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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Looking for very small binoculars with low magnification... (1 Viewer)

Take a glass form the experienced users above, take a glass the child can hold. And I could write some stories about the 6.5 Papilio II, I regularly use for my grasshopper work (e.g. detecting Tetrigidae or Sphingonotus).

But take the advice to the child, never (and that means never) looking in the sun. That's my biggest concern für giving a bino to a three year old child.

good decision
Manfred
 
bioscope said:
But take the advice to the child, never (and that means never) looking in the sun. That's my biggest concern für giving a bino to a three year old child.
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Of course, I only let her use it when in the shade - typically cast from a large building behind her.
 
jring said:
If the IPD is an issue, I would take the Kowa YF 6x30 with its 50mm minimum regardless of her ability to focus today (does she even use the focus on the trinovids)?
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Besides the size increasing significantly the weight almost doubles with the Kowa (but not so much with the Pentax). I appreciate all the porro-suggestions of course, but I doubt any of them are reasonable to select right now. They seem to be a year away at least, and until then (for this summer) I would prefer to get something similar to the Trinovids in size and weight, just with lower magnification.

Regarding the focus; she knows about the focus wheel, can turn it, and that it makes the picture blurry if "wrong", but that's about it... She also knows that looking through the binoculars from the wrong end things become tiny. :gh:
 
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Etiennef said:
...She also know that looking through the binoculars from the wrong end thing become tiny...
Click to expand...

That's good. Does she know that when looking through the wrong end that if she holds something close to the eyepiece she can use the binocular as a magnifier? Doing so is more useful for adults than kids since kids can typically focus on things very close to their eyes.

--AP
 
Alexis Powell said:
Does she know that when looking through the wrong end that if she holds something close to the eyepiece she can use the binocular as a magnifier?
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We actually have not been exploring that specifically. But she really giggles when I put my face really close to the oculars. Probably because my nose appears proportionally enormous. :)

fazalmajid said:
Bresser makes an inexpensive pair of 6x21 for kids that are suprisingly good for the price.
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I did buy them (mentioned higher up in the thread), but I was a bit disappointed and eventually donated them to charity. They were great in terms of appearance, size and mechanical design - as well as the specifications. So far so good...

However, the focus and diopter adjustment were mushy (not a major issue currently). The picture on the side with the dipoter adjustment also had somewhat less sharpness. But the major issue was that the overall picture was very muted and not particularly vibrant - about the same as you would expect from a 25 EUR pocket binocular bought from a discount store. My old Zeiss 8x20 monocular that has taken a bashing and has a few scratches on the objective outperforms it in every aspect.

Nevertheless, the Bresser still offers a "real" viewing experience, unlike a toy with plastic lenses. The question is only how important the optical quality is. In my particular case, especially since my kid is so fond of the activity, I would prefer to go for something better.
 
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Etiennef said:
Attached is a crop from a picture earlier this month, which I believe illustrates why the overall size may be a problem.
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Wow, if the Trinovids 8x20 are that big in her hands, she won't be able to handle anything larger than a 25mm, even a 30mm would be a stretch. The Zeiss Terra and Victory 8x25 spring to mind. The latter is excellent and very forgiving of eye placement, but not inexpensive. Both go down to an IPD of 35mm, and have much more comfortable focusing knobs than the Leica. There is also the Kowa 8x22, but that probably won't be an improvement over the Trinovids.

I got my daughter the Bressers at the age of 4, but she soon learned she preferred my Ultravid HD 8x32 :) I think she was bigger than yours at the same age, though.
 
fazalmajid said:
Wow, if the Trinovids 8x20 are that big in her hands, she won't be able to handle anything larger than a 25mm, even a 30mm would be a stretch. The Zeiss Terra and Victory 8x25 spring to mind.
Click to expand...

Exactly, and that's why a porro is unlikely to cut it this summer. This weekend I did in fact come across a Zeiss 6x20 to a reasonable price from a reputable business seller on ebay, so if it there is a problem with it upon delivery I can return it.

The Terra is really looking interesting for the near future, as is the Meopta you mentioned. The Victory looks nice, but is a bit too expensive in relation to the risk of damage for my taste.
 
Just to update on the situation;

The West Zeiss 6x20 were pretty nice.


Depth of field is amazing, and there is no need to touch the focus setting for viewing anything but things that are pretty close. Optically they are very good, although the FOV is really keyhole-like. The straps were however pretty annoying (they attach to the bridge, rather than the barrels.

For my part the experience was also a flashback to why I sold my Zeiss Conquest 8x20 a few years back. The small rubber eyecups give the feeling of having two suction cups attached to your eyeballs... :-C

My kid did not seem to mind, but the IF objectives got unintentionally turned a lot, and caused some problems, and they eventually fell out of favour with her. I listed them on Swedish Ebay and sold them (for a small profit I might add).

-

Earlier this week we went to pick up the Hawke Frontiers i bought off a forum member recently. We talked about what was in the parcel, and in the middle of unpacking she casually mentioned that her binoculars were yellow with a red dot on them... Which happens to be a pair of yellow Trinovids I gave my wife a few years ago... They have been hijacked now 3:)
 

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Etiennef said:
Earlier this week we went to pick up the Hawke Frontiers i bought off a forum member recently. We talked about what was in the parcel, and in the middle of unpacking she casually mentioned that her binoculars were yellow with a red dot on them... Which happens to be a pair of yellow Trinovids I gave my wife a few years ago... They have been hijacked now 3:)
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Hi,

it seems the alpha manufacturers have nothing to fear, another optics connaisseur is being raised...

You do know that the yellow trinis are somewhat collectible?

Joachim
 
jring said:
You do know that the yellow trinis are somewhat collectible?
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Ah, well I realise they are much less common than the black and green Trinovids. But have not really considered them collectable. I have seen blue ones as well, but only 10x25.

Although I doubt the ones my kid hijacked are so sought after o:). The armor is a bit faded, and they go out of collimation if you use them "upside down" by folding the barrels over the bridge (why on earth one would use them like that...). To top it all off there is some dried up moisture in one of the barrels. Not that it is noticeable when viewing, but disturbing when you know about it.


A few years ago I saw yellow ones being sold in European stores for 400 EUR, which did not seem like a significant markup from the regular ones.
 

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The British Coronet Midget Bakelite miniature camera was given away with a breakfast cereal.
There were, I think, seven basic colours, but each production batch was slightly different.
Collectors try to collect all seven colours, but one is rare and costly.
So some people spray paint another colour to inflate the value of the collection.

I have a subminiature Minolta camera in blue. I thought nothing of it, until I found out that the blue one is worth much more than other colours.

Some red bellows cameras are worth much more than black. So people change the bellows.
A strange world.

So, spray painted Leica binoculars?
 
Incidentally it is the blue Coronet Midget that is the rarest ($400 to $1100 mint). So the same as a blue Leica 8x20 or 10x25.
There are sets of seven, five and apparently a set of two with one ultra rare.
Considering that these Coronet Midgets were given away in the 1930s in the cereal packets, and over 500,000? were made, it is an interesting camera. They usually still work, although few will actually have taken photos.

There are probably Leica binocular collectors who buy every version of Leica binoculars.
Buying these sort of things as an investment is rarely profitable.
It is the unknown items that may eventually do well.

The Russian Narciss camera was cleared by Dixons for about £14. They then went for £500, dropping to £200.
I don't know the current prices.
It is like cars, such as E type Jaguars, Prices go up and down.
The Jaguar XKSS, modified road use D types, were trading at $4,000 to $6,000. A recent one sold for $20,000,000.

Binoculars in my opinion should just be used and not bought as an investment, as they usually aren't profitable, unless bought from a boot sale or charity shop as a lucky find.
 
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