I used my
Binuxit 8x30 and
Zeiss West 10x50 over the weekend, getting to see some interesting activity from my local hobbies with the latter. Both fine devices with excellent fields of view and would have been top tier products in their day but ... coming from my regular 10x42 SE the distortion pattern/field curvature (whatever it was) really stood out, especially in the first 30 minutes or so. The lack of edge sharpness was very apparent and neither seemed to have the SE's clarity, especially the 10x50 with its somewhat yellow colour cast. I know both those binoculars pretty well, have had great days with them in the past, and still like them but ... I couldn't help but feel dissatisfied.
Removing my glasses to use them also made me feel that when relying on my own ability to see, unassisted by my glasses, every fault in my vision seemed to show up. I couldn't zero in the left barrel of the Binuxit on distant targets thanks to the astigmatism in my left eye - I had to get it zeroed in on a closer target, set the diopter on the right barrel accordingly, then go back to (thankfully using both eyes corrects a lot of my left eye astigmatism). There will probably come a time when I simply can't use them, either because of astigmatism or because the focus beyond infinity will no longer be enough.
But funnily enough... after an hour or two of humming and hawing, my eyes and brain seemed to adjust back to them. Everything slowly "settled", the distortion seemed to even out, I got used to accommodating to the areas near the edges, so that I ended up being a lot happier with them at the end that at the beginning. Coming from the narrow FOV SE the wide fields of view that the old classics provide definitely stand out. I could detect the small specks of distant swifts well enough to be confident I would see (and did see) the targets I was looking for, even if the view seemed to be (and no doubt was) somewhat less bright and clear. I have noticed before there is a time of day in the afternoon when what you see through the 10x50 really looks great, extremely detailed and perfect. And the 8x30 is just a pleasure to use - light, handy, it has a greater impression of feeling as though it's not there than anything else I have.
They're not perfect (though what is, except a NL? ... lol). But there's a real charm to these binoculars from the past. I'll regret the day I can no longer use them.
I just got my 7x35 Nikon E back from Suddarth - wow! Total binocular ecstasy. They do a phenomenal job. Focuser and hinge now silky smooth like a new Zeiss SF.
