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NL Pure strap lugs spinning tangle (1 Viewer)

W

Winterdune

Well-known member
Warning: first world problem ahead!

As a daily user, I love the optics of my NL Pure 8x32s, but I've struggled with the ergonomics on several fronts.

I've solved the problem of the ridiculously tight rain guard, which when removed always pulled the eye cups out of position, by swapping to the one made for the x42s (though even then I still had to take off the little interior bumps with a scalpel).

I've replaced the absurdly long and complicated neck strap for a much simpler standard Optech neoprene one.

I've just about got the eye relief right as a glasses wearer too, although truly perfect is in between two click settings.

The last annoyance is the spinning strap lugs - almost every time I pick up my bins to go birding I have to spin one or the other to untwist the strap again. Has anyone found a way to stop the darned things spinning?

The pre-Field Pro ELs were perfect ergonomically - if it weren't for how much better the NLs are optically I'd rather be using them!

Thanks,
Sean
 
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Winterdune said:
Warning: first world problem ahead!

As a daily user, I love the optics of my NL Pure 8x32s, but I've struggled with the ergonomics on several fronts.

I've solved the problem of the ridiculously tight rain guard, which when removed always pulled the eye cups out of position, by swapping to the one made for the x42s (though even then I still had to take off the little interior bumps with a scalpel).

I've replaced the absurdly long and complicated neck strap for a much simpler standard Optech neoprene one.

I've just about got the eye relief right as a glasses wearer too, although truly perfect is in between two click settings.

The last annoyance is the spinning strap lugs - almost every time I pick up my bins to go birding I have to spin one or the other to untangle the strap again. Has anyone found a way to stop the darned things spinning?

The pre-Field Pro ELs were perfect ergonomically - if it weren't for how much better the NLs are optically I'd rather be using them!

Thanks,
Sean
Click to expand...
I agree, first world problem. Change is hard. Old ways go down slowly. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I used an EL 1042 for the better part of 3 years, then got the NL832. Both of course had the much maligned (here), Fieldpro system. I seem to be Fieldpro's lone defender. It is a lonely task that requires I write something from time to time.

First if you want to use Swarovski's strap and the swiveling version of fieldpro's attaching hardware, something I did for 2 years with the ELs, one step is required, that once learned/practiced becomes a non event. When you put the strap over your head (and in my case shoulder - I use bandolier for the original single strap) AND when you take it off, pay attention to the strap. First, put the eye shield in place, secure the objective covers if you use them, then thoughtfully (initially) wrap the straps around the whole bino in the same orientation that you were using it. Just pay attention to that. Takes more to write about this than to do it.

Second, get a Rick Young (or some such) harness. Switch the Swaro attaching hardware out to the one that has the horizontal slots ala more conventional systems. I like Chill6x6 advice to lose the metal O rings Rick Young supplies and sub in those nylon locking zip ties. Getting in and out of the RYO harness requires you pay a bit of attention (just like above). My habit has become right arm through the middle of the double straps on right side of bino, then head through the double, with sliding hardware behind head, then left arm splits the double strap on left side. If you develop this habit getting in and out of the harness and do the same thing while wrapping the strap around bino when done, the hardware does not swivel/twist. Again harder to describe then do.

While the change in the way you do things outlined above is hard for some, seems unnecessary, especially if you use one strap system and never change - I get that - 2 benefits occur. First you get to enjoy the superior optical performance and wonderful haptics of the NL, without being ah.. er.. challenged. Second you now have a neat little system that enables you to changeout for different activities, say birding vs hunting, or anticipated weather/terrain how you want to carry your bino. Birding? For me its RYO. More adventurous stuff? A chest pouch. Once each is set up with that Swaro slotted hardware, its seconds to change.
 
I go birding every day from my door. I carry a scope in a backpack harness, a camera on a sling strap (for the only kind of shooting I condone) and my binoculars around my neck. The binoculars, like all the other stuff, sit by my front door and I grab them as I leave. I've no room for any fancy binocular harness and shouldn't need one. Every other pair of binoculars I've ever had has fitted easily into my routine. The NLs add an annoying few seconds of twiddling the straps to ensure they are not twisted. All I need to stop this happening is a way to fix the strap lugs in one position. I'll try your wrapping the strap approach though... But much better would be a way to stop those lugs rotating.
 
Winterdune said:
I go birding every day from my door. I carry a scope in a backpack harness, a camera on a sling strap (for the only kind of shooting I condone) and my binoculars around my neck. The binoculars, like all the other stuff, sit by my front door and I grab them as I leave. I've no room for any fancy binocular harness and shouldn't need one. Every other pair of binoculars I've ever had has fitted easily into my routine. The NLs add an annoying few seconds of twiddling the straps to ensure they are not twisted. All I need to stop this happening is a way to fix the strap lugs in one position. I'll try your wrapping the strap approach though... But much better would be a way to stop those lugs rotating.
Click to expand...
I see people so burdened, scope camera, binos and wonder... "What are they thinking?" No offense, its just not my style. Thinking about it though, seems fair to think I want my birding excursions less burdened than you. Hence putting in a wee bit of time to learn a thing to simplify isnt much to ask. After many years of birding and thinking about whats missing, I started carrying scope/tripod this fall. Think Ive written "blasted scope and tripod" every time Ive written about it, partly tongue in cheek, as I truly love what the scope has brought to my eyes. I do not love having to load the thing, then get the thing out of the car, set it up and drag it around. With that I pick and choose where and when I take it along. We've made peace with each other. My birding bud goes exclusively with camera. I chide him from time to time, but to each his own.. right? One recommendation on trying the wrap approach, I cant do it justice trying to describe it here. Just look at what happens when you put on and take off the bino. Watch how the things get twisted, then notice how with a very small but initially conscious effort, you can prevent that twist. Once you notice, it'll become automatic.
 
Winterdune said:
I've no room for any fancy binocular harness and shouldn't need one.
Click to expand...
Sorry, just one more observation. If you insist on carrying all that gear, why not? I see a few folks so burdened where we go, and wonder how they do it. Would seem scope is on shoulder and so comes off to be set up and used, so only adds to the burden but not the complexity of getting set up... do I have that right? But then theres the camera and bino. Would seem that some conflict occurs there. Camera strap or bino strap first? One weighing on the other? One on each side? If you take a bit of time and do the bino harness, its centered on chest, stable, always quickest to hand to use binos to find stuff for camera or scope? Do I have the right? I don't know, really just trying to figure out how anyone does what you do, without having to accept a bit of hassle. Birding as we do it is always a hike, part of our enjoyment - grab gear and go, stop to view, move on. Perhaps you're moving to place where you set up and so what I'm thinking is not relevant?
 
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The OP has asked for help doing what he does. I always supposed that a flat strap should make FP less twisty than a round cord, but it's a fact that those posts rotate a full 360°, which could easily have been limited but was not. So all you can do is figure out where in the process of wearing or transporting it the problem arises, and try to avoid it. Keeping it wrapped rather than flopping around loose sounds like a good idea.
 
A harness doesn't work all that well if you also carry a scope and a camera (and presumably also a backpack). Especially not when you're in a climate where you have to change clothes quite a lot, like Norfolk. Too much of a hassle.

Hermann
 
@Winterdue

Hello Sean,

If something needs fixing, then you are dealing with something broken or with design faults. Of course, your problems are not major, just some annoyances in utilising some fine optics in accordance with your own needs.

Stay safe,
Arthur
 
GrampaTom said:
We is those of us read here on Birdforum regularly. Your opinion of Fieldpro is well known.
Click to expand...
I guess he'll stop complaining once the nodules are off his binocular :D I understand completely....the frustation doesn't stop...it just keeps going....I struggle to curb my own tendency to rant on....
 

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