Bushnell's bino-foto 7x50 - remarkable view (1 Viewer)

Many years ago I picked up a pair of Bushnell 7x50 CF binoculars designed for dual purpose: general viewing and telephoto lens. The left ocular has a bayonet twist system to hook into a Bushnell adapter for telephoto shots with a single lens reflex camera. The overall finish is outstanding. The body design is Bausch & Lomb, and internal uiltra-violet filters give the blue hue to the objectives. The leather strap is braided, and the leather case is deluxe, similar to the old Zeiss smooth leather tan dyed cases.

The view is truly outstanding and to my eyes better than any 7x50 I have encountered. The FOV is the standard 7.1 degrees. When focused on an optical chart, even the edges have minimal distortion. Also, the 3D effect seems more pronounced with this binocular compared to other porros, and the DOFis excellent.

I have tried to research this model but have come up with no information. Is there anyone in BF land who knows anything about the Bushnell Bino-Foto?
Would appreciate comments. Joihn

I found an ad in Popular Mechanics illustrating this bino-foto.

It is in Google Books.

Books.google page 63 in Popular Mechanics.
Click on above link to see it. -1955 date--
Rob.

Rob - Thank you so much for your research and reference. The view rendered by the Bino - Foto is so outstanding, that it is startling. I'm not given to much hyperbole, the exception being the U Conn's women's basketball team.

The ad mentions that it is engineered to photo quality standards, whatever that means.
When compared to my post-war commercial grade B&L 7x50, its no contest. The Bino-Foto maintains sharpness across the entire field, giving a 8x32 SE view. Made in 1950s, how was this possible? Don't know. The cosmetics go way beyond anything Bushnell was making then, and that includes the case. Evidently, the Japanese had the ability to produce exceptional binoculars even by today's standards.
John

I’m resurrecting this thread for 2 reasons. One is to thank John for his review in 2010. After reading it, I was emboldened to buy a pair of Bino-Foto binoculars I recently came across. I own a Fujinon 7x50 Polaris, so that is the standard against which I compared the Bushnell’s, once they arrived. It turns out, the Bino-Foto bears an FPO logo on its endcap, signifying it was made by Fuji for Bushnell. I agree with John’s assessment, they are truly outstanding binoculars! Image brightness, contrast and sharpness in the center is very nearly the equal of the Polaris. The Bino-Foto appears to have a simpler eyepiece design, so the outer portions aren’t as sharp as the center. Although they have completely different eyepieces, both of these binoculars produce some kidney-beaning if my eyes aren’t precisely centered behind the eyepieces. Construction quality is superb, with a smooth and rock solid center focus mechanism. The Bino-Foto name refers to the bayonet mounted, removable left eyepiece, which allowed for certain cameras to use the left objective lens as a simple telephoto lens, with an adapter.

I read the advert for the Bino-Foto: interesting... and then I got distracted and read a load of the adverts and some of the articles... fascinating. It was a different world back then.

angelo225544 said:

The Bino-Foto name refers to the bayonet mounted, removable left eyepiece, which allowed for certain cameras to use the left objective lens as a simple telephoto lens, with an adapter.

Click to expand...

I am very impressed with my pair, compared to Swarovski Habicht SL 7x42.
The left eyepiece rotates a little, but I haven't managed to remove it yet. Push in and turn anti-clockwise, like a bayonet lightbulb?

Actually the camera, with its own lens, would use the right telescope as an 'afocal' attachment. Camera set to infinity, focus with the binocular focuser. Now known as 'digiscoping'. The Bino-foto objective alone would produce an image inside the eyepiece, so not accessible to film in a camera. (Unless used very close-up for 'macro'.)

The removable left eyepiece had a more subtle purpose. It would be swapped for a parfocal eyepiece with ground-glass (located where military bins would have a rangefinder reticle). This allowed for accurate focusing, without fighting the eye's own focussing. You could think of it as like a Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera. If your camera is a 2LR, you can use the normal eyepiece.

The 'bino-dapter' attaches to the central hinge rod. The ground-glass eyepiece and aperture/lens-hood accessories will also be hard to find.

There was a US Customs Court case, Nov 5th 1962, where it was ruled that Dave Bushnell could not import these taxed as 'camera parts', labeled '7x Telephoto Lens'. The ruling mentions Zinc Sulphide as the UV Coating material.


"Engineered to photo quality standards" implies

• low pincushion distortion
• sharp across field
• flat field
• low chromatic aberration

Direct vision through binoculars relies on the brain to overcome deficiencies in these parameters, whereas we view photos more critically. There is no opportunity to re-focus or re-aim.

Other photo compatible monoculars, such as the Samigon Glanz Micro should also be good. That seems to be part of a complex system including a microscope stand.

Some auction sellers show photos taken through binoculars. That is a critical test. Even modern Chinese optics sold for mobile phone digiscoping have to be rather good.

Hello.
I recently acquired a Bino-Foto and I have to agree that is everything described here. When compared with an ELCAN 7x50 with a very similar field of view, it was definitely sharper at the edge.

The right-side eyepiece has a red mark at approximately minus 0.2 diopter. This moves the eyepiece 0.17mm inward. The only explanation I can think of is that this is to set the right-side eyepiece inward for infinity focus for photography when using the special ground-glass focusing eyepiece on the left side. If the ground glass had a thickness of 0.5mm, this would shift the focal plane 0.17mm.