justabirdwatcher
Well-known member
I picked up a pair of used 9x36's a few weeks ago after having been curious about Zen Ray's for quite some time. I really like(d) the 9x36 format, and had high hopes for these. Zen Ray always seem to be well liked, except for a consistent undertone of poor QC. I guess I hoped that would just be a rumor or that I would get a good copy.
Unfortunately, I can only support this notion after having my pair of 9x36's for about a month now.
Immediately upon opening the box, I liked the handling, the weight and especially the eyecups. They had possibly the most comfortable eyecups of any binocular I've ever used.
And they were bright. Exceptionally bright - which is why I held onto them through the end of the deer season (I use my binocs for both birding and hunting, and often "bird" while I claim to be be hunting... LOL ).
But that's pretty much where the good news stops.
My copy of the 9x36's may have had the worst focus wheel I've ever used on any binocs in my life. Sloppy, squishy and lots of slack. I would pass by sharp focus and then try to come back over and over and over again. I probably overshot focus 9 times out of 10. Intially I realized the problem was the rubber "grip strips" just weren't tacky enough, and my fingers were slipping on the wheel. So I got "smart" and came up with a solution - a strip of rubber inner tube material over it that gave me good tacky response. That helped significantly but still didn't fix overshooting the focus. It just helped me move the wheel as many times as I needed to in order to achieve focus (which was a lot!).
The next issue was the edge-to-edge sharpness. Yes, the center portion or "sweet spot" was very sharp. Very. But the sharpness fell off sooner and more quickly than all but some of the sub-$100 binocs I've used. In fact, not even my Leupold Yosemite's fell off toward the edges so much. And the lower right half of the right barrel was so soft it was a constant distraction.
Finally, the glare was just too much. It took me a while to isolate it because at first I thought it was internal glare. But one day I shaded the area around the eyecups and realized it was glare from the light coming in the small space between my eye sockets and the eye cups. I "fixed" that by fabricating some rubber eye sheilds from that same used inner tube, and that did help. But compared to my Sightron Blue Sky II's which have zero glare from the sidelight, these things were downright annoying.
I sure wanted to like them a lot more than I did. As soon as the deer season ended, I sold them. Thankfully I didn't take more than a $40 hit on them, but I am going to find it hard to ever consider Zen Ray binocs again after that experience.
John
Unfortunately, I can only support this notion after having my pair of 9x36's for about a month now.
Immediately upon opening the box, I liked the handling, the weight and especially the eyecups. They had possibly the most comfortable eyecups of any binocular I've ever used.
And they were bright. Exceptionally bright - which is why I held onto them through the end of the deer season (I use my binocs for both birding and hunting, and often "bird" while I claim to be be hunting... LOL ).
But that's pretty much where the good news stops.
My copy of the 9x36's may have had the worst focus wheel I've ever used on any binocs in my life. Sloppy, squishy and lots of slack. I would pass by sharp focus and then try to come back over and over and over again. I probably overshot focus 9 times out of 10. Intially I realized the problem was the rubber "grip strips" just weren't tacky enough, and my fingers were slipping on the wheel. So I got "smart" and came up with a solution - a strip of rubber inner tube material over it that gave me good tacky response. That helped significantly but still didn't fix overshooting the focus. It just helped me move the wheel as many times as I needed to in order to achieve focus (which was a lot!).
The next issue was the edge-to-edge sharpness. Yes, the center portion or "sweet spot" was very sharp. Very. But the sharpness fell off sooner and more quickly than all but some of the sub-$100 binocs I've used. In fact, not even my Leupold Yosemite's fell off toward the edges so much. And the lower right half of the right barrel was so soft it was a constant distraction.
Finally, the glare was just too much. It took me a while to isolate it because at first I thought it was internal glare. But one day I shaded the area around the eyecups and realized it was glare from the light coming in the small space between my eye sockets and the eye cups. I "fixed" that by fabricating some rubber eye sheilds from that same used inner tube, and that did help. But compared to my Sightron Blue Sky II's which have zero glare from the sidelight, these things were downright annoying.
I sure wanted to like them a lot more than I did. As soon as the deer season ended, I sold them. Thankfully I didn't take more than a $40 hit on them, but I am going to find it hard to ever consider Zen Ray binocs again after that experience.
John
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