Regarding Nikon Se (1 Viewer)

Pileatus said:

Nikon 7381 = 8X32 SE (Superior E, Premier SE)
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=146143&Q=&is=USA&A=details
FWIW, "Nikon 7381" is the best search term.

Compared side-by-side in all conditions the 501, 504, 505 and 550 serial numbers are virtually identical. The later 550 models are a bit "brighter" due to improved coatings but, in actual use, it's not apparent unless it's rather dark! I actually prefer the color saturation of the earlier versions...but that too is easy to ignore.

Note: Ordering a Nikon 7381 does not guarantee you'll get a 550nnn serial number. It all depends on what they have in stock. I don't think the MPN number is useful to end-users.

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Pileatus: thank you so much for that. I've asked the seller to provide the serial number.

Is the Nikon Warranty transferrable on a auctioned item (even new) like this if it's not sold through a Nikon dealer?

Regardless, I'm keeping an eye on these pair and the bidding war for them that will no doubt ensue in about 3 days.

Not meaning to hijack this thread, but it looks like the SE 8x32 is out of stock everywhere in the US. Anyone know if it is discontinued or of a source in the US?
Sam

Pileatus said:

Nikon 7381 = 8X32 SE (Superior E, Premier SE)
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=146143&Q=&is=USA&A=details
FWIW, "Nikon 7381" is the best search term.

Compared side-by-side in all conditions the 501, 504, 505 and 550 serial numbers are virtually identical. The later 550 models are a bit "brighter" due to improved coatings but, in actual use, it's not apparent unless it's rather dark! I actually prefer the color saturation of the earlier versions...but that too is easy to ignore.

Note: Ordering a Nikon 7381 does not guarantee you'll get a 550nnn serial number. It all depends on what they have in stock. I don't think the MPN number is useful to end-users.

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The Nikon 7381 (8X32 SE) may be available by special order. It's been this way for a few years. Check with dealers.

The Nikon No-Fault warranty should cover 2nd owners for $10 plus shipping costs. This has been the policy for many years.

Dr.SamPoni said:

Not meaning to hijack this thread, but it looks like the SE 8x32 is out of stock everywhere in the US. Anyone know if it is discontinued or of a source in the US?
Sam

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It seems to me that these periods of drought have happened a couple of times in the last 10 years or so. Then they appear on the market again.

Until they are all sold out?

Perhaps?

Maybe this is how Nikon gauges how many they should make in their next run.:smoke:

Bob

Tantien said:

Thanks Brock and Pileatus! So the listing has this "MPN: BAA555AA" for the binoculars. ........|

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Tantien said:

Pileatus: thank you so much for that. I've asked the seller to provide the serial number.

...........

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Are you are referring to the Bay auction 8X32 SE with "New Old Stock" in the title? If so, the serial number is 504xxx. You can get a clear view of it in the fifth photo.

BruceH said:

Are you are referring to the Bay auction 8X32 SE with "New Old Stock" in the title? If so, the serial number is 504xxx. You can get a clear view of it in the fifth photo.

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Nice spot Bruce! I would have not thot the serial number would be on the warranty. Thank you!

Odradek said:

Hi there,

i know there are already alot of Nikon Se threads. But the newest one deos not fit to my question so i decided to open another one. Hope thats ok.

Is it true that the SE´s are out of production? I think i heard they stopped the SE, EII and also the ED 82 scopes. Can someone confirm this? What ist the actual status?

In mind that the SE´s are out in a few weeks or month i am hardly thinking of getting one. Now i have to choose between the 8x and the 10x. Is there any optical differences between those two modells? I mean besides magnification and field of few? Is the center field resolution the same or is one of those better? I have seen in a review taht the 10x42 should be one of the best binoculars in the 10x sector. Can someone tell me a bit of his/her experiences?


Greetings

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Hello,

I apologize if someone had already mentioned this, but I did not scan through each comment. The Premier SE is a special order item. We are still producing the SE line as a limited item. You would just have to find a Nikon dealer who will place the order for you. Best of luck.

All the best,
Mike Freiberg
Nikon Birding Market Specialist

Nice 12x50 for sale on the bay.............

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200944421712?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

.............I`v no spare cash at the moment.

mikefreiberg said:

Hello,

I apologize if someone had already mentioned this, but I did not scan through each comment. The Premier SE is a special order item. We are still producing the SE line as a limited item. You would just have to find a Nikon dealer who will place the order for you. Best of luck.

All the best,
Mike Freiberg
Nikon Birding Market Specialist

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Hmmm?

Maybe Nikon has a backup inventory of parts to make new ones as needed?

Everything about the 3 versions is identical except for the objectives and the objective tubes.

Bob

Brock - You probably have done more studying and research into the SE coatings than anyone who uses this site. So my question is directed to your understanding of Eco-glass vis-a-vis the older lead based glass. I thought that prisms with lead had an inherent advantage in reducing aberrations. Am I mistaken? When did Nikon incorporate Eco-glass with the SE 10x35, which I find to be a remarkable binocular - better than any other 10 power I have examined?

John

mikefreiberg said:

Hello,

I apologize if someone had already mentioned this, but I did not scan through each comment. The Premier SE is a special order item. We are still producing the SE line as a limited item. You would just have to find a Nikon dealer who will place the order for you. Best of luck.

All the best,
Mike Freiberg
Nikon Birding Market Specialist

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Thank you Mike: do you know about how long it takes for a special order to be fulfilled? I placed my order near the end of June with Optics Planet and they are now stating that their next Nikon shipment target is early August. So are we talking 4-5 weeks or more?

John Dracon said:

Brock - You probably have done more studying and research into the SE coatings than anyone who uses this site. So my question is directed to your understanding of Eco-glass vis-a-vis the older lead based glass. I thought that prisms with lead had an inherent advantage in reducing aberrations. Am I mistaken? When did Nikon incorporate Eco-glass with the SE 10x35, which I find to be a remarkable binocular - better than any other 10 power I have examined?

John

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John,

This brings up an old (and controversial) topic of lead vs. lead-free glass. When manufacturers introduced lead-free glass around 1999-2000, reports of increased chromatic aberration in roofs with lead-free glass ran rampant.

Also, I read two reports from OHARA, which I posted on BF, that said the company took a trial and error approach to find which combination of lead substitutes were good enough and yet cheap enough to make lead-free glass that was suitable for sports optics and microscopy. At the time of the report, 1999, OHARA's lead-free glass, according to the author, was improved but still not quite on par with their best lead optical glass. The other report showed that their lead-free glass showed more CA at the extreme ends of the spectrum than their lead glass and was therefore not as good as lead glass for microscopists, who use high magnifications in their work.

In addition, comparing the Nikon HG to the HGL, the latter version with lead-free glass produced an inferior image to the original, IMO. Greater CA and the color representation was not as "true" as the originals with lead glass. The image also "washed out" when looking at brightly lit objects.

These three things lead (no pun intended) me to conclude that glass manufacturers, or at least OHARA, had jumped the gun and released lead-free glass that was not up to the standard of lead optical glass, and I extolled the virtues of lead-free glass. Some still believe it is superior to lead-free.

Since then, Henry and others have come up with an alternate theory about why roofs at that time showed an increase in CA - the introduction of internal focus and the focusing element. Hence why ED/HD/FL glass has become all the rage in roofs today.

I think you meant to write 10x35 EII, and I agree, it's my favorite 10x bin too. The EII's employed lead-free glass from the outset, which was 1999. The SE, however, remained with lead glass for a few more years, not sure why, but it only in the past four or five years did Nikon start advertising the SE as having "Eco-Glass."

Nikon made a big stink about the EII's having Eco-Glass, as mooreorless pointed out when he shared what they wrote in their 2000 catalog about the EII"s environmentally friendly glass, so it makes no sense, if they had switched to Eco-Glass in the SE at the same time as the EII, why they would have held off for six years before mentioning that in their ads and catalogs.

In any case, the 8x32 SE 550xxx and the 10x42 SE 050xxx are advertised as having Eco-Glass, and the view is superb. Less CA than the 505xxx 8x32 SE I had, which presumably had lead glass, more like my early lead glass 501xxx 8x32 SE, but brighter and with more contrast.

Coatings are supposed to be matched to the type of glass used, so presumably, Nikon changed the coatings when they changed over to Eco-Glass, and the results are stunning. Best view I've seen through binoculars. When you consider the price, it's even more remarkable.

Brock

Thanks Brock - I did mean Nikon 10x35 II, not SE. I found from limited experience that the Nikon IIs, 8x30 and 10x35 on the basis of their construction (not rubber covered) will take less abuse when dropped. I have had both go out of alignment when accidentally dropped or banged on saddle horns, etc. I loan out many models to friends and relatives, and the SEs , so far, have kept their alignment. My fantasy is that the IIs get rubber covered like the SEs and that both get adjustable eye cups.

A friend talked me out of a remaining pair of 8x30 II a few years ago. I charged him $200. I have offered to buy them back. But he won't part with them. I tell him he is the poster boy for the word "ingrate."

Thanks again for your detailed information. It makes good sense,
John

Brock,

It's likely that Nikon did switch to eco-glass for all binoculars when they said they did. But they had to use up the old lenses made for the SEs. The SE's construction is modular and interchangeable for the most part among the 3 models. It makes sense to run, along with the binocular body parts, a bunch of eyepieces and objectives and set some of them aside for later models when the first series sold out. After they were gone then start putting lenses in them which had eco glass.

It's pretty clear by now that Nikon intended to sell these binoculars for a long time.

And that's another reason why we will never be able to date, with any degree of accuracy, when incremental improvements were made to their optics over the years.

Bob

Anyone use their SEs in a cold climate? Alaska is next month for me and I am considering leaving these home for fear of possible fogging. Overly concerned?

Re: cold and rain. A friend spent two very wet weeks in May in Alaska (including St. Paul Is.) with her SEs. She was careful and only once got some mild fogging.

Re: modularity and parts. Ceasar is absolutely right about Nikon's apparent long-term vision for this series. But a caveat. A friend just sent in his very worn 10x42 SEs for cleaning/repairs, and Nikon informed him they no longer have spare parts for the SEs.

David Swain

Nikon's Direction (or lack of) for the SE's

David Swain said:

Re: cold and rain. A friend spent two very wet weeks in May in Alaska (including St. Paul Is.) with her SEs. She was careful and only once got some mild fogging.

Re: modularity and parts. Ceasar is absolutely right about Nikon's apparent long-term vision for this series. But a caveat. A friend just sent in his very worn 10x42 SEs for cleaning/repairs, and Nikon informed him they no longer have spare parts for the SEs.

David Swain

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Thanks David: I won't be two weeks like your friend but that helps me gauge their use in those conditions.

As for their long term vision for the SE, that is worrisome to know that the support for these might be coming to a close if they don't even keep enough parts on hand for repair. Almost feels like they are forcing us to moved toward their current, non-special order, models, which could be more profitable for them and in higher volume demand that would justify their support.

It strikes me as odd and rather short-sighted that Nikon would have a very well-respected line of binoculars that they have chosen not to maintain a solid production line in. If I was Nikon, I'd either be making modest improvements to the SE, like twist-up eye-cups, water-proofing and fog-proofing, etc. "Introducing the new Nikon SEII series! All the classic features the Nikon SE has been known for, with new improvements. High quality in a still affordable package."

Don't you know many of us would be willing to go for these. And if it didn't cannibalize Nikon's existing sales on other models, I'm sure they'd consider it as well.

But I've seen marketing and sales departments in my own companies and I question the logic that they sometimes follow. |<|

David Swain said:

Re: cold and rain. A friend spent two very wet weeks in May in Alaska (including St. Paul Is.) with her SEs. She was careful and only once got some mild fogging.

Re: modularity and parts. Ceasar is absolutely right about Nikon's apparent long-term vision for this series. But a caveat. A friend just sent in his very worn 10x42 SEs for cleaning/repairs, and Nikon informed him they no longer have spare parts for the SEs.

David Swain

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Now that's interesting.

See Mike Freiberg's post from yesterday on SEs being special order items:

http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=2776723&postcount=87

Now it seems that we will have a beginning date for the ones with the very newest coatings. Keep their SNs in mind.

Bob

David Swain said:

Re: cold and rain. A friend spent two very wet weeks in May in Alaska (including St. Paul Is.) with her SEs. She was careful and only once got some mild fogging.

Re: modularity and parts. Ceasar is absolutely right about Nikon's apparent long-term vision for this series. But a caveat. A friend just sent in his very worn 10x42 SEs for cleaning/repairs, and Nikon informed him they no longer have spare parts for the SEs.

David Swain

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If Nikon does not have SE repair parts it tells us much more than the endless "I know what Nikon thinks and does" speculations. If true, the SE line died a long time ago with no intent to provide long-term support.

I remember a case where Nikon replaced a damage E2 with an SE. Apparently, the E2 could not be repaired and no E2's were available as a replacement. We can only speculate what they will replace broken SE's with once the supply of SE's is gone. Get them while they last...or wait for owners to put them up for sale.

Pileatus said:

If Nikon does not have SE repair parts it tells us much more than the endless "I know what Nikon thinks and does" speculations. If true, the SE line died a long time ago with no intent to provide long-term support.

I remember a case where Nikon replaced a damage E2 with an SE. Apparently, the E2 could not be repaired and no E2's were available as a replacement. We can only speculate what they will replace broken SE's with once the supply of SE's is gone. Get them while they last...or wait for owners to put them up for sale.

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Maybe they were referring to just the 10 x 42s? Or maybe they were referring to all of them? Maybe they used up all their spare parts for all of them or maybe they just discarded them? Maybe they never had a back up inventory at all? Maybe they cannibalized the ones they had which weren't sold? Maybe they decided to discontinue them when all of them were sold? Maybe they only want to sell EIIs in the Far East and Europe but not in the USA?

And then--maybe not. Maybe?

Bob