Simon S
Well-known member
25 years ago I bought a pair of binoculars from a camera shop in Kingston South London for around £25 pounds. I did a comparison in the shop with a pair of Swifts and decided the oily smelling Russian BNU4 8X30’s where superior in there image quality and build.
Five years ago I gave them away to a chap at work who wanted a pair on binoculars for his newly acquired boat. By that time the chunky Russian binoculars had some paint missing and where in need of some TLC. Then a few months ago I won a pair on eBay for £15 and the collection of binoculars began….
The Zeiss is a great little binocular. It is fairly light and is well built with little slop in the focusing column. This is a later build model (late1979) with the improved coatings on the glass, and is clearly superior to earlier variants. Weight is 500 grams.
Eye relief is ok for non spectacle wearers but causes a lot of the image to be cut out with specs on.
The Russian binoculars stand out with there large oculars and deep focusing wheel.
There is no slop in the focusing column and the lenses have a purple coating , and like the Jenoptem use BAK 4 Prisms.
Weight is 600 grams which is noticeable when comparing the two.
Eye relief is almost useless if your wearing spectacles!
Looking through the Zeiss binoculars the image is bright and clear, with the field of view remaining sharp to around 80% of the field of view. Colour rendition is neutral field of view is wide. The focus is smooth and precise with no backlash whatsoever. The Jenoptem’s do suffer from flaring and ghosting when the sun is in front of you. There are modifications to improve this performance, which require fabrication of a prism mask and alterations to the internal baffling.
The BNU4’s give a slightly yellow view but the centre image is super sharp. Like the Jenoptem’s, they stay sharp to around 80% of the field of view. Focusing is smooth but with some backlash that is more annoying than detrimental on focusing. Flaring is again poor on this model and also could do with a bit of baffling internally.
So which model is best?
Well they are both good bins for different reasons.
The Russian bins are built like a tank! If I dropped them from chest height onto grass, they would work just fine. The Jenoptem’s however would need re collimating and possibly suffer a chipped prism in the process.
The Jenoptem’s have good colour balance where the BNU4’s do not. Most of the time this is not a problem, but for bird watching, colour fidelity is of great importance.
The Zeiss do also seem to have a slightly wider field.
Overall the Zeiss wins in general optical performance. It is bright sharp, and colour neutral. But if you’re a person who wants a tough cheap pair on binoculars, The BNU4’s are for you.
Five years ago I gave them away to a chap at work who wanted a pair on binoculars for his newly acquired boat. By that time the chunky Russian binoculars had some paint missing and where in need of some TLC. Then a few months ago I won a pair on eBay for £15 and the collection of binoculars began….
The Zeiss is a great little binocular. It is fairly light and is well built with little slop in the focusing column. This is a later build model (late1979) with the improved coatings on the glass, and is clearly superior to earlier variants. Weight is 500 grams.
Eye relief is ok for non spectacle wearers but causes a lot of the image to be cut out with specs on.
The Russian binoculars stand out with there large oculars and deep focusing wheel.
There is no slop in the focusing column and the lenses have a purple coating , and like the Jenoptem use BAK 4 Prisms.
Weight is 600 grams which is noticeable when comparing the two.
Eye relief is almost useless if your wearing spectacles!
Looking through the Zeiss binoculars the image is bright and clear, with the field of view remaining sharp to around 80% of the field of view. Colour rendition is neutral field of view is wide. The focus is smooth and precise with no backlash whatsoever. The Jenoptem’s do suffer from flaring and ghosting when the sun is in front of you. There are modifications to improve this performance, which require fabrication of a prism mask and alterations to the internal baffling.
The BNU4’s give a slightly yellow view but the centre image is super sharp. Like the Jenoptem’s, they stay sharp to around 80% of the field of view. Focusing is smooth but with some backlash that is more annoying than detrimental on focusing. Flaring is again poor on this model and also could do with a bit of baffling internally.
So which model is best?
Well they are both good bins for different reasons.
The Russian bins are built like a tank! If I dropped them from chest height onto grass, they would work just fine. The Jenoptem’s however would need re collimating and possibly suffer a chipped prism in the process.
The Jenoptem’s have good colour balance where the BNU4’s do not. Most of the time this is not a problem, but for bird watching, colour fidelity is of great importance.
The Zeiss do also seem to have a slightly wider field.
Overall the Zeiss wins in general optical performance. It is bright sharp, and colour neutral. But if you’re a person who wants a tough cheap pair on binoculars, The BNU4’s are for you.
