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Help with ID/year? (1 Viewer)

Foss

Well-known member
United States
It's billed as a 10x30 but I can't find a photo match with the full bridge.
Thank you,
Foss
 

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The Diafun is a capable binocular, so if you find one at a good price, give it a try.

It is small and compact and quite bright with Zeiss T* coatings.

If you do a search back on the Zeiss subforum you should find some discussion.
I have the 8x30, with angled eyecups best used without glasses.

Jerry

Add: If you go back to Jan. 2006, Angelo who posts here had one, and liked it. He is a photographer.
 
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I have a couple of them....decent enough optics...not the best design.....but I wouldn't run from them unless they were being thrown at me....
 
If memory serves, the Diafun was not phase coated. Don't expect a typical Zeiss level binocular. I thought they were OK, but not Zeiss OK.
 
Steve:

Good point, it has been mentioned before, what year did Zeiss have phase coating on all of
their binoculars that had SP prisms ?

I'm sure someone knows.

Jerry
 
I believe Zeiss started in 1988, on their top line binoculars. Zeiss never did come anywhere close to calling the Diafun top line, it was what seems the first attempt by a top tier manufacturer to add their name to a more affordable product. One of the ways costs were cut on the Diafun was likely to not include phase correction. I was on the verge of buying one for the sole reason it was Zeiss product in 1999. I backed out when I discovered it was not phase corrected. I knew little about binoculars then, but I had got phase correction at least on radar then. But that is as I remember, and I may well be incorrect.

EDIT: I see gunuts post as I was typing this, so I may need to stand corrected....
 
I have copy of an original Diafun brochure supplied by Zeiss Sports Optics UK a few years ago and it states clearly:
Diafun has phase coated prisms and has 'multi-coated' lenses (no mention of T*).

Lee
 
I did some note checking. We have a large annual Birding Festival here. It started out as the bald eagle Conference and has morphed into the Winter Wings Festival. There are typically some optical displays there. The year I backed off buying a Diafun there was a Zeiss display there. The Zeiss rep there was the one who told me there was no PC on the Diafun. The new Conquest then clearly was a far superior binocular and it took no imagination to think there was something significant present in the Conquest that was missing in the Diafun. That was a long time ago and it does not mean the Zeiss man was right, or that I took proper notes :eek!:.

Looking around there are places that say phase coated, some say no. None seem, on their face, to say with certainty that either is correct. Many sites just list the Diafun as simply being multi-coated. Since Zeiss was phase coating from 1988, it seems no stretch the Diafun had PC.

The Diafun was a nice, compact glass with an OK image, but nothing to stand up to any competition from the likes of the then new Zeiss Conquest, making it pretty easy to think it was not phase corrected.
 
Well, it is confirmed then, the Diafun is phase coated, not that it matters much.

Think about the name, Zeiss named it fun, that means just go out an enjoy it.

These are a nice light binocular, good optics, rugged armor and made by Zeiss.
They have MC coatings, rather than T*, after I checked mine.

You can find these used for around $100. or a bit more.

I like to collect binoculars, and I can't think of anything else that compares in this price range.
Certainly nothing new, China made.

Jerry
 
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I managed to locate a then contemporary review of the 8x30 Diafun by Stephen Ingraham
And it's it's clear in context that they were phase coated
- see Stephen's comments regarding the phase coated Pentax verses the non-phase coated Fujinon roof prisms, and the rankings in the 'NEED' table at the end
He also discusses their place verses other then available options

John
 

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