Magnification Issue (1 Viewer)

Hi everyone,

I have an older binocular (8x50, which I bought new, never dropped). After I bought another pair of 8x42 a year ago I experienced that the new pair has somewhat easier view and I have no eye strain with it.
I thought this might be a colimation issue or diopter setting issue.
However, after trying to set the diopter again and again and doing a kind of "home" colimation testing I got an impression that the magnification between the barrels differ. Is this possible? Has anybody experianced anything similar?

Hi tdom,
What make is the binocular?
Some lower priced binoculars just have poor optics in one or both barrels.

For instance, my Visionking 5x25 has reasonable optics in one barrel, but awful optics in the other. Just rubbish manufacture.
This could appear to be different magnification, but probably not.

If you turn your binocular upside down, what do you see?

Magnification is usually good to about 5% or better, maybe 2%.
It could be that a lens element moved.

Also, is there a big difference between the prescription for your two eyes?

Regards,
B.

Hi Binastro,

the difference between my prescriptions is minor, should be about 0.25. If I turn the binocular upside down, I do not recognize there anything strange. I would rate the bino as an upper-mid range.

The only diopter adjustment I feel good when focusing is neutral but this causes eye strain. If I adjust the diopter, It is difficult to get a focused image and this causes eye strain as well.
If the diopter adjustment is not zero, it seems to me that the object in one of the barrels is larger then in the other one. However, in zero position this is not the case. And I found myself often overshooting when focusing.
Anyhow, I adjust the binocular I do not have a relaxed sharp view (after 10-15 second I feel that it bothers the eyes).

Best

Frankly I think everybody now has unrealistic expectations. We expect $200 at retail binos to work and/or to get fixed. Well, they really have a replacement cost of $35-50 to the manufacturer, and don't warrant a pull-apart except in a third world country, although the OEM who sourced them may as part of his contract replace bad samples to the "brand". Also $200 retail binos don't warrant decent QC so bad batches get through, and design issues persist longer.

Which is where Opticron screwed up - they didn't realize they had a design or batch issue, didnt treat it as such, didnt have the good sense to mail out a demo or shop-soiled sample of an older but top line glass to the guy with their most sincere apologies and a complete refund of the original buy and postage.

The Opticron screw up comes from the fact that the import managers thought about the transaction as a payment issue via retail rather than thinking about the unlikelihood coincidence of a customer getting 2 bad glasses in a row. They should have mailed out a check in 5 minutes and started looking at their stock and deliveries and checking serials.

Because in fact the customer here may be bitter, but is totally believable in his issue with the hardware and deserved to be dealt with seriously.

This customer could have served as a useful silent canari rather than as a warning to customers that there is a bad batch of Opticron Explorer Binoculars.

Edmund

PS And BTW, as pointed out in the "repairers" section on this forum, one of the things a repair shop knows how to do for pro customers is to do batch QC on imported stuff to avoid precisely this sort of scenario.

PPS. Just because stuff comes from the same Chinese OEM and even "brand" doesn't mean it went through the same QC. My engineer friend who worked in China told me there are various levels of QC usual depending on destination country, and I think Japan is on top, then the US, and then Europe. The customer (brand) pays for the level of QC he wants.

Edmund

tdom,
I suspect that the optics in one barrel are somewhat faulty.
It needs a star test and a resolution test of both barrels, to see if this is the case.
There can also be a bit of miscollimation.
The IPD needs to be set perfectly.

If possible get the binocular exchanged, hopefully for a better one.

B.

tdom said:

Hi Binastro,

the difference between my prescriptions is minor, should be about 0.25. If I turn the binocular upside down, I do not recognize there anything strange. I would rate the bino as an upper-mid range.

The only diopter adjustment I feel good when focusing is neutral but this causes eye strain. If I adjust the diopter, It is difficult to get a focused image and this causes eye strain as well.
If the diopter adjustment is not zero, it seems to me that the object in one of the barrels is larger then in the other one. However, in zero position this is not the case. And I found myself often overshooting when focusing.
Anyhow, I adjust the binocular I do not have a relaxed sharp view (after 10-15 second I feel that it bothers the eyes).

Best

Click to expand...

I suspect your binoculars are out of collimation and need repair.

Ed

Hi,

I contacted the service center of the manufacturer. They advised sending it to one of their repair centers. I will do so and will hope that after it returns the viewing experience will be better.
The binos are almost 11 years old however there was 10 years warranty...