Well done Zeiss!! (1 Viewer)

Troubador said:

I had a Zeiss Dialyt 10x40 B GA T* (but no phase coating) from 1986 to 2003 and thoroughly enjoyed using it. Can't say it ever occured to me that I was the victim of a conspiracy for not having been offered a free upgrade to phase-coated prisms. Should owners of uncoated binos have been offered coated optics when anti-reflection coatings were invented? And what about B, high eye relief eyepieces for spectacle wearers? Both of these could be considered 'serious defects'.

Applying this principal to other products would have seen auto manufacturers offering electronic ignition and fuel injection systems to owners of older models to solve the serious defect of low gas mileage.

I think this is an unrealistic expectation in most cases but not all, for example when human safety is involved.

Lee

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Fully agree with you, Lee. Apart from safety concerns, it would actually be detrimental to the manufacturers' interests. They would hardly get customers to replace their outdated models. So why be inventive, then. In the end, we benefit from efforts to improve products.

I have a Leitz Trinovid 10x40B that used to be my prime binocular model for quite some time. When I bought it, I had done thorough comparing with the corresponding Zeiss. At the time (around 1974) they were pretty much equal, except that the Zeiss irritated me a bit with a kind of rollerball effect. Nobody seemed to have known anything about the roof models' main deficiency, I guess except for the manufacturers who kept quiet. I had only wondered why my wife's porro 8x40 that was in a much cheaper price class offered such a much clearer view.

It was not until 1996 that I finally replaced the old Leitz Trinovid. That Leitz model has now been relegated to an attic window. Better to have that model there than no binoculars at all. But I'll probably try to sell it in the future.

Troubador said:

I had a Zeiss Dialyt 10x40 B GA T* (but no phase coating) from 1986 to 2003 and thoroughly enjoyed using it. Can't say it ever occured to me that I was the victim of a conspiracy for not having been offered a free upgrade to phase-coated prisms. Should owners of uncoated binos have been offered coated optics when anti-reflection coatings were invented? And what about B, high eye relief eyepieces for spectacle wearers? Both of these could be considered 'serious defects'.

Applying this principal to other products would have seen auto manufacturers offering electronic ignition and fuel injection systems to owners of older models to solve the serious defect of low gas mileage.

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Could be considered... yes, I anticipated this argument (reductio ad absurdum), which is why I tried to distinguish the defect of phase interference from other things like HT glass that are mere improvements. Reflective losses are not a defect, and cannot be and have not been eliminated, only further minimized. Short eye relief is not a defect but a design compromise, and a very obvious one. Phase interference is a simple defect, and can be eliminated, and now has been. Zeiss themselves admitted that it "causes eyestrain in other binoculars" (see the interesting blurb below c.1988 recently uploaded by John Roberts) without of course noting that every previous Dialyt had been among those.

Of course, like so many things (CA!) the effect can vary with the observer. I understand that you and some others may not have found it a problem as we did. Zeiss certainly thought it was one... yet did nothing. I wish I had seen something about this years ago.

For those with a similar 8x30 Dialyt T*, you should be aware that Zeiss Wetzlar do in fact have phase coated prisms in stock.

I have nothing to add to Post 17.

Lee

Yes, Lee was kind enough to inquire further about P* replacement prisms, which Zeiss USA service seemed not to be aware of. (Thank you! I hadn't thought of that.) It won't be done as goodwill; the cost quoted was over 500 Euros, likely more than a Dialyt T*P* is worth today, and not of practical interest to me. But someone with a sentimental attachment to a favorite bino might be very glad to know this can still be done.

This issue has obviously been nagging me for a long time, but at this point I've said my piece too. It's water under the bridge. Back to enjoying phenomenally better binos today.