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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Binastro" data-source="post: 3476771" data-attributes="member: 111403">The point is that the protection must be good enough to last a long time, hopefully 50 years.But the underlying problems are there.Kowa obviously put a great deal of effort into protection as do many top makers.I have personally seen and handled hundreds of failed lenses and binoculars. Not so many scopes as they are fairly simple.Usually it is fungus. Also moisture internal coating lenses and prisms.Olympus lenses fungus numerous.Nikon lenses very dirty inside.Coating failure.Balsam failure. Zeiss Ikon lenses etc.Mirror tarnish, say Nikon 500mm f/5 mirror lens and others.Minolta 500mm f/8 mirror lens.Thorium elements brown low transmission.Northumberland 12 inch refractor devitrified after 100 plus years. New objective made.Scratches allowing fungus to creep around front element of binoculars.Small insects inside lenses of binoculars and photo lenses and viewfinders.Spiders running around inside optics.The fact is that buying secondhand you must inspect carefully.I would think that in Hong Kong lenses are still routinely stripped for removing fungus.TTH lenses are made with disassembly in mind.Some people deliberately sell secondhand optics with these faults after grabbing money first.I suppose Halloween is the time for scary stories.Oh and a brand new WATERPROOF Chinese binocular with internal fungus.And I got a Zeiss top end binocular sold as new and sent to the U.K. This had fine scratches around the eyepiece rear elements. This was not as described at all. But life is too short to bother about it.O.K.I wanted an as new Classic Zeiss binocular.An immaculate U.K. source got me one supposedly from a retail shop in Zeiss's homeland where it had supposedly been sitting on the shelf..I paid the full price.It was not new as described.Now, this was forgotten and just remembered, but the idea that everything in optics is always perfect is far from the truth.Nearly all my optics have come from the U.K. but occasionally I have stepped outside.I love optics and have had great pleasure from them. But sometimes it has a downside, but not too often.And one learns as one gets older to be careful if possible.Peace.</blockquote>

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