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A Brief Introduction to the New MeoStar B1.1 Binoculars (1 Viewer)

GiGi

I got Troubadoris's Ultravid 8x32 out and had a B1.1 8x32 as well to investigate what the two dioptre adjusters feel like. As you rightly point out, they look very similar on the outside, but as we know from how different from each other bino focusers can feel, even if they look similar on the outside, I wanted to find out if the two dioptres felt different in use.

Long story short: they feel quite different.

The Ultravid's dioptre has some kind of 'safety lip' which prevents the dioptre from being pulled out accidentally, so when you pull on the dioptre it moves loosely a tiny bit then you need to pull harder to overcome the resistance of the 'safety'. When you do this you pull past the stiffness of the safety and then the dioptre moves very loosely to the end of its travel where it hits the stop quite noisily.

The Meopta is totally different. When you pull back on the dioptre it is stiff to move all the way to the end of its much shorter travel. There is no 'safety lip' with a bit of loose movement on one side of it and a lot more loose movement on the other side. The Meopta's dioptre only moves 1mm so when it hits the stop at the end of the movement it does this either silently or only with a soft sound depending how much force you were applying.

When you rotate the dioptres to make an adjustment, the Uvid turns easily, the MeoStar turns stiffly.

So these two systems certainly look similar on the outside but feel totally different when you use them.

Lee
Lee
On the Meopta, did you try to adjust each side WHILE the diopter was pulled out? If it doesn't allow this then it's just a locking diopter.

The Leica diopter mechanism, as you know, disengages the two sides creating two focus wheels (left/right) that can be simultaneously adjusted. When reengaged the focus wheel behaves normally...focus both lenses in unison.

PS
Leica patent.
https://patents.google.com/patent/J...camera+ag&oq=leica+camera+ag+binoculars+focus
 
Lee
On the Meopta, did you try to adjust each side WHILE the diopter was pulled out? If it doesn't allow this then it's just a locking diopter.

The Leica diopter mechanism, as you know, disengages the two sides creating two focus wheels (left/right) that can be simultaneously adjusted. When reengaged the focus wheel behaves normally...focus both lenses in unison.

PS
Leica patent.
https://patents.google.com/patent/J...camera+ag&oq=leica+camera+ag+binoculars+focus

That's what I assumed it does but if it doesn't then it's different for sure.
Thanks for finding the patent info.
 
Lee
On the Meopta, did you try to adjust each side WHILE the diopter was pulled out? If it doesn't allow this then it's just a locking diopter.

The Leica diopter mechanism, as you know, disengages the two sides creating two focus wheels (left/right) that can be simultaneously adjusted. When reengaged the focus wheel behaves normally...focus both lenses in unison.

PS
Leica patent.
https://patents.google.com/patent/J...camera+ag&oq=leica+camera+ag+binoculars+focus

Hi Pilly and GiGi

No it doesn't disengage in the Leica way.

Lee
 
Pilly and GiGi

Further info: On an Ultravid, when the dioptre is pulled up, the main focus wheel focuses the left side and the dioptre focuses the right side.

On the MeoStar B1.1 when the dioptre is pulled up, the main focus wheel continues to focus both sides but is over-ridden on the right side by the dioptre.

So they are quite different.

As far as I can see, the Leica patent (difficult to read as it appears to be a translation of a Japanese text) describes only the mechanics of the Ultravid arrangment and makes no mention of the pull-up dioptre knob or the fact that it is transparent with a scale visible through it. I wouldn't be surprised if every conceivable wheel, switch, button, knob and slider were patented decades ago and the patents run out decades ago.

Lee
 
Pilly and GiGi

Further info: On an Ultravid, when the dioptre is pulled up, the main focus wheel focuses the left side and the dioptre focuses the right side.

On the MeoStar B1.1 when the dioptre is pulled up, the main focus wheel continues to focus both sides but is over-ridden on the right side by the dioptre.

So they are quite different.

As far as I can see, the Leica patent (difficult to read as it appears to be a translation of a Japanese text) describes only the mechanics of the Ultravid arrangment and makes no mention of the pull-up dioptre knob or the fact that it is transparent with a scale visible through it. I wouldn't be surprised if every conceivable wheel, switch, button, knob and slider were patented decades ago and the patents run out decades ago.

Lee

Thanks L for comparing these two so closely. Looks like it's only the window dial that is similar and functioning is different.
 
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