[John M Robinson]

As I mentioned on another thread, my wife was out of town which gave me an opportunity to set all of my bins out on a table and play with them, one against the other for a week. It was fun, and as usual the two SEs were my favorites.

Looking at them all lined up I noticed that only two of the six had modern adjustable eyecups, my 6x30 Yosemite and the 8x42 Ultravid, the rest were either older 1980s-90s vintage or the two SEs. Now I don't use glasses with my bins so I always leave the eycups all the way out. Excepting the old 1984 vintage Fujinon which has old hard rubber eyecups, I like all of the other rubber cups, especially the Nikon SEs. They are just flexible enough for me to squeeze my face against them and get that perfect sweet spot that falls between the click positions of my Ultravids for example.

I know we have had fantasy discussions of Nikon upgrading the SE with ED glass and modern eyecups. Are twist up eyecups a bigger deal to eyeglass wearers? Are there any non glass wearers that are ok with rubber eye cups as I am?

[Kevin Conville]

Originally Posted by John M Robinson

Are twist up eyecups a bigger deal to eyeglass wearers?

Short answer? Yes.

A well designed twist up eyecup (read: multiple stops), combined with an eyepiece that offers long eye relief, works for most everyone however.

[ceasar]

I still find the rubber eye cups on my old Leitz 7 x 42 BN Trinovid easy to use. And it has very long eye relief too. My newer Leica 7 x 42 Trinovid BN has hard eyecups. I have no problem with them either. I don't wear eyeglasses.
Bob

[John Dracon]

John - I believe that most experienced users make adjustments and accommodate themselves to whatever binoculars they are using. I am completely satisfied with the roll down rubber eye cups of the Nikon SEs. But then I always wear prescription glasses. By the way have you had a chance to handle the Zeiss FL 8x32?
John

[NDhunter]

Originally Posted by John M Robinson

As I mentioned on another thread, my wife was out of town which gave me an opportunity to set all of my bins out on a table and play with them, one against the other for a week. It was fun, and as usual the two SEs were my favorites.

Looking at them all lined up I noticed that only two of the six had modern adjustable eyecups, my 6x30 Yosemite and the 8x42 Ultravid, the rest were either older 1980s-90s vintage or the two SEs. Now I don't use glasses with my bins so I always leave the eycups all the way out. Excepting the old 1984 vintage Fujinon which has old hard rubber eyecups, I like all of the other rubber cups, especially the Nikon SEs. They are just flexible enough for me to squeeze my face against them and get that perfect sweet spot that falls between the click positions of my Ultravids for example.

I know we have had fantasy discussions of Nikon upgrading the SE with ED glass and modern eyecups. Are twist up eyecups a bigger deal to eyeglass wearers? Are there any non glass wearers that are ok with rubber eye cups as I am?

John:
I agree with you on the eyecup issue. I don't wear glasses and for me I like the thin rubber eyecup on the SE as it is left out. For my others the adjustable ones are left in the outer position and so it doesn't matter.

I am sure eyeglass wearers prefer to have the easier to adjust twist ups, as
it makes life easier.

Jerry

[John M Robinson]

Originally Posted by John Dracon

John - I believe that most experienced users make adjustments and accommodate themselves to whatever binoculars they are using. I am completely satisfied with the roll down rubber eye cups of the Nikon SEs. But then I always wear prescription glasses. By the way have you had a chance to handle the Zeiss FL 8x32?John

No unfortunately I haven't had the chance. My local store only carries the 42 size Zeiss bins. I have looked through the 8x32 BNs, Ultravids BR and HD, Swaro EL and 8x30 SLC. Of those I like the ELs best overall, I had blackout issues with ll of the 32 size Leica's. I did compare the 10x42 FL to my 10x42 SE and I prefered the view through the SE.

I really like the feel and optics of the old Zeiss classic, but there is something about the feel in the hand of the new Zeiss that doesn't suit me as well as either the Swaro, Leica or even my 8x32 SEs. Maybe the 8x32 Zeiss would feel just right, I'm looking forward to trying a pair.

John

[John P]

I use neither glasses or the eyecups on my Swift 820's.

Why waste that beautiful wide view if you don't have to?

[Steve C]

Since I don't wear glasses either, I have no wants for a twist out eye cup. They are just so many more moving parts that can fail. I really prefer the SE style fold down rubber eye cups. Now I know my opinion would be different if I was an eye glass wearer. But as it stands, I wish somebody sold an accessory "Old-Fashinoned-Fold-Down-Rubber Eye Cup". Make it so it would friction fit snugly over a twisted down eye cup, and leave it long enough so a particular user could trim to fit. I'd buy a couple of dozen pairs. Since I am probably the only one who thinks this is a good idea, I am pretty well resigned to the fact we'll never see any.

[etudiant]

The issue with the fold down rubber eye cups is that they are really 2 position cups, either up or down.
The twist out designs offer more flexibility, more intermediate positions. That said, my 300/400 eyesight requires me to wear hefty glasses, so when birding with glasses I need all the eye relief I can get. Birders blesses with better eyes may appreciate the added flexibility of the twist out design, but it is wasted on me.

[John M Robinson]

Originally Posted by etudiant

The issue with the fold down rubber eye cups is that they are really 2 position cups, either up or down.
The twist out designs offer more flexibility, more intermediate positions. That said, my 300/400 eyesight requires me to wear hefty glasses, so when birding with glasses I need all the eye relief I can get. Birders blesses with better eyes may appreciate the added flexibility of the twist out design, but it is wasted on me.

But that's just the point I wanted to make. I have noticed with my flexible SE style rubber eye cups that they are flexible enough for me to squeeze them in to just the right position. Now I know that there is no way I'm going to get them to collapse half way or something big like that, but they are infinitely more adjustable than my Ultravids across a small range. My Lieca BRs have three click positions, all the way in, all the way out and about 2/3rds the way out. I find I need a spot almost all the way out, I can get that with my rubber cupped SEs.

John

[Kevin Purcell]

A twist up eyecup with O rings is a lot more adjustable than a pop-up/pop-down rubber eyecup. Just talk to all the people with Nikon SE blackout problems.

I have several bins that have too much ER at the lowest setting (for me and my close fitting glasses -- the ER seems designed for less close fitting glasses) but too much at the next stop.

Flexibility (especially for eyeglass wearers) is the name of the game.

Speaking of failing and bent down rubber eyecup will perish faster than a piece of rubber coated metal will.

I suspect a lot of this pining is coming from folks with normal vision. Of course we could go back to the good old days and just give people 10mm ER and no need for adjustable eyecups. Just those solid Bakeolite non-adjustable "cups"

[LPT]

I do not wear glasses. I have a 62 mm IPD and find most of the thick rims on modern foldout eyecups at worst very uncomfortable and at best mildly annoying. As expressed in this link I very much like the rubber eyecups on my SE 8X32, EII 10X35, and EI 7X35.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/binocwp...7623234405689/

[BobinKy]

I prefer rubber eye cups when I can get them. I have them on my Nikon SEs and Fujinon FMT-SXs.

How difficult is it to replace twist-up eye cups with rubber eye cups?

[Tero]

I only have one small pair of 8x25 Nikons with rubber eye cups. I fold then down, whether I have glasses on or not. They are OK against the glasses.