Got me a "Blue Beetle" (1 Viewer)

An Olympus 7x21 PC-III, that is. Oft-mentioned, much-loved
for convenient quick looks.

It underwhelmed at first. It was a bear getting the diopter adjustment
to work. But...I found out someone (at the plant?) cemented the eyecup
to the ocular base so you had to unscrew the right occular to get adjustment.
The 'defective-assembly' rate on my auction buys is still over 50%.

But...no matter: I used and X-Acto to carve the tenacious bond and built
out the ocular part that grabs the eyecup so the proper threads work now.

I checked it out for "Shufti" (a quick look, one-handed) service.

Compared with the sister Olympus 8x21 Roamer:
The 8x21 is sharper and has better contrast, but the higher power,
narrower field, and lesser field depth make the 8x21 harder to use
one-handed and pre-focused. Better, but it takes time.

Compared to an old internal-objective Bushnell Ensign 7x25 'brick':
The Olympus 7x21 is not as sharp. Both 'brandish' as quickly as each other.
(come to bear on the target with one hand, pre-focused). The 'brick'
(also sold under Jason and Tasco fully-coated in the past) was brighter.
What does the beetle have left going for it? SIZE. It's pretty neat that
way. The 'bricks' do have excess bulk, although they are compact.

So, I may still prefer the 7x25 'bricks' for a quick look, but the
7x21 Olympus has a great combination of design choices for a quick look
and it's very small....and inherently very tough. Having 7.5 deg FOV is
a big help over the usual 6.8-7.1, too.

Pity is, it's getting hard to find 7x now. It has a lot to offer, especially the
field depth and brightness with smaller objective you get. Trying 10x21s
the other day has a jittery dim horror compared to these guys.

Optic_Nut

Which model of the Olympus 7x21 PCIII Classic did you buy?

I own both the 'earlier' shiny blue-black bodied model as bought
new boxed three or four years ago, and the 'later', otherwise
cosmetically identical matt blue bodied model as bought new
bubble-wrapped last year.

I carry them particularly for cycling (smallest and lightest
decent binoculars on the market -- plus as bonus, or rather
double attraction, all the 7x features), or go everywhere
(always in my rucksack) use.

My eyesight is not up to fine comparisons of binocular
resolution.

It's not that good either on fine distinctions of brightness or
contrast

But I think I detect an improvement of brightness and contrast
in the blue bubble-wrapped version.

Just a shame no 'try before you buy' means people must now buy
the 7x21 on specification, reputation (or in my case, previous
experience) of the model alone.

Stephen

Hard to say...I got them without packaging. There are matt blue though.
I had to fix the diopter adjustment gluing. Looked like a hasty assembly.
I suspect a bungled lot.

The Pentax Jupiter was like that too....some super, some soft.
It takes time to settle down for the sharpest look. Body shake doesn't
affect you much at 7x, but if you've been speeding along like on a bike,
the cortex takes a while to go from "on a mission" to "examining".
Your eyes are darting a lot more than in a car....of necessity.

My favorite type is now the 7x25 "box" that was almost the same for
Bushnell, Tasco, Jason, Simmons, etc... It's bigger, but pretty reliable.
...and bright.