SeldomPerched
Well-known member
Read into this what you will, talk about it even but please do so behind my back as I am thin-skinned... Something I want to share as it has a happy ending, or perhaps it is more of a happy beginning now that a problem is finally solved.
It has taken me just two years to set the dioptre correctly after any number of times I tried, getting ever more frustrated till I was convinced I had a poor factory specimen of the Leica Ultravid 8x32 HD Plus, Schott HT glass and all.
This morning, having left the offending binoculars alone for a few months - maybe the best thing to do is let the whole thing cool down a while when things don't go well - I decided to try a different tack and instead of focusing on something highly visible at a nearer distance I focused on bumpy stonework a hundred yards away with a lot of micro detail from pitting, lichens, and cementwork - all obscure in shadow behind swaying branches and leaves. Despite my left eye feeling distinctly weaker up against this than my right I could see the difference between focus and out of focus quite convincingly and, taking care to snap the dioptre wheel in and out withut jarring or jogging the focus, I had the new setting. Testing it out against various garden, house and distant objects showed a view at last that was just what I had rather jealously been reading of from your appreciative Leica thumbs-up posts on this forum.
So many times this particular pair nearly got traded in but I couldn't face the loss of money nor did I want to lose faith in their potential. These are binoculars that to me have everything now going for them: my hands are not particularly large so the small size and weight are no obstacle; somehow without glasses I can view the whole image comfortably with only about a sixteenth of an inch eyecup extension; and I have learnt how to get both hands round the barrels without my two forefingers fighting for control of the focus wheel. The only thing it takes a while to manage is the very fine control of focus, which seems a lot harder than on a 42. But at least unlike the 42s you can focus down to just over two yards rather than three and a half. Swaro EL and Zeiss FL focus a bit closer but, for pocketabiity, though the Zeiss is small the Leica is smaller still.
... Zeiss is nice but Leica for the hiker.
And on a tiny point that makes this choice a great one for me, the eyecups are much softer and more comfortable than the hard ones on an EL. Somebody else commented on this recently too, I think. EL are amazing of course, have the widest FOV so I'm not knocking them, nor the Zeiss which tick a lot of boxes: FOV, close up, again lightweight and small and highly respected.
Dare I imagine, getting back to the dioptre, that at least one other reader on here has sometimes been defeated or nearly defeated by something that should be so simple to correct?
Tom
It has taken me just two years to set the dioptre correctly after any number of times I tried, getting ever more frustrated till I was convinced I had a poor factory specimen of the Leica Ultravid 8x32 HD Plus, Schott HT glass and all.
This morning, having left the offending binoculars alone for a few months - maybe the best thing to do is let the whole thing cool down a while when things don't go well - I decided to try a different tack and instead of focusing on something highly visible at a nearer distance I focused on bumpy stonework a hundred yards away with a lot of micro detail from pitting, lichens, and cementwork - all obscure in shadow behind swaying branches and leaves. Despite my left eye feeling distinctly weaker up against this than my right I could see the difference between focus and out of focus quite convincingly and, taking care to snap the dioptre wheel in and out withut jarring or jogging the focus, I had the new setting. Testing it out against various garden, house and distant objects showed a view at last that was just what I had rather jealously been reading of from your appreciative Leica thumbs-up posts on this forum.
So many times this particular pair nearly got traded in but I couldn't face the loss of money nor did I want to lose faith in their potential. These are binoculars that to me have everything now going for them: my hands are not particularly large so the small size and weight are no obstacle; somehow without glasses I can view the whole image comfortably with only about a sixteenth of an inch eyecup extension; and I have learnt how to get both hands round the barrels without my two forefingers fighting for control of the focus wheel. The only thing it takes a while to manage is the very fine control of focus, which seems a lot harder than on a 42. But at least unlike the 42s you can focus down to just over two yards rather than three and a half. Swaro EL and Zeiss FL focus a bit closer but, for pocketabiity, though the Zeiss is small the Leica is smaller still.
... Zeiss is nice but Leica for the hiker.
And on a tiny point that makes this choice a great one for me, the eyecups are much softer and more comfortable than the hard ones on an EL. Somebody else commented on this recently too, I think. EL are amazing of course, have the widest FOV so I'm not knocking them, nor the Zeiss which tick a lot of boxes: FOV, close up, again lightweight and small and highly respected.
Dare I imagine, getting back to the dioptre, that at least one other reader on here has sometimes been defeated or nearly defeated by something that should be so simple to correct?
Tom
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