Kowa Genesis 8x33 vs Nikon EII 8x30 mini review. (1 Viewer)

black crow said:

Really just a couple of years and you have to worry about EII eyecups cracking? I had a pair of Nikon compacts (travelite if I remember). The rubber (I assume) eye cups were still fine at 20 years old when I sold them.

Click to expand...

The kind of matte black artificial rubber that Nikon uses/used on bins such as the SE, EII, and the fold-down WF series eyepieces for the Fieldscopes are notorious for developing cracks very quickly when folded or stretched, and for not being as abrasion proof as some other types as well. I think the eyecups on some of the compacts are made of a different material.

--AP

That could be. I'll never fold these again that's for sure. I like these binoculars too much.

I've had the same eye cups on my 8x30 E2 since I got it around 2002 or so but I never folded them down. I think I put ArmorAll on them one time over those years.

Bob

I don't think my doing it once will harm them. I'm glad someone spoke up about this.

Holger Merlitz has an interesting CV. See the last sentence.

From: http://www.holgermerlitz.de/toc.html

"Handheld Binoculars
Function, Performance, Selection
Holger Merlitz
This book is published by Verlag Europa-Lehrmittel (in German language, ISBN 978-3-8085-5774-7). An English translation is currently in the making, and I am going to add a couple of reading samples to this page.
Stay tuned and return to see more in the future.
200 pages (two-column, format 20cm x 24cm), more than 130 pictures, graphics and sketches, index with 500 keywords"

A translation of the Introduction is given. This is its last paragraph.

"About the Author: Holger Merlitz works as a physics professor at Xiamen University in China. He is looking back on many years of practice of binocular observations in astronomy, military, and during traveling and hiking. He has ample experience with field testing binoculars, as a consultant of optics manufacturers, and has published a scientific research paper on binocular distortion and associated perceptive effects. A long-standing active participation in various Internet discussion boards has led him to the questions which he tries to answer in this book. His favorite binocular is the Nikon 8x30 EII."

PS. You might like to navigate in his website to the binoculars section/s. I seem to remember that he reported on the Kowa Genesis 8x33, in a comparison test with a table of results, but right now could not find a reference by searching quickly within the site.

They are certainly my new favorite. Now that I've spent more time with them I feel they really outclass the Kowa Genesis. I'm tempted to get a second pair just so I'd never be without one.