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Old and Vintage binoculars Catalogs, Catalogues & Brochures Resource now posted (1 Viewer)

bigfield

Member
As the the not for profit binoculars research website www.miniaturebinoculars.com has continued to grow (approaching 13,000 photos, probably around 800 or 900 screen pages, approaching 11 million page views) I have recently added a large research section of old and vintage catalogs of binoculars, and with the newest updates that I am posting this week (11/5/2018) I will have posted 1,155 scanned catalog pages of all types of binoculars from 83 different catalogs dating from 1913 to the 1970's, and showing a large number of brands and powers and types/patterns of binoculars (plus some monoculars, telescopes, spotting scopes, rifle scopes whenever they happen to have been in the catalogs). These are displayed as PDFs that can be accessed by the scroll down index pages "Research Materials #1", "Research Materials #2", and "Research materials #3", and are intended for anyone trying to research any old or vintage binoculars through primary source materials. These scans include distribution and manufacturer catalogs and brochures, and presently encompass US, UK, French, Italian, Australian, German and Japanese market materials. It is really hard to beat having open free access to original source materials, and even in this internet age it really hasn't been previously available for vintage binoculars. More vintage catalogs are being added as quickly as they can be purchased around the world at a reasonable cost, or are donated to the effort, or can be borrowed to be scanned for this effort. If anybody has pre-1980's catalogs or brochures of binoculars that should be included in this effort, please contact me through the website. Among some of the catalogs I would particularly like to add but that I can't seem to locate would be some pre-1980's Japanese and Spanish language binoculars catalogs, if anybody can help with that. I am already having good fun seeing how large and expansive I can make this resource, though the scanning itself is quite tedious.
Mark
 
Hi Mark,

What a tremendous accomplishment! The catalogue section is a great resource that I've been making regular use of since you first posted about it in May.
Congratulations on your fine effort and the philosophy behind it.

John

p.s. for those interested in early Zeiss binoculars, Zeiss Historica has a set of catalogues dating from 1894 to 1905!, at: http://zeisshistoricasociety.org/binocular-catalog/
 
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Hi Mark,
I too appreciate the great work you've been doing to amass the catalogue and other sections on your web site.
Jack
 
As the the not for profit binoculars research website www.miniaturebinoculars.com has continued to grow (approaching 13,000 photos, probably around 800 or 900 screen pages, approaching 11 million page views) I have recently added a large research section of old and vintage catalogs of binoculars, and with the newest updates that I am posting this week (11/5/2018) I will have posted 1,155 scanned catalog pages of all types of binoculars from 83 different catalogs dating from 1913 to the 1970's, and showing a large number of brands and powers and types/patterns of binoculars (plus some monoculars, telescopes, spotting scopes, rifle scopes whenever they happen to have been in the catalogs). These are displayed as PDFs that can be accessed by the scroll down index pages "Research Materials #1", "Research Materials #2", and "Research materials #3", and are intended for anyone trying to research any old or vintage binoculars through primary source materials. These scans include distribution and manufacturer catalogs and brochures, and presently encompass US, UK, French, Italian, Australian, German and Japanese market materials. It is really hard to beat having open free access to original source materials, and even in this internet age it really hasn't been previously available for vintage binoculars. More vintage catalogs are being added as quickly as they can be purchased around the world at a reasonable cost, or are donated to the effort, or can be borrowed to be scanned for this effort. If anybody has pre-1980's catalogs or brochures of binoculars that should be included in this effort, please contact me through the website. Among some of the catalogs I would particularly like to add but that I can't seem to locate would be some pre-1980's Japanese and Spanish language binoculars catalogs, if anybody can help with that. I am already having good fun seeing how large and expansive I can make this resource, though the scanning itself is quite tedious.
Mark

Hi Mark,

You might wish to include the 1995 Eagle Optics catalog that I posted HERE in August 2012. Quite a few people have commented about how useful it is.

Ed
 
- RESEARCH MATERIALS #1

1934 DuMaurier Catalogue ( USA ) Full catalogue: 20 scans/ 40 pages Brand(s): DuMaurier, Busch, Lemaire binoculars Contents shown: binoculars,
telescopes, microscopes
No link comes up. Only a gif of where you click/click to view.
-
ETA: Busted link though hot-link works. Type the URL by using the same format as the links that work. When you move your mouse over them you'll see the link highlighted at the left corner of your screen. Modify/replace the catalogue URL for the 1934DUMAURIERCATALOGUE

Naturally that will not work for catalogue links under construction.
 
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UPDATE - Even More Information

Since Mark’s post in November, considerably more flyers/ pamphlets/ brochures/ catalogues have been added to the Miniature Binoculars site

Manufacturers range from Agfa to Zeiss, and the documents variously date from 1906 with Voigtlander to 1984 with Pentax

This is clearly the number one starting point for anyone looking for primary historical data from manufacturers

See the navigation screen on the right hand side of the page: http://www.miniaturebinoculars.com/part1/Page2725.htm
and go to the 5 pages under Research Materials

Mark, yet again congratulations on such a great accomplishment


John
 
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Not to hijack Mark’s thread, but to provide a one stop starting point for some additional resources . . .


ZEISS
Holga Merlitz has posted a series of catalogues ranging from 1912 to 1985 (the post-WWII catalogues are from Carl Zeiss Jena),
along with a Docter Optic leaflet from c.1990, see: http://www.holgermerlitz.de/binoculars_english.html

And a copy of a 1952 CZJ catalogue (in German) can be found here: http://www.fernglas-vitrine.de/katalog_czj_1952.htm

n.b. In post #2 I provided a link to a series of catalogues dating from 1894 to 1905 at the Zeiss Historica website
Since then the site has ceased to exist, and the pages do not appear to be available elsewhere!


LEITZ
Multiple pages from a 1981 Leitz catalogue (in German) can be found here thanks to Elmer Fudd (see posts 14, 15 & 16):
https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=308581


SWAROVSKI
Gijs van Ginkel’s 93 page 12 MB monograph on Swarovski Optik includes various pages from 1952 to 1959 flyers,
go to ‘History and quality development of Swarovski Optik 1935-present time’ at: https://www.houseofoutdoor.com/verrekijkers/verrekijkers-testen-en-vergelijken/


NIKON
I’ve previously posted and linked to various information about Nikon binoculars, with emphasis on Porro prism models (including brochures from 1951 on),
see here: https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=373557


EAGLE OPTICS
Ed in post #4 above has linked to the 40 page EO catalogue from 1995. It includes information on all the then major brands


MORE RECENT INFORMATION
I’ve previously linked to various early- to mid-2000 catalogues here:
- Swarovski: https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=374015

- Leica: https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=374018

- Zeiss: https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=374015
along with a 2006 Zeiss FL x56 brochure downloaded here: https://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=369170


So lots of possibilities for those interested!


John
 
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Update - Zeiss Historica Materials

Further to posts #2 and #7, all of the Zeiss Historica materials are again available


A) Firstly:
- all the issues of the Zeiss Historica Journal, and
- the early Zeiss catalogues from 1894 to 1905
- along with additional telescope catalogues from the inter-war period
can be found at: https://issuu.com/zeisshistoricasociety/docs


B) And additionally, all the issues of the Journal can also be found at: https://www.mikeeckman.com/zeiss-historica/
This site has the advantages of both:
- an index of the Journal articles, and
- the downloadable PDF’s have clearer detail


John
 
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It’s probably worthwhile to give this thread a bump, since I’ve recently been posting pages from old catalogues,
and some may be interested in more information from them.

a) The best single source of old catalogues, brochures, pamphlets and flyers, is Mark’s ever growing collection at: https://www.miniaturebinoculars.com/part1/Page2725.htm
Go to the Binocular Catalogue buttons on the right of the page.
You may end up spending a lot of time there!

b) The links in both posts #7 and 8 above are still working.

c) And of course you can (should?) do your own searches.
Something like 'Meopta binoculars PDF' will typically turn up a selection of both current and older items.
Generally, I look at both the List and Images options to see what’s available.
And Google is the best search engine. A couple of times that I’ve compared it to others, and they only give a sub-set, so without anything additional.

- - - -
And in terms of current information . . .

The main European manufacturers produce annual catalogues (with some exceptions during Covid).

Though Swarovski seems to have stopped them some years ago, and the information that they do provide is at different locations.
i) On the main screen flow:
If you select a product such as the NL binoculars, and get to the page that lists the individual models and prices,
at the bottom of that page are the Instruction Manual, the Specification Sheet and the Warranty details.

ii) On the alternate screen flow (the Come Closer button at the top left of the screen), there’s a whole lot more information.
To get to it: choose Service; then My Service.
You can dip in and out of the various folders in Products and Repair/ Spare Parts, and also the various items displayed on the right of the screen.
There are brochures ('Fact Sheets') for most product lines, but not for example the Habichts.


John
 
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