Leitz Binuxit (5 Viewers)

[starbritemoonlight]

Wow, what an absolutely phenomenal post!

For me, it came down to this - they're an absolute delight to use and no other binoculars I have ever used (old or new) are as sharp as my old Leitz binoculars (three pairs - all earlier than the 1960s). I have tested, compared, pushed, and tried and tried to find binoculars that are as sharp as the Leitz in the center and not a one has beat them yet. The Zeiss do come very close though.

BTW, the rubber eyecups from telescope eyepieces can easily be converted to work on binocular eyepieces. My background is many decades of amateur astronomy and I have found there's quite a bit of equipment crossover. Caps, eyecups, etc. can be pillaged from astronomical sources and work great! The rubber eyecups Vernonscope once used (and probably still do) with their Brandon eyepieces were originally produced for binoculars (and some of the non-Brandon eyepieces they once sold were originally intended for use as binocular eyepieces). The rubber eyecup once sold with the Tele Vue Plossl were extremely good and very versatile - they fit on many other eyepieces and binoculars, were super soft/flexible, and were extremely well made.

 

[Gijs van Ginkel]

Does any of you ever tried Hartmann porros? I ask it since our comparison studies of Hartmann binoculars with contemporary Leitz/Zeiss/Swarovski porros showed that the Hartmanns were often superior optically and mechanically.
Gijs van Ginkel

 

[Renze de Vries]

Does any of you ever tried Hartmann porros? I ask it since our comparison studies of Hartmann binoculars with contemporary Leitz/Zeiss/Swarovski porros showed that the Hartmanns were often superior optically and mechanically.
Gijs van Ginkel

Hi Gijs,

In fact I have. Motivated by your article probably! I owned the 8x30 Bernina and the 8x30 Compact for a while, I even had one of them serviced by Wim de Boer (don't remember which one) but I sold them or gave them away. Well made binoculars for sure, but for some reason they didn't make a lasting impression. Not in the way the Binuxit did. I have to say however that this all happened before my cataract surgery so it's very well possible that I would rate the Hartmann's higher today.
I see that your comparison to Leitz is made with the 10x40 Camparit where the several years older Leitz (probably even a few years earlier than 1960) performs on par with the Hartmann from 1970. In general I think those Harmann's, at least the Bernina and Compact models, are of younger date and so could have more advanced coating already - am I right on this Gijs?

Unfortunately you didn't include the Binuxit in the test. Did you ever measure its transmission Gijs? I'm curious what figures it would bring to the table.

Thanks for the Hartmann reminder!

Renze

 

[Renze de Vries]

In addition to the pics of the bicycled (tubed) Binuxit, here are some more. In this case the binocular is the Leitz 10x40 Camparit but it doesn't matter as it has identical oculars. On one of the oculars sits the tube cup flush with the eye lens, suitable for wearing spectacles, on the other ocular I have made a longer eye cup which works with spectacles off. See the Leitz hard eye cup in the longer cup, which helps to keep the rubber tube nicely round. In the low rubber cup the standard cup is removed of course.

Oh yes, it's good to know this: in case you would like to acquire a Leitz porro, check the serial number and choose it higher than 500000. A Binuxit fan and expert by the name of Wilhelm Langert (he's had more Binuxits through his hands than anyone I know) says that from his experience Leitz updated the coating 'round about this figure. Even if you can't see it on the lens' surface, it's there. Says Wilm, and I believe him.

Renze

 

[Gijs van Ginkel]

Renze, post 23,
Unfortunately I did not have the Leitz Binuxit to investigate, but it is very well possible that it performs better than the Hartmanns depending on the production year, since that has also influence on the coating qualities. Older Hartmanns as well as older Leitz binoculars of course had less efficient coatings, so I still have some work to do.
Gijs van Ginkel

 

[Patudo]

Thanks for putting up those photos Renze. I'd really like to try something like the short rubber cup in your photos to see whether it would allow me to use them with glasses. Yet doing so would take away some of the pleasure that one gets using binoculars like this straight to your eyes. Yes, it's far more practical to use a binocular with glasses - but sadly the view with glasses can never be as immersive.

Starbrite... what did you end up with in the way of rubber eyecups for your Binuxit? I have to admit that I use mine with the stock standard hard plastic (?) eyecups and they do just fine by me. I like the rubber eyecups of some of my other binoculars a lot, but have tried aftermarket eyecups and found them wanting, in particular, in how they fit to my face. The ones I've tried have been straight-sided, with no outward flare where it meets your face, which makes for a more comfortable fit and increases their effective diameter (I find smaller diameter eyecups confining). If you look at the rubber eyecups of old Leitz and Zeiss West binoculars this outward flare is quite apparent - it's a little detail that, for me anyway, makes a real difference. Eye relief also becomes an issue - if the rubber eyecup extends a few mm beyond the eyepiece like the longer rubber eyecups shown in Renze's photo, I start losing the full field of view.

If I had more skill with my lathe it'd be interesting to turn down the eyecups of my Binuxit (or make a substitute set instead of using the originals!) and make them a perfect fit for rubber eyecups with that flared outward edge, if suitable ones could be found. The result would be something that'd look like the eyecups of a Zeiss West 8x30B. That'd be a lot of effort, though, for a binocular I'm already happy with.

Regarding the Binuxit itself - I really like it, it's one of the best of the old guard I've tried and I agree with one of the reviewers (classicbinoculars) who considers it very useful even today. It is bright enough under most conditions (not just sunny summer days) - something which not all single-coated binoculars of that vintage are - and the center field sharpness, as mentioned by Renze, is excellent. Although I don't think I would agree with Renze's contention that it betters the sharpness of the best modern binoculars, it is certainly very sharp and stands comparison, in center field sharpness anyway, to the superb 8x32 FL. The relatively quick fall-off in sharpness to the edge is probably its only real shortcoming if one can get along with the short eye relief. The sweet spot of the Binuxit's great Zeiss rival is distinctly larger, but the Oberkochen porro is noticeably not as bright and on axis sharpness just a touch inferior (to my eyes).