New German made near alpha quality optic for about $130 (1 Viewer)

I tried the Docter today side by side with the Zeiss 6x18. Zeiss has less AFOV, 40 degrees and lower magnification but it has much better eye relief and a foldable eyecap, so it was easy to see the whole field of view at once. I could focus single handed, with my pinky finger. I could use it faster, both for telescopic and macroscopic uses, although the microscope range of the Docter is far greater, up to 20x. Docter was better stabilized in a way that I had as much movements with 8x of Docter as with 6x of Zeiss. Optically I find them equal, it's all about ergonomics. I would use the Docter as a field microscope (although I am expecting an original Siebert Emoscop for that use) with secondary telescopic use and the Zeiss the other way around, for quick views on tje road, congresses, theater etc (although at the moment I'm going cheaper for an Opticron Gallery scope 8x20 instead of the Minox Macroscope I originally intended to buy). Pentax Papilio is still better than both with the stereoscopic views.
With a newer big eye relief eyepiece, or redesign of the eyecap that steels valuable mms og eye relief the Docter would be a killer for us spectacled people too.

I made my own stand, out of a Urobox and a 100ml bottle, cut roughly with my Swiss Army Knife. The combination is focusable. With the +10 lens I focus on the table at 20x and with the +5 lens I focus under the glass, on my mineral collection, at 10x. Fantastic! I also made another stand for my Seibert Emoskop out of a dosing cup (and another out of a cream dispenser cap) and can microscop things at 25-30x.
I EDC those in the tin box, together with my Nikon Monarch 7ED 8x30, for about a year now.

A Kenko telescope adapter coupled to an old 105mm f/4 Micro Nikkor is really first class close up.
Focuses from 47cm to' infinity'.

Bulky though and may frighten wildlife.

Anyone know how is it compare to Steiner 2311 8x22 Miniscope Monocular?

It is of similar design. Eschenbach, KOMZ and others make Turmon inspired monoculars, presumably made in PRC, most of them. I only used the Docter, which is made in Germany and pricier, I don't know how the rest compare to that.

summer-blue said:

Anyone know how is it compare to Steiner 2311 8x22 Miniscope Monocular?

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I can't compare the Steiner to the Docter as I don't have the latter, but the Steiner is very disappointing. The Nikon 5x15 HG and 7x15 HG are far superior IMO.

Thanks. 2 different dealers said the steiner 2311 is made in Germany though. They might be wrong. I agree with you, it's disappointing. I just hope docter's version is much better. But for 50 dollar I paid and 1/10th of the weight of normal binos, it's much better than nothing.

Mind though that the Docter has short eye relief. That's no problem in microscopy but it bothers me in telescopy.
From what I have tried and purely subjectively:
Zeiss 8x16> Leica 8x20> Docter 8x21> KOMZ 8x30 (CCCP made Zeiss clone) > Opticron Gallery Scope> Seibert Episkop 2.5x18 (Gallilean, far better as a loupe/magnifier).
Zeiss and Leica don't have just better optics, they have also great eye relief. You find a good eye placement immediately. They are both owned by a friend (the Leica as a binocular, but it's the same). I hope I might persuade him to send me the Zeiss, which has a great shortfocus function, since he bought a Vixen 8x20 ED recently.
No monocular is better than binoculars. Even for shortfocus the Pentax Papilio 6x21 gives a fantastic stereoscopic image. So I EDC the Nikon Monarch 7 ED, which I prefered over the Leica 8x20 Ultravid. Slightly less sharp but with better ergonomics, light collection anf field of view. I always carry a bag and a jacket just during the 4 colder months of the year.
The Docter and especially the Emoskop are great to play with on the other hand, multifunctional and very capable for hobbies that require magnification.

4 years later update:
I bought the Zeiss 6x18 and put the Docter in the Microscope box. If only it had some mm more of eye relief!
I made an adapter out of an antibiotic cup and I use now the Docter ancillary lenses with the Zeiss too. With the 10D it goes to 15x, with the 5D to 7.5x (and with the 16D to 24x, pitty I didn't buy that too).

Hi all, I just bought this monocular (actually rebranded as Noblex, since Docter is no more), and wanted to know where the hell you got those macro lenses for this thing? I need a 10x magnification for close-up work, a 21 mm +5 diopter lens? The monocular is the exact same as the old Docter version. They discontinued the product btw. I can't believe it was sold for around 100 bucks at some places, reading this thread, I paid 139 euros.