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Thank you John Dracon, David Bushnell and Fuji Photo Optical! (1 Viewer)

Grimnir

Well-known member
Earlier this year I acquired an FPO-manufactured Bushnell 7x35 10.0* silver-ring Rangemaster. Despite being manufactured at least 55 years ago the optical and mechanical quality of this glass is excellent and it has become my most-used and most-treasured glass.

I want to publicly extend my appreciation to:

1. David Bushnell for his ethos of providing the best possible product. As David Bushnell himself put it:

"The Rangemaster was not based on any previous design. It was just the best they [Fuji Photo Optical] could produce. We always told them that they should make the best they could produce, and we would pay for it."

2. Fuji Photo Optical for designing and manufacturing this classic binocular.

3. John Dracon for championing this superb but largely overlooked glass. I knew of this glass from Fan Tao but it was John's comments here on this forum that spurred me to obtain a sample and I am unlikely to have done so otherwise.


So thank you again John Dracon, David Bushnell and Fuji Photo Optical!


Graham
 
Awesome view!
Here's a 1952 ad:
http://www.vintagepaperads.com/1952-Bushnell-Rangemaster-Binocular-Ad--Elmer-Keith_p_47095.html
Nnot the eventual wider version, which is Customs with extra 3D, basically.
Deep contrast and saturation for an extra-wide. The Kodachrome of binoculars.
Adjusted for inflation, it would still be a great deal (~$600). Pioneering work on the oculars.
Other ads describe the grand moment you can have seeing it all at once at the end of
the day, like an altered state of mind. That's probably true for many of us, looking through
great binocs. It's like flying through the window with a good pair. My cat catches the vibe
and leaps up to the picture window

I think the sharp extra-wide view will come back. They are getting aspherics made by machine now.
 
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The 1952 version is Bk7.

The silver-ring version, which is BaK4, first appeared in ads (to the best of my knowledge) dated 1956.

The Tamron-built 'Custom' version is a few years later.

Graham
 
The 1952 version is Bk7.

The silver-ring version, which is BaK4, first appeared in ads (to the best of my knowledge) dated 1956.

The Tamron-built 'Custom' version is a few years later.

Graham

Huh, that's good info right there.

I would have never known, in my younger days when Iddidn't know any better Ijust thought this is a binocular and used it.

I rregret ever getting rid of them, now I wish I had another.

Where is SteveC? I think he recently purchased a few of these.

Bryce...
 
The Rangemasters are very hard to find. There are all manner of Customs
on EBay, but the flippers do charge a bit for them. One IOB finished shopgoodwill
at $95 yesterday. It'll probably be flipped for about twice that. $160-220 for clean ones.
Rangemasters do sometimes pop in low on a 'buy-it-now' basis.... but they don't last long.
 
Lately, say the past 3-4 months, Rangemasters have been relatively available and fairly inexpensive. Whether that is a temporary glitch or a more permanent shift, I don't know. I saw on ebay at least four FPO models go for less than $100 and all looked biddable and in good shape.
 
It's odd....rarer than the Customs but a lot less.
If you want a pair you have to keep an eye out for a shooting star.

Yes, it is rarer than the Custom, which is not as good a binocular. Until the last several months the Rangemaster sold typically for 2x more than a Custom. Now both are a lot less than they were a year ago. I got my Rangemasters for $101 and $128, far less than the up to $300 range they had been at. I got a like new Custom for only $58. They had been in the upwards of $200 range for a long time. Don't know why the price on both dropped.

There is one seller on ebay, bgorielly or somesuch who has a very high opinion of his binoculars. He has some pretty high priced Customs and Rangemasters. He's also had the same ones for over a year too.
 
There seems to be a strong speculative tendency in Custom-related pricing.
When the price shoots up, that high price fans out across sellers, and then the quantity grows a lot.
There is a high-price/high-quantity plateau that is punctured after a while. It's an interesting market.
I suspect there are many flippers and not as many holders. It could be the the rarity of the
Rangemasters causes instability in pricing because there are periods where "market maker"
units are not on the market....this increases uncertainty. The quantities of old Customs, on the
other hand, can get to be impressive. This defies traditional economics, but people who
speculate will hang on to a loss a long time and then all give in at once.

I've noticed the small Customs fluctuate a lot.
Their condition and performance of that year's model vary a lot, but the market swings
outside of those considerations. More speculation.

There are twins and clones out there. There are often a great deal, although
some like the Jason Venture 4000 series get almost as high...that cat's out of the bag.
 
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