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7x36 Shipping Date (1 Viewer)

The 10x42 ED3 I tested about two years ago did have uneven eyecups, both collapsed and fully extended. See the photos here:

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=212971

This phenomenon is true of many Chinese roofs when the diopter is set away from its "0" setting, which is sometimes necessary even when one has perfectly balanced eyes because the bins are not always well calibrated for zero to be true zero.

--AP
 
Thank you for pointing that out, Alexis. My ZR 8x32's "suffer" from this, and I thought it was defective. I just checked mine, and rotating the diopter ring changes the height of the right eyecup!
 
Thank you for pointing that out, Alexis. My ZR 8x32's "suffer" from this, and I thought it was defective. I just checked mine, and rotating the diopter ring changes the height of the right eyecup!

It happens on the Swarovski 8 x 30 CL too. Move the right eye diopter to the "plus" side and the entire eye cup rises. Move it to the "minus" side and the eye cup moves down toward the barrel. If you need a strong correction either way you will be able to see the differences in height between the right and left eye cups easily.

Bob
 
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Is it the eyecup moving or the ocular lens? The Bresser Everest had this"feature"

Frank:

It is the ocular moving, after seeing Bob's post I tried my CL.

I set all of my quality binoculars near zero, as my vision is good.

I would not find an issue at all with the binocular mentioned and
pictured in this post.

I find my CL is best right at "0" on the scale, as it should be.

That is how most porro binoculars do the right side diopter, and
it works well.

Sometimes simpler is better.

Jerry
 
This is interesting. Does anyone have their "older version" 7x36 ED2 handy? Does the ocular lens move in and out with the diopter adjustment?
 
This is interesting. Does anyone have their "older version" 7x36 ED2 handy? Does the ocular lens move in and out with the diopter adjustment?

Frank,

Here is one of the last (older version) ED2 7X36 units just before they were "discontinued" about a year or so ago. (This is not the first version with the glare issue.)

The ocular lens does move in and out with the diopter adjustment. You should be able to see that in the two photos, one at the extreme minus setting and one at the extreme plus setting. Note the white setting mark. The eye cup does not move when changing the diopter setting. You can see that the position of the eye cup above the diopter setting ring is the same in both photos. The eye cup is twisted in the full down position for both photos.
 

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The diopter moves the ocular lens on every right eye diopter ring roof binocular I have tried, including the ZEN ED 7x36 (one of the very first delivered). Just a simple question here...how are you supposed to adjust the diopter side to your eye without moving the ocular lens (at least with a right eye ring)? The only way I see for the right eye diopter to move the eye cup is if maybe the eye cup cover is too small in the center and makes contact as it is moved up in an extreme adjustment. Pretty much in line with the Bruce H post. I might add that the ZRS HD 8x32 is the same way, the lens moves, but not the eye cup.

The two I have that adjust with a center focus diopter, the Kruger Caldera and the Theron Wapiti LT seem not to have any ocular lens movement during adjustment.
 
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Hmm, I am going to have check several of my binoculars to see if this is the case.

A question then immediately pops into my head if this is the case....

...does the eye relief then change as a result as well. If not and you are forced to move the diopter, and subsequently the ocular lens retracts, then isn't the effective eye relief reduced?
 
Frank,

In my view, yes the eye relief should change. It does not seem to me that unless both of our eyes are identical, that both eyes should have the same eye relief needs. In fact both our eyes probably differ in several ways. So it only seems to me that we should expect the lens placement of both oculars relative to each eye to be different, both between eyes of the same user as well as between different users. If not why have a diopter?
 
See my thread #26 above.

The eye cups of the 8 x 30 CL are removable and screw on and off the oculars. When the right eye diopter on it is adjusted the right ocular moves and moves the eye cup with it. This doesn't occur with the eye cups of the 7 x 36 Zen Ray shown in thread #28.

The CL's right eye cup doesn't move very far but if the user requires requires a large diopter adjustment the right eye cup can be visibly higher or lower than the left eye cup. This doesn't affect the eye relief like it does on the 7 x 36 Zen Ray shown in thread #28 above where the eye relief can become shorter of longer in the right eye.

Bob
 
Maybe I lack a bit of understanding when it comes to how diopter adjustment and eye relief are associated.

My understanding in the past was that eye relief was "fixed", for lack of a better term, and that the diopter adjustment would only change the focus of the object and not necessarily the distance of the external lens surface.

I am not arguing that it doesn't make sense that since the focus of the object changes with the diopter then the eye relief could potentially change as a result. It is just that I had not thought of that before.
 
I received the 7x36 ED2.2 this week and have only been able to check it in the backyard and at the office but so far I'm quite impressed. I'll try to post some photos this evening if possible and fyi I do not have experience with the previous version or other Zen Ray products.

Sweet spot appears to be approximately 70% of the field with very good resolution/brightness- compares well to my T FL and 8x32 SE in these areas with the Zeiss being the brightest as expected. I suspect the optical performance should be quite similar to the previous model with perhaps some differences related to the upgraded coatings. There appears to be no difference between the size of the sweet spot between barrels (I believe Brock had an issue with this on his ) and I am unable to identify any quality control issues such as internal dust or fit/finish/mechanical problems.

Focus knob is smooth with no slop and while the resistance is somewhat firm I definitely would not categorize it as stiff. Focus speed is neither too fast nor slow- for me it meets the goldilocks principle of being just right. It's similar to my 8x SE which reaches critical focus easily and without the overshoot of a too fast focuser such as my 8x32 LXL. YMMV, however.

Eyecups appear similar to photos from Holger's review in terms of their shape and have 1 intermediate position. http://www.holgermerlitz.de/zen7x36.html I do not typically wear glasses while birding so it's difficult to comment on the eye relief but these reportedly have improved in this area with the chance in the diopter mechanism. The nonlocking diopter appears to have more than adequate stiffness to prevent accidental changes.

Overall I'm quite pleased with the optical performance and look forward to some actual birding with it this weekend. I'm unable to comment on whether it performs better than its predecessor, but it certainly appears to be another example of a binocular that punches above its weight (as previously) and occupies an increasingly rare niche of not only being 7x but of the 35mm variety as well.

Thanks to Zen Ray for bringing it back,

Clinton

Clinton,

Thanks for checking the sweet spot in both oculars. Both samples I tried had more field curvature in the left EP than the right, with the fall off about 55% from center in the left vs. 70% from center in the right. Sounds like you got two good EPs on your unit. The fall was gradual on the 70% side, so I could live with that.

There were other QC isssues with each unit including "veiling glare," floppy eyecup, stiff focuser with the first sample, and a drifting diopter in the second. In short, while the optics and ergonomics were very good for their price point, the QC seemed pretty shoddy.

The resolution and CA control in the centerfield were superb. I didn't feel like I was missing out not having 8x. What keeps me now from wanting to try a third sample and hoping that the third time's the charm is that the pincushion was excessive. I wish they had shaved off a degree in the FOV so they could have reduced the pincushion. They apparently did this with the 7x43 version, but I find most full sized open bridge roofs (Promaster, Hawke, original EL, but not the EDG), a bit too long and unwieldy. Midsized versions of these open-bridge roofs are more to my liking.

Do you notice the pincushion when you panned with the bins or tilted up and down trees? To me, it caused "rolling bowl" (the image appeared to roll over a concave surface). I tried for months to see if I would eventually be able to ignore it the way that many do "rolling ball," but no go.

<B>
 
Did you receive a response? I sent a pair of Zen-Ray Prime HD binos back to them with an RMA over three weeks ago and no response. I've tried calling and emailing, as well as sending a message from their web site. They do not pick up the phone.

I sent a pair of 7x36 back to get fixed, and they said the alignment was off so they're sending out a new pair when the next shipment came in. According to their website that was supposed to be around Oct 10. I haven't got them back yet and have sent a couple emails with no response. Anyone know when to expect shipment?

Thanks
 
As a follow up, I received a call from Charles of Zen-Ray this afternoon that my Prime HD 8x42s are being worked on in their shop and will be shipped out this week...breathed a sigh of relief. I would have expected a status update from Zen-Ray after they received them. They are my favorite binoculars of all time and it was a minor repair (frozen eye cup) so glad to hear they should soon be back in use! I have been using some old Ranger SRTs in the interim, which are nice but no match for the Zen-Rays in difficult or less than ideal lighting conditions.
 
I think this is a consequence of dealing with a small operation. Charles is great and will always make things right eventually, but sometimes it seems he gets overwhelmed and falls behind.
 
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