Victory SF: Condensation on ocular lens (3 Viewers)

[perterra]

I may be out of line but IMO a $2500 binocular should operate perfectly or be near perfect. That is what you are paying the big bucks for. There should be no rust or stains or ocular fogging. Return them if you are not satisfied in any way.

So this morning I walk out on the porch and park myself in the swing with a cup of coffee to watch the sun rise. When I raised the cup to my lips the right lens of my eye glasses fogged. These are the latest greatest super hi index coated with everything imaginable. Holy cow, I stood up, turned the other direction and took another sip. The left lens fogged. Obviously if something as simple as the direction of the wind has an effect on condensation these are junk glasses.

 

[Troubador]

DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME!

I ate hot Indian currie last night and breathed on my SF this morning and the complete SF vaporised.
WTF, talking about CQ issues..

Jan

Nearly wet myself laughing at this one:eek!:

Lee

 

[Troubador]

So this morning I walk out on the porch and park myself in the swing with a cup of coffee to watch the sun rise. When I raised the cup to my lips the right lens of my eye glasses fogged. These are the latest greatest super hi index coated with everything imaginable. Holy cow, I stood up, turned the other direction and took another sip. The left lens fogged. Obviously if something as simple as the direction of the wind has an effect on condensation these are junk glasses.

PT its all glasses that are the problem. I have heard MANY complaints about them and only a few positives. I think they have been rushed into production too soon: people drop them or sit on them and they break, particles have been found on them, dogs pick them up and chew on them and after being worn in a shower room I've heard they steam up. Its all down to poor quality assurance.

Lee

 

[[email protected]]

Wrong again Dennis.

Lotutec isn't there to stop fogging. This is caused by a temperature difference and results in fine droplets.

Lotutec works by causing larger droplets such as medium to heavy rain to run off or be easily shaken off.

In very light or misty rain it doesn't work well because the droplets, like the droplets from fogging, don't reach the necessary size for them to become unstable and run off.

Lee

Your wrong again. Lotutec does help prevent fogging. Quote from Zeiss literature.

"And the best thing is that the hydrophobic effect means LotuTec is less likely to suffer from fogging, so your vision will be impaired much less when you move quickly from cold air into the warm."

 

[jan van daalen]

PT its all glasses that are the problem. I have heard MANY complaints about them and only a few positives. I think they have been rushed into production too soon: people drop them or sit on them and they break, particles have been found on them, dogs pick them up and chew on them and after being worn in a shower room I've heard they steam up. Its all down to poor quality assurance.

Lee

You can joke about QA what you want but you would expect of a reliable brand like Zeiss that they at least would have their rubber armoring in order.
I can't do without a binocular, so this morning I went to the shop and took another SF from the shelf. I threw it on the seat of my truck and accidently sat on it. Because of some spicy dinner last night, some gas escaped from a lower part of my body and the grey armoring turned green. The worst part of it is that I can only use the SF off wind from now on.
Can't Zeiss do anything right?

Jan

 

[[email protected]]

Very true! couple of observations on every bin I have had I can get fogging on one or the other lens, its likely to be just exposure unequal (like pressing one side closer to the eye on one side etc) - it isn't anything to worry about!

Stop worrying so much about the kit and settle down and enjoy the view of the Birds!

You can say what you want you want. I have NEVER had just one ocular fog up on any of my binoculars under any condition and we do have cold weather in Colorado. If they were MY binoculars they would be going back to Zeiss to at least get checked while under warranty.

 

[[email protected]]

Nearly wet myself laughing at this one:eek!:

Lee

I hope you didn't get any on your Zeiss. They might rust and stain. That uric acid will surely rust and stain them.

 

[[email protected]]

You can joke about QA what you want but you would expect of a reliable brand like Zeiss that they at least would have their rubber armoring in order.
I can't do without a binocular, so this morning I went to the shop and took another SF from the shelf. I threw it on the seat of my truck and accidently sat on it. Because of some spicy dinner last night, some gas escaped from a lower part of my body and the grey armoring turned green. The worst part of it is that I can only use the SF off wind from now on.
Can't Zeiss do anything right?

Jan

I am surprised it didn't peel the armour off.

 

[kestrel1]

My experience is that in binoculars with hydrophobic coating and bigger diameter of eyepiece lens, fogging is much slower on external surface in winter.
My experience is that ELSV was pretty immune to fogging of external lens while Nobilem or Meostars fogs up after minute. In case of ELSV it takes maybe 5 minutes. But if you breath on lens, nothing helps you...
There on market it is possible to find anti fogging cleaning fluids /it is used for scuba diving glasses/, but I am not sure if it is safe, due manufacturers probably do not permit to use such a thing on coating, as it can damage coatings.

 

[Troubador]

Your wrong again. Lotutec does help prevent fogging. Quote from Zeiss literature.

"And the best thing is that the hydrophobic effect means LotuTec is less likely to suffer from fogging, so your vision will be impaired much less when you move quickly from cold air into the warm."

The current claims made by Zeiss are:
LotuTec® coating
Water simply rolls off the lens as it does from a lotus leaf or off a duck's back. The LotuTec®coating on the lens and eyepiece ensures that water or snow simply roll off the surface of the glass. Since neither water nor dirt can collect on the surface of the VICTORY HT you can spend less time cleaning and more time watching nature.

All the hydrophobic coatings I have tried whether on eye-glasses or on binoculars without exception have only worked in medium to heavy rain whatever claims were made by the manufacturer.

Breathe on any binocular lens you like with any hydrophobic coating and it will fog immediately. The droplets created are simply too small to benefit from the effect of the coating.

Lee

 

[Binastro]

There is only one persistent stain on this thread, and it is not on the Zeiss Victory SF binocular.
Unfortunately there is no warranty available to deal with this problem.

 

[Troubador]

I hope you didn't get any on your Zeiss. They might rust and stain. That uric acid will surely rust and stain them.

You are doing it again Dennis: hypeing and exagerating as usual.

I said I nearly wet myself.

This is different from actually wetting myself.

Lee

 

[Troubador]

You can say what you want you want. I have NEVER had just one ocular fog up on any of my binoculars under any condition and we do have cold weather in Colorado. If they were MY binoculars they would be going back to Zeiss to at least get checked while under warranty.

Did you never breathe on one lens to clean and polish it?
Never?
If you did and it went all dull and very slightly wet then that one lens fogged.

Lee

 

[jan van daalen]

There is only one persistent stain on this thread, and it is not on the Zeiss Victory SF binocular.
Unfortunately there is no warranty available to deal with this problem.

Huh, that's not what my shrink promised me

 

[Troubador]

You can joke about QA what you want but you would expect of a reliable brand like Zeiss that they at least would have their rubber armoring in order.
I can't do without a binocular, so this morning I went to the shop and took another SF from the shelf. I threw it on the seat of my truck and accidently sat on it. Because of some spicy dinner last night, some gas escaped from a lower part of my body and the grey armoring turned green. The worst part of it is that I can only use the SF off wind from now on.
Can't Zeiss do anything right?

Jan

OMG Jan!
It turned green? Ugh! Still thats better than turning that luminous shade of red that Leica loaned binoculars in. It was sort of a Vindaloo Red. Or Volcanic Red. LOL.

Lee

 

[Troubador]

I am surprised it didn't peel the armour off.

And here you are claiming an intimate knowledge of what comes out of Jan's derriere. You are obviously a brave man, personally I wouldn't go there....

Lee

 

[Troubador]

Peace

Dennis

I think we have taken this sparring contest far enough and I would like to offer the following statement that I hope you can agree with.

Any quality assurance lapses associated with SF (or any other binoculars) are regretable and should be avoided in the future and should be put right under warranty.​

Lets agree on this, 'shake hands' over the internet and move on.

What do you say?

Lee

 

[perterra]

You can say what you want you want. I have NEVER had just one ocular fog up on any of my binoculars under any condition and we do have cold weather in Colorado. If they were MY binoculars they would be going back to Zeiss to at least get checked while under warranty.

Your humidity levels are pretty minor for the most part. My advice to you is to put the Zeiss out of your mind and quit looking at these threads, you obviously wouldnt be happy with it.

 

[[email protected]]

Did you never breathe on one lens to clean and polish it?
Never?
If you did and it went all dull and very slightly wet then that one lens fogged.

Lee

Yes, that is true but you are purposely blowing hot moist air on that particular ocular. How often would that happen by accident? Not TOO often.

 

[[email protected]]

The current claims made by Zeiss are:
LotuTec® coating
Water simply rolls off the lens as it does from a lotus leaf or off a duck's back. The LotuTec®coating on the lens and eyepiece ensures that water or snow simply roll off the surface of the glass. Since neither water nor dirt can collect on the surface of the VICTORY HT you can spend less time cleaning and more time watching nature.

All the hydrophobic coatings I have tried whether on eye-glasses or on binoculars without exception have only worked in medium to heavy rain whatever claims were made by the manufacturer.

Breathe on any binocular lens you like with any hydrophobic coating and it will fog immediately. The droplets created are simply too small to benefit from the effect of the coating.

Lee

Yes. But the Lotutec creates a hydrophobic coating which REPELS water. It will restrict the formation of condensation and if any does form it will roll right off like you say.