Vickers Adlerblick (1 Viewer)

I am curious about this in porro (10X30) , anyone have any experience with the brand/configuration, I believe these were made in Japan.

Andy W.

Hi,

Adlerblick (freely translated eagle-eye) is a trademark of ES-DE Optik of Stuttgart Germany. They tended to sell all kinds of Made in Japan porros back then. Look for J-B / J-E codes at the front prism housing covers.

Joachim

Joachim,

Thanks for the info.

Andy W.

Vickers London 8x, 12x double eyepiece turret 50mm brass heavy high quality submarine? binocular.

Vickers also made ships, machine guns, submarines?, aircraft (Supermarine Spitfire?) and many other top quality products.

How this name is found on Japanese binoculars, I don't know.
It seems like a stolen name to enhance a product.
Perhaps the name was legally bought?

Vickers started in the early 1800s, I think, and is associated with numerous high quality firms like Marconi and is now owned by Rolls Royce.

B.

Thanks Binastro, the 10X30s are on the bay, leather covering, and in mint condition. They do say made in Japan so it appears to be a outsource/rebrand glass., it is cool looking, just not sure of the quality.

Andy W.

Hi Andy,
Well, Vickers made main battle tanks with 105mm guns, maybe larger, so it should be O.K.
Although I doubt that the binocular is actually made by Vickers.

If the price is right, go for it.

Regards,
B.

Whether J.J. Vickers and Sons, Kent distributors of FLIR, Bushnell etc. founded 1887 and dissolved in the 2010s? had anything to do with the mighty Vickers I don't know.
Maybe family connection or no connection.

It seems that later J.J. Vickers were associated with Jessops.

The 10x30 binocular may be high quality.

B.

Thanks again Binastro, will take some time thinking about this one.

Andy W.

Hi,

sorry,I had a look at the ebay auction - I would not buy that for sure - not even for cheap and certainly not for 140 quid.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-Vic...-jumelle-MINT-Unused-Order-Japan/303134866915

It is looks fairly new and has lots of funny inscriptions (with wrong german to boot - nobody in his right mind would write Winkel 5 deg on there - it would be Weitwinkel and usually the field is given in meters at 1000m distance) and a faux leather case.

Also the paperwork mentions that the instrument was tested by the JTI - that doesn't really fit the fairly new looking instrument and also it should have J-B and J-E codes then.

Sorry,

Joachim

Joachim,

Thank you for that valuable info, I was on the fence, but now off. It seems like the manufacturer using the German heritage/name and selling an outsourced item.

Regards,

Andy W.

J J Vickers

Binastro said:

Vickers London 8x, 12x double eyepiece turret 50mm brass heavy high quality submarine? binocular.

Vickers also made ships, machine guns, submarines?, aircraft (Supermarine Spitfire?) and many other top quality products.

How this name is found on Japanese binoculars, I don't know.
It seems like a stolen name to enhance a product.
Perhaps the name was legally bought?

Vickers started in the early 1800s, I think, and is associated with numerous high quality firms like Marconi and is now owned by Rolls Royce.

B.

Click to expand...

I don't believe the company trading as J J Vickers which distributed the Adlerblick range had anything to do with the gun maker.
Mr John Vickers was the boss of the optical equipment supplier.

Richard,
I don't either.
But is there a family connection?

Initially, it only said Vickers at the start of this thread.

Regards,
B

Resurrecting another old thread ...
I can no longer see the original auction listing linked above, but have just bought a 'Vickers Adlerblick 10x42', for £42, as opposed to the £140 quoted there.

They are really good at the lower price, but the higher price gets you into Zeiss (even Oberkochen) territory, where these will not quite compete.

The button at the far end of the axle has "Made in Japan MB" and "Nr. 75966". No remaining JTII sticker or JB/JE codes.

Winkel is German for 'angle', so would be correct if the FOV were not wide. "Nr." is the correct abbreviation in German, too. English would be "No.", since we still speak Latin?

They give the impression of being well designed, from scratch, rather than a copy, clone or re-badge.
The bridge arms have a hollow cross-section, with tailored tapered wall thickness. Where paint has worn off, a nice grey anodisation is revealed. Coatings are a mix of none/brown/deep-blue (UV?) on lenses and light blue (single?) on prisms. Only one side has an apparently uncoated surface, so that may have been cleaned off?

Unusually, the last eyepiece surface seems concave.

There is slight play (see-saw) in the focuser, but not enough to make me investigate tightening things.

Prisms are high-index, and stray light is pretty low. View is good: sharp and contrasty. At the edge 15% of the 65° field, some secondary purple-green chromatic and pincushion are visible with high contrast (aerial/antenna/branches against sky), but not intrusive.

I am glad I did not let the above put me off purchasing.

I associate Vickers with microscopes, but these bins have a Swallow graphic logo.
Update: The microscopes were branded "Vickers Instruments" with a VI monogram logo. So unrelated, as are VC10 etc.

Jring above says
"Adlerblick (freely translated eagle-eye) is a trademark of ES-DE Optik of Stuttgart Germany."
Co-incidentally, I just bought a pair of ESDE 7x50 "Weit Winkel" (2 words) 163m. Pupils truncated on inner sides, and lots of stray light and false pupils. Not good, despite large prism housings. JTII sticker and cross-hair button on near hinge end. JB46 visible on prism shelf through objectives.

They made me wonder if Japan put German markings on poor products, but the Vickers Adlerblick restored my faith ...

Is Vickers a brand in Germany, or did Japan add German markings for British importers? Odd.