the same time as the Lemurs. The 7x35 E I have has a 9.3 degree FOV and is razor sharp, with various color multicoatings instead of the Lemur's all-green multicoatings. The Lemur was an early "Sky and Earth" inexpensive offering by Nikon. The Action series was already being made by Nikon as well and the Action series had a much larger FOV too.
But the Lemur handles well and it has one feature that will make it a such a favorite we will likely keep a couple of pairs around after we sell a few. Besides being sharp, and handling nicely and having huge eye lenses (and a very wide IP distance that I need), it shows almost no "glow" when the sky is bright and you are looking at a dark hillside at a time when the sun isn't fully behind the hillside but the side of the hill facing you is almost all in shadows. In addition there are some houses on the next hillside and if I time it right I can put the sun directly behind one of the houses on the hillcrest and then I can scan the dark hillside for errant horses. The total lack of flare from the sun nearly being direct-on and only a few degrees off the visible field of view in the Lemur took me by surprise.
I have the feeling that Nikon decided to add cheap extra baffling inside the Lemur's front-end, instead of more expensive widefield eye lenses or field flattener lenses. So while the FOV is a little compressed, there is no flaring, and so one needs to be careful, because during scanning you just might sweep right onto the sun itself without the warning flare you usually get in a binocular. The heavy multicoating also keeps inter-lens reflections to a minimum, so I didn't have the sun-reflected-as-a-group-of-planets effect warning me I was ready to sweep right over the sun. Try as I may, once the leaves come back on the trees here, I will be sitting quietly in my ghillie suit waiting for a bird to continue building its nest, when the sun will fire through the leaves right over the branch where I expected the new nest-mates to be starting their nest building. It never fails. Usually I have to grossly avoid even looking in the general direction of where the sunlight is firing directly through the trees onto me. But with these Lemurs I can easily skirt around that 1/2 degree portion of the sky/tree foliage to watch the nest building without obnoxious flaring lighting up my FOV and obscuring the rare event I'm watching.
I have had trouble contacting this seller at times although all 5 pairs of the binoculars I got were professionally cleaned and in 98% condition. She claimed to have 100 pairs to sell originally. These Lemurs would make excellent second binoculars and they aren't so heavy that kids can't handle them. I recommend them and if anyone comments on them favorably, because of personal experience, it would be interesting. I haven't been able to recontact the seller since the last pair arrived a few days ago (sorry but I wanted to be sure I filled my order first), but she will email once a week when I have questions. Does anyone else have experience with the Nikon 7x35 Lemur?
