Surprise through my old Zeiss (1 Viewer)

[eronald]

For 30 Euros, an old guy sold me a Zeiss Silvarem 6x30 porro he'd inherited a long time ago; it seems to date from the 50s and has some sort of deposit or fungus inside the objectives but is still useable.

This oldie shows me a better view from where I stand, while my modern roofs just take me really close to my subject, if that makes sense..

Anyway, I had these in my bicycle bag, and crossing a bridge in Bourges she tod me the points in the distance on the water of the Cher were ducks. I dug out the Zeiss, while she walked ahead, and did see some grey ducks in the far distance on the lake, even a couple of swans, but the closer birds were deep black and had a white front of the head. Coots, it seems. Well worth the minute spent watching.

Moral of the story: any working binocular is better than no binocular, you can mostly find a bird to look at anytime you want, and the focus knob on this Zeiss won't fall off, they really did make them better back then

Edmund

PS. If anyone knows whether I can safely take this apart to clean and not disturb the collimation, please tell.

 

[WJC]

For 30 Euros, an old guy sold me a Zeiss Silvarem 6x30 porro he'd inherited a long time ago; it seems to date from the 50s and has some sort of deposit or fungus inside the objectives but is still useable.

This oldie shows me a better view from where I stand, while my modern roofs just take me really close to my subject, if that makes sense..

Anyway, I had these in my bicycle bag, and crossing a bridge in Bourges she tod me the points in the distance on the water of the Cher were ducks. I dug out the Zeiss, while she walked ahead, and did see some grey ducks in the far distance on the lake, even a couple of swans, but the closer birds were deep black and had a white front of the head. Coots, it seems. Well worth the minute spent watching.

Moral of the story: any working binocular is better than no binocular, you can mostly find a bird to look at anytime you want, and the focus knob on this Zeiss won't fall off, they really did make them better back then

Edmund

PS. If anyone knows whether I can safely take this apart to clean and not disturb the collimation, please tell.

Many times I have disassemble, cleaned, restored, and reassembled 70-year-old, and older, binoculars. However, I was never successful on the first or second attempt. Finally, without the proper understanding the most you can expect out of alignment is Conditional Alignment. On the other hand, that's what many "experts" have been selling their customers for years. All the best, Bill

 

[dries1]

Eronald, Bill will know this - but I think after the lens get cleaned, the objectives which have to be reset are used to collimate the binocular (retainer rings), so It could be a lesson in futility or pure luck. To get a proper collimated glass, one will need a collimator. Perhaps you could clean them your self then get help with the collimation.

 

[eronald]

Many times I have disassemble, cleaned, restored, and reassembled 70-year-old, and older, binoculars. However, I was never successful on the first or second attempt. Finally, without the proper understanding the most you can expect out of alignment is Conditional Alignment. On the other hand, that's what many "experts" have been selling their customers for years. All the best, Bill

I need to clean the inside of the objectives. I could take the "box ends" apart - there seem to be screws for that, without unscrewing the objectives, this might avoid the need for recollimation?

Edmund

 

[Patudo]

It would be great to hear more about your old Silvarem, eronald. I've heard great things about the mechanical and also image quality of this binocular. A photo would be wonderful!