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

fogging Swarowskis! (1 Viewer)

no not an insult but a reference to a problem a friend of mine has been having.

His Swarowskis have now fogged up three times while working out in Peru. This is not a good thing! The company have been fine but it shouldn't be happening.
Be aware of this if you are going somewhere exotic.......

my old Zeiss (from 1990) spent two years in an un-airconditioned Jakarta house and never had the slightest prob. My new Nikons will look older than my Zeiss in another year at the current rate of wear. Don't make 'em like they used to ;)
 
It most certainly was a curse but I think the language was a bit more colourful than that when Dave lifted them to his eyes and saw the misting inside.....for the third time in a year or so
 
That's not good. I thought all the expensive optics these days are nitrogen filled.

My tip used to be to have 4 pairs of 8x30 Zeiss jenoptems... yes they fogged up..but at £25 a pair you could always have a spare pair. I still pick them up on ebay when I see a pair going cheap. I grew up with them and they are still pretty damn good! I need a pair of bins at 6 different windows you see, that or wear bins about the house!
 
yep, they're supposed to be waterproof but there ya go. Just how many people use them in such rigorous conditions though. He did go from the Manu (sea level) up to about 4000 metres in a day. BUT that's why you pay so much for em so that DOESN'T happen and you can be confident of them

8x30 Jenoptem were crackers weren't they. I must get a pair from somewhere
 
They go for £50-80 on Ebay. I destroyed three pairs completely..but they were so cheap it didn't seem to matter. I've since worn out a pair of 10x40 dialyt and am working my way through a pair of Leica rubber armoured house bricks..... I'd love a pair of old style trinovids...they were so pleasing to use
 
Yep, it happens in the Tropics sometimes! While living in Monteverde I heard quite a few times such problems with Swaros. The seller changed them, if it happened, for a new pair but still it gives you a fright! (I have Swaros).
Having said that, my own ones and my birding buddy Robert ones NEVER showed any fogging problems, and believe me they got wet almost every day, specially while birding the atlantic slope.
Swaro lenses are the best for me, but their binoculars sometimes show this problem.
Never heard that with Leica in CRica, they seem to be always fine. Zeiss sometimes get fogged there too, specially the old ones.
TOO WET!!
Surely Leica has the best finish, but when I tried them all before buy.... Swaros had the best lenses IMO. That decided me (and made me suffer sometimes!).
Eduardo
 
Jane as a back up I have a pair of 8s trinovids from way back in the dark ages when Wallcreepers were twitchable,no pair of bins has felt right in the hand since,I have Swaros now which are superb but just dont have the ease of use that the old boys had,the best trins were the black spots which were made in Germany and the red spots were made in Portugal.oh for the days of the draw tube and the resting of same on the knee,tripods!! some infernal new invention.

John
 
Here's an interesting true tale about the ruggedness of the swarovski binos.

"A couple years ago I rolled my canoe and my Swarovski 8x30 SLC's went to the bottom of the channel between Jetty Island and Port of Everett. They were in about twenty feet of salt water. I was not happy. I went home and tied a long pole to a garden rake and went back to the area and attempted to snag them with the rake but the water was too deep with the current running. The low tide was about 5am the next morning and I returned with the long rake. After about an hour I was ready to give up and go get the snorkeling gear when they finally appeared on the end of the rake. They were just fine after spending about 18 hours at a depth of around 20 - 12 feet of water. No leaking or fogging at all.

As the sun warmed up the fog lifted, so since I have binos handy I continued birding by canoe and came upon a flock of 30+ Common Mergansers. When I got home I rinsed the binos in the kitchen sink with fresh water and lots of little tiny shrimp-like crustaceans came out of the eyecup sleeve gaps and focusing knob area. A day that ended better than it began."
 
SLC WB 10X42 all fogged up.

I've just had my brand new pair of SLC's out in the mountains for 5 days.
A few light showers, but nothing serious.
Picked them up this morning after having returned and can't see through the right hand side due to internal fogging, this is not good news for Swarovski. They are going back to the shop pronto. Will probbaly stick to my Leicas, as I've never had a problem with them.
10 hours later the fogging has cleared with no sign of residue. Still this is not good enough for such an expensive pair of bino's.
 
It is rare, but swaros will occassionally fog. So will Zeiss and any other brand for that matter. Probably the toughest and least likely to fog are Leica.

ranburr
 
ranburr said:
It is rare, but swaros will occassionally fog. So will Zeiss and any other brand for that matter. Probably the toughest and least likely to fog are Leica.
ranburr

Explain please.
 
TrackersNZ.com said:
I've just had my brand new pair of SLC's out in the mountains for 5 days.
A few light showers, but nothing serious.
Picked them up this morning after having returned and can't see through the right hand side due to internal fogging, this is not good news for Swarovski. They are going back to the shop pronto. Will probbaly stick to my Leicas, as I've never had a problem with them.
10 hours later the fogging has cleared with no sign of residue. Still this is not good enough for such an expensive pair of bino's.
Dear tracker,

Were the mountains cold? I ask to determine whether it may be a matter of condensation rather than watertight integrity against showers. In another climate, my friend has problems going from air conditioned interiors to monsoon humidity and then back indoors. He often uses a Zeiss Victory which has no problem with his climate.

In New York, the outside temperature may drop to -20 Celsius,or 36 degrees of frost, as they used to write in the UK. Bringing a naked glass indoors, especially to a flat whose kitchen is in operation or to a small restaurant causes remarkable condensation, externally. If it were not sealed and purged, internally, it would be dripping there as well.

I agree that is poor performance for such an expensive glass.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur Pinewood :scribe:
 
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The cause is the same. They fogged internally because the seals failed, allowing air (contains water vapor) to replace the nitrogen filling. Regarding ranburr's last comment -- of course, any brand can fail. But I'm seeing a lot more reports of Swarovskis fogging up than other high-end brands, and this thread was started by a bad report. I was at a birding event during the summer where one of the leaders referred to them as "Swamp-ovskis," because of their perceived propensity to fogging. There's no way for a consumer to know if this is simply because there are lots of Swarovskis out there, or if the rate of failure is really greater. Anecdotes are the only information we have. I'd bet a big-time supplier like Eagle Optics could compile some useful info, based upon returns, but I don't expect we'll hear from them on this.
 
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To answer above,yes it was cold, but not as cold as Swarovski's quoted functional temperature range: -25-+55 degrees Celcius.
Storage temperature range: -30 - +70 degrees Celcius
With Wind Chill in the mountains I'd estimate minimum -5-10.
At no stage was quoted submersion tightness (13 feet) exceeded.

I am bitterly disappointed, after hearing so many good reports on Swaros.
And parting with a considerable sum of money to purchase.

I say stick with Leicas, I have never yet heard a "Fogging Bad" report on them.
"Fog" you Swarovski!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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