Carton 10x50 (1 Viewer)

[William Lewis]

Hello

Anyone know much about these?


I picked them up a few months back, based on condition, they looked immaculate (and are) and I wanted to try out a 10x50 anyway so thought I'd start off with a classic japanese porro.

The fact they only cost £36 helped too.

They've been to Optrep (lovely chaps) for a thorough going through since and are working as they should.

Other than a little history of carton that I can find on line I know nothing more about them, date of manufacture? optical configuration? They're porro's with a relatively simple eye piece giving 5° but that's about all I know. Single coated but not quite as dim as I expected given that. They also smell amazing.

Any help greatly appreciated!

 

[Binastro]

Carton telescopes and objectives were sometimes very high quality.
Carton objectives were sometimes in other makes of telescope.

I think that Carton objectives also ended up in high quality British refractors.

Made in Japan.

I don't know if they actually made binoculars, but they probably would have gone to a high end maker.

Mayflower, Royal and some other Japanese makes were generally very high quality.

There were some really high end refractors made in Japan, including The Pentax 100mm and 80mm.

There were many Japanese binocular makers, sometimes small factories made parts, which were assembled by someone else.

There was one master optician making eyepieces for maybe fifty years.

The eyepieces on the Carton 10x50 are probably only three elements with one cemented pair.

Regards,
B.

 

[William Lewis]

Cheers B

 

[Stephen Prower]

William

We don't just live near each other: we have both also bought a Carton 10x50*!

I bought mine a year or two ago to give to my niece as a house binocular, having picked up "Carton" on the web from similar info as to Binastro as a good "name".

Then I picked up a nice light weight Japanese Commodore 12x40 with good near focus in the Garden House charity shop (now sadly closed) in Broadwater Crescent here. The Commodore was more suitable than the Carton for my niece because at the same time she has a close view of very tall canopy trees from her house, and woodland birds come down to feed in her garden. So she got the Commodore.

I sadly can't help with more information about Carton than Binastro has given you.

But perhaps you could post if you ever get a chance to compare the Carton with the Zeiss 10x50 Jenoptem.

The two binoculars look similar to me, and a friend says that, like the Carton, the Zeiss is also a heavy beast. Ie the Zeiss may have been Carton's German "target" binocular.


Stephen


* Mine is marked "Coated optics" and "Field 5.5*". The serial number is: No 37505. There's no visible J-B or J-E mark. The font is the same as yours. The font size looks to be the same size as yours. The logo is the same right down to the extended downstroke of the "N". However the "o" of "No" is not underlined. The size and position of the logo are the same as yours.

I have relubricated the focusser of mine, and taken the opportunity to skin the focussing wheel with bicycle inner tube so that it does not grate upon ungloved fingers . I have bulked out the eyecups with inner tube to fit me better. And I have cut a rubber band out of inner tube, and used it to freeze the diopter adjuster in position

 

[William Lewis]

William

We don't just live near each other: we have both also bought a Carton 10x50*!

I bought mine a year or two ago to give to my niece as a house binocular, having picked up "Carton" on the web from similar info as to Binastro as a good "name".

Then I picked up a nice light weight Japanese Commodore 12x40 with good near focus in the Garden House charity shop (now sadly closed) in Broadwater Crescent here. The Commodore was more suitable than the Carton for my niece because at the same time she has a close view of very tall canopy trees from her house, and woodland birds come down to feed in her garden. So she got the Commodore.

I sadly can't help with more information about Carton than Binastro has given you.

But perhaps you could post if you ever get a chance to compare the Carton with the Zeiss 10x50 Jenoptem.

The two binoculars look similar to me, and a friend says that, like the Carton, the Zeiss is also a heavy beast. Ie the Zeiss may have been Carton's German "target" binocular.


Stephen


* Mine is marked "Coated optics" and "Field 5.5*". The serial number is: No 37505. There's no visible J-B or J-E mark. The font is the same as yours. The font size looks to be the same size as yours. The logo is the same right down to the extended downstroke of the "N". However the "o" of "No" is not underlined. The size and position of the logo are the same as yours.

I have relubricated the focusser of mine, and taken the opportunity to skin the focussing wheel with bicycle inner tube so that it does not grate upon ungloved fingers . I have bulked out the eyecups with inner tube to fit me better. And I have cut a rubber band out of inner tube, and used it to freeze the diopter adjuster in position

Hi Stephen.

Small world! The focuser should be quite smooth, mine were very stiff when I got them but Optrep worked their wonders and it's now smooth and light although does have a small dead spot when going from moving from closer focus to further and vice versa.

For large binoculars I was surprised by the lack of weight, I suspect there's not a huge amount of glass in them to be honest - maybe 7 elements per side which would tally with the small fov etc. I would assume yours to be an earlier model given the serial number?


The close focus is not close at all In my sample, probable around 10m, I thought they'd be perfect for looking at my feeders but it turns out I actually have to stand so far away from them to get the focus sharp that I'm closer with my 8x bins!

Will

 

[Stephen Prower]

Will

I probably wound out the focusser of the Carton a couple of turns on the wheel when reassembling it. If so, I don't have a memory of it's shortening the near focus distance to any worthwhile extent. You could try it. But more than a couple of turns would, I think, risk mechanically putting the boat a bit too far out.

I weigh my Carton 10x50, deducting 20g for the customising rubber inner tube, at 953g. The Commodore 12x50 weighed 871g.

I gave away what I would call a very light weight binocular for a 10x50, a Hartmann 10x50, to a friend, because of what I felt to be the excessive length of its near focus distance. I very soon wised up that a long near focus distance might be normal for x50 binoculars, and regretted parting with it.

A figure of about 800g is when, as a matter of weight, I start calling a field, as opposed to house, binocular "heavy". I suspect that the Hartmann, even with its 50mm diameter objective lens, didn't weigh much above that. As I have got older, I have become less tolerant of handling or porting each extra 100g.

A motorcylist who visited the factories of the main four Japanese motorcycle manufacturers in Japan in the 1970s or 1980s was shocked to discover that Suzuki did not record separate profit figures, ie run separate profit lines, for each of its different models of motorcycle. They may even, I remember, have jumbled up different models on their assembly lines.

So I am not surprised at the patchy record-keeping of dates of manfacture etc by Japanese binocular manufacturers (or ultimate binocular assemblers and marketers) that is revealed by posters on Bird Forum and Cloudy Nights.

All I can suggest is that the small increase in field of view from 5.0 to 5.5 degrees more likely represents a year on year enhancement of specification, than the increase of serial number from 37505 to 51015 reflects one continous series of numbers, rather than two or more discontinuous series starting from different dates.


Stephen

 

[Stephen Prower]

Will: Sorry I edited after you "liked". I think you will find that I just tidied up a little Stephen

I remember now I didn't off-load the Hartmann onto the friend. I gave it to him because he has a long garden., and I haven't. Kingfishers are now scarcer on the Beane. But at my cycle group's annual garden party a couple of years ago, a Kingfisher whistled as it flew past along the river alongside the garden