A New Interview with Gerold Dobler, SF Design Team Leader (1 Viewer)

AndyRB · Feb 21, 2015

oetzi said:
How about a stack of rubber O-rings to prevent the eyepieces from collapsing?
That works fine.

For me, I shouldn't have to do a bodge like using O rings with a binocular of this value. Thanks for the tip though. Another solution would be to glue them in place.

brocknroller · Feb 21, 2015

AndyRB said:
As Bruce comments above the notching in the eye cups could be more distinct. I'm on my second pair and I use them fully extended but when I push on the ocular rain covers on occasions that action does cause the eye cups to dislocate from their extended position and retract. I tend to use the rain covers whenever I walk around at this time of year, so every time I stop to use the binoculars and take them off I have to check that the eye cups are fully extended. Not a big issue, but I don't have to do this with our Swaro SVs and again relating to several recent comments on pricing and 'quality' I don't think this should occur with an alpha 'best in the world' product. I'm relatively new to buying binoculars of this value and looking on forums and it seems that alphas have been riddled with a range of defects and this almost seems to be accepted as given, judging by a range of comments. Again, perhaps due to my lack of knowledge and experience I find it tremendously hard to find this acceptable in relatively small instruments that are supposed to go through a range of quality measures. A car, for example, is constituted of hundreds of components (if not more) sourced from numerous unconnected suppliers and I guess there is then more chance of error occurring somewhere through faults in manufacturing.

I have to wonder if the same isn't true of binoculars. Even at the upper end, manufacturers can play fast and loose with a "Made in Germany" claim, as the article I linked to on another post showed. Could be some of these issues we're seeing with binoculars even at the top end are due to those faulty parts/components being outsourced.

If Lee were doing a Part III, I would like to hear what Dr. Dobler has to say about the number of components and which components are outsourced in the manufacture of Swaro (if he's allowed to say) and Zeiss bins.

<B>

perterra · Feb 21, 2015

brocknroller said:
I have to wonder if the same isn't true of binoculars. Even at the upper end, manufacturers can play fast and loose with a "Made in Germany" claim, as the article I linked to on another post showed. Could be some of these issues we're seeing with binoculars even at the top end are due to those faulty parts/components being outsourced.

If Lee were doing a Part III, I would like to hear what Dr. Dobler has to say about the number of components and which components are outsourced in the manufacture of Swaro (if he's allowed to say) and Zeiss bins.

<B>

I would guess the problems lie more with automation and tolerance stacking in pursuit of low cost/speed of production. Looser tolerances can allow expotentially higher production rates along with much lower failure rates. If the only complaints recieved are on the binocular forum and not on the street then the bean counters will push that production level of precision. When the complaints trickle on to the street, then they get tightened up.

Troubador · Feb 25, 2015

brocknroller said:
I'm still befuddled why the litigious Swarovski hasn't sued Zeiss over the SF design

Brock

Brock

The answer is probably hiding in plain sight: almost certainly SF doesn't breach Swaro patents or registered designs, otherwise why would Swaro refrain?

SF is a registered design in its own right.

Lee

A New Interview with Gerold Dobler, SF Design Team Leader (1 Viewer)

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