Brand New Victory Issue? (1 Viewer)

[Paultricounty]

Paul, reading comprehension is not your strong suit. Welcome to ignore.

Grumpy old man aren’t you. But with good grammar ✌🏼

 

[CSG]

Okay guys, I took them out on a snowshoe trip today and here’s my .02 after using them constantly for the last 8 hours… the clarity of these really are phenomenal and the FOV is awesome. The focus wheel is definitely inconsistent and has not seemed to improve with use. This is noticeable enough that the focus wheel on my Japan made Vortex Razor HD 12x50’s was smoother than this. I also have a pair of Maven B5 15x56’s with a smoother focus. The other thing I noticed is the diopter seems odd. It goes more to one side than it does the other. I’ll post pictures shortly.

Sounds like the pair I got!

 

[Smoothoperator]

Here it is with the diopter adjusted all the way to each side. All the way to the - side and it doesn’t even go to the final hashmark. All the way to the + side and it goes past the final hashmark….

 

[Smoothoperator]

Reading comments like this does make me wonder how many users would actually discern the "ever so slight grittiness"? Discussions re the stiffness of the Swarovski Habicht focus wheel have yielded a range of opinions from those who think it's too stiff to those who find it perfectly fine. The way some individuals wax lyrical about focus feel at times makes one think there must be a remarkably high percentage of commentators here who have the sensitivity of touch of concert pianists or heart surgeons...

Lol I thought about something similar too. Everything time I come back to them and start moving the focus wheel, I hit the grittiness in the same spot. It’s like right at center focus and it feels off from the rest of the focus spectrum.

 

[Paultricounty]

Lol I thought about something similar too. Everything time I come back to them and start moving the focus wheel, I hit the grittiness in the same spot. It’s like right at center focus and it feels off from the rest of the focus spectrum.

Send them back and get a good one. You’ll be satisfied and glad you did.

 

[Smoothoperator]

The whole thing that annoys me with this is that I got them directly from Zeiss. It wasn’t eBay, it wasn’t a sketchy retailer, or even a reputable retailer. It was directly from the company that produces them and they show up like that.

 

[pbjosh]

I am a big fan of Zeiss optics, and they have been my most used bins over the years. I had a very early (pre-production I believe, or one of the very first examples) Conquest HD that developed a diopter problem that proved fatal. It was replaced no problem and the subsequent Conquest was literally used to swim rivers and crawl in the mud, birding nearly every day for 4 years in Central and South America and was as good as new when I finished that trip.

Since then I have had an 8x42 SF that has been absolutely brilliant for 5 years, until the focus broke (one of the tubes no longer focuses) during a recent long trip in Amazonian Brazil. I will need to send it in for service as soon as I am back in Europe, and I hope I don't have any service issues, though I don't anticipate any. I have the impression that the vast majority of customers end up with good service from Zeiss (and Leica), and we do hear more about the bad examples here and not all the good examples, understandably. Both good and bad experiences are worth mentioning.

When I have hopefully gotten my binoculars successfully repaired and returned I'll post the experience, either way. Neither good nor bad experiences are statistically valid as it's a non random sample from an unknown pool, they are just anecdotes, but I still appreciate seeing / hearing them from others.

Cheers all,
Josh

 

[Paultricounty]

The whole thing that annoys me with this is that I got them directly from Zeiss. It wasn’t eBay, it wasn’t a sketchy retailer, or even a reputable retailer. It was directly from the company that produces them and they show up like that.

Yeah I agree , that’s a killer. I had sent in a new pair of Conquest 10x42’s with a focus travel issue , they replaced with a new pair. I asked if someone could check out the new replacement (Quality control it, if you will) and was told, it’s coming from a warehouse. So that was not an option. I guess this is another example of lack of quality control. For the prices we pay and the historical perceived reputation of Zeiss, you would expect differently.

Paul

 

[Conndomat]

I love it when someone gets a bad set of binoculars and gets everybody all pumped up. It makes for more stimulating conversation on occasion.

The focuser in particular is simply more fragile than it was on earlier models due to the extreme close focus!

I had several models, Zeiss, Leica, Swarovski, where there were problems with the focusers, either they ran out of round with different rotational resistance or there was blurring in the close range because the tubes were no longer shifted evenly.

The egg-laying wool milk sows that can do everything simply suffer from a lack of robustness in some areas.

Andreas

 

[Paultricounty]

The focuser in particular is simply more fragile than it was on earlier models due to the extreme close focus!

I had several models, Zeiss, Leica, Swarovski, where there were problems with the focusers, either they ran out of round with different rotational resistance or there was blurring in the close range because the tubes were no longer shifted evenly.

The egg-laying wool milk sows that can do everything simply suffer from a lack of robustness in some areas.

Andreas

Anddreas,

Happy new year.

Thats interesting and makes sense. I’m the first to admit that all the highend expensive top-of-the-line Binoculars seem to have something that I think can be improved upon. But I will say I don’t seem to have one complaint about the Swarovski NL’s. Again just my opinion, which have been wrong many times.

I was more or less responding to a derogatory statement from one member here, that seems to piss people off every time he doesn’t like a Binocular or it doesn’t fit him well. I’m not gonna mention any names, but there is a C,S and a G in his name.

Paul

 

[Conndomat]

I was more or less responding to a derogatory statement from one member here, that seems to piss people off every time he doesn’t like a Binocular or it doesn’t fit him well. I’m not gonna mention any names, but there is a C,S and a G in his names, but there is a C,S and a G in his name.

Hello Paul,

happy new year...

I don't know, I don't want to interfere in your dispute, but it actually seems to be the case that this close close focus makes the focuser more prone to defects when I have the choice between XY binoculars with 1.5-2m. Focuser and the same model with 3-4m. I would choose the latter in the hope of a more stable central shoot.

Andreas

 

[Paultricounty]

Hello Paul,

happy new year...

I don't know, I don't want to interfere in your dispute, but it actually seems to be the case that this close close focus makes the focuser more prone to defects when I have the choice between XY binoculars with 1.5-2m. Focuser and the same model with 3-4m. I would choose the latter in the hope of a more stable central shoot.

Andreas

No dispute. Annoying verbal sparring maybe.

With that aside I don’t seem to have an issue with any of the binoculars that I have when it comes to close focus. I never gave it much thought, all the examples I have the focusers are all smooth.
I did have two Swarovski EL’s , one a pre Field pro version with the shorter close focus spec and other a newer Field pro which had the longer short focus spec. There was no difference in either focuser , they were both equally smooth and precise. To tell you the truth I don’t really do much close focus work.

 

[Brummie]

My SF 10x42 has a focusser similar to how yours sounds. It's not gritty as such, but feels like there's less or a thinner type of oil used. And when going from near to far focus, it gets slower in the middle and right at the end. Going the other way, it feels smoother.

However, mine is one of the grey-clad original SFs. My understanding was that the focusser and eyecups were the main things that were adjusted on the updated black version, and the SF 8x32 I have has a very different feel - more hydraulic / buttery like most high-end binoculars. So, I'd say yours probably isn't up to spec for the current version, and you should send it back to get sorted out or replaced.

For mine, however, it doesn't bother me personally in use. I like my old SFs - I got them at a good price 6 years ago, and very much like the optics despite the quibbles some folks had with some mechanical aspects of the original versions. Incidentally, I just got them back from Zeiss because I found debris in the barrels (seems to have been an issue on a number of their products in the mid 2010s), and they had changed the oculars and the eyecups to the newest versions unsollicited, but didn't touch the focusser.

 

[Smoothoperator]

Here’s an update for everybody on the thread. Most of the grit has removed itself from the focus wheel but it is still there if I’m paying attention. This week, I took them with me to the archery range. When I took them out of the case, I sent to adjust the eyecups and now the left eyecup doesn’t lock into the positions like the right eyecup did. It also starts to unscrew and there’s forward and backward play in the eyecup. This issue is definitely a problem. So far, I’m pretty disappointed in the quality of this product for the price point these bins are sold at.

 

[Paultricounty]

Here’s an update for everybody on the thread. Most of the grit has removed itself from the focus wheel but it is still there if I’m paying attention. This week, I took them with me to the archery range. When I took them out of the case, I sent to adjust the eyecups and now the left eyecup doesn’t lock into the positions like the right eyecup did. It also starts to unscrew and there’s forward and backward play in the eyecup. This issue is definitely a problem. So far, I’m pretty disappointed in the quality of this product for the price point these bins are sold at.

Very unfortunate, Seems Zeiss has the most issues of the three alpha brands. Have you tried screwing it down tight, then working the settings and see if it still doesn’t lock into each position.

 

[Smoothoperator]

Very unfortunate, Seems Zeiss has the most issues of the three alpha brands. Have you tried screwing it down tight, then working the settings and see if it still doesn’t lock into each position.

Good question. That’s exactly what I did. I unscrewed the eyecup and made sure nothing was in there. Put it back on, then screwed if all the way down. And the detents don’t seem to lock. Ughhh so frustrating

 

[Paultricounty]

Good question. That’s exactly what I did. I unscrewed the eyecup and made sure nothing was in there. Put it back on, then screwed if all the way down. And the detents don’t seem to lock. Ughhh so frustrating

Have you tried switching the eyecups and see if it’s the eyecup or ocular housing issue. If the other eyecup works fine on the troubled side, then the fix is a short phone call Zeiss for a replacement. if not it’s a trip to Zeiss customer repair.

 

[Smoothoperator]

Have you tried switching the eyecups and see if it’s the eyecup or ocular housing issue. If the other eyecup works fine on the troubled side, then the fix is a short phone call Zeiss for a replacement. if not it’s a trip to Zeiss customer repair.

Good call. I switched them and one of the eyecups has play in it so I’m calling them tomorrow for new eyecups.

 

[Paultricounty]

Good call. I switched them and one of the eyecups has play in it so I’m calling them tomorrow for new eyecups.

Oh Good. So it was a bad eyecup? Did it get banged somehow?

 

[Smoothoperator]

Oh Good. So it was a bad eyecup? Did it get banged somehow?

I was trying to figure that out but nothing I’m aware of. I keep them in the factory case in my safe and when I used them today, they were in a Marsupial Gear enclosed case so I’m not sure what happened.