Greasy bad design of twist out eyecup Nikon MHG 8x42 (1 Viewer)

[Iladorim]

Hi, first post and first time buyer of a pair of binoculars, I went with a Nikon Monarch HG 8x42, and I was kinda disappointed by the very primitive design of the twist out eyecup, specifically the fact that they just coated the Internal part with grease and didn't bother to cover this in any way, so grease exposed to elements, just waiting for dust and residue to stick to it and make an impossible mess to clean.

I have a background in cinematography, and I've never ever seen any lens with visible grease, everything is always internal or covered so to make cleaning easy with a dust blower for instance. Optics donc mix well with oils and grease.

Anyway, does anyone know of other brands who use a smarter eyecup design, without exposed grease? Is Swarovski better in that regard?

I attached 2 pics to illustrate, it's a mess, and the grease also sweats onto places it's definitely not supposed to go.

Thanks in advance

 

[ArchStanton]

Hi, first post and first time buyer of a pair of binoculars, I went with a Nikon Monarch HG 8x42, and I was kinda disappointed by the very primitive design of the twist out eyecup, specifically the fact that they just coated the Internal part with grease and didn't bother to cover this in any way, so grease exposed to elements, just waiting for dust and residue to stick to it and make an impossible mess to clean.

I have a background in cinematography, and I've never ever seen any lens with visible grease, everything is always internal or covered so to make cleaning easy with a dust blower for instance. Optics donc mix well with oils and grease.

Anyway, does anyone know of other brands who use a smarter eyecup design, without exposed grease? Is Swarovski better in that regard?

I attached 2 pics to illustrate, it's a mess, and the grease also sweats onto places it's definitely not supposed to go.

Thanks in advance

Grease aside, how do you like the optics of the MHG’s?

 

[ArchStanton]

I looked at my brand-new Nikon HG 8x42's and I don't see any excess grease. Maybe when assembled, they got overzealous with the grease and greased yours too much. I have encountered grease like this on the eyecups of other binoculars, especially Vortex Razors. What I usually do is take a q-tip and very carefully go around inside the eye cup and wipe it out. It may take a few clean q-tips to get it all. Try not to get any grease on your lenses, as it can be very difficult to remove.

Maybe it would be better to send them back for an exchange because it might a real pain to remove the grease from the lenses.

 

[mwhogue]

Maybe it would be better to send them back for an exchange because it might a real pain to remove the grease from the lenses.

Agree. Any attempted "fix" if unsuccessful could complicate a return or exchange.

Mike

 

[greekgeek]

I myself prefer a little lube, helps prevent unwanted friction.

 

[Iladorim]

Grease aside, how do you like the optics of the MHG’s?

I don't really have a frame of reference, I usually look through EVFs on cameras, but my gut reaction was holy sh*t this looks good for a 700$ buy. I feel like with optics there's definitely diminishing returns, you reach a certain point where spending 5x the amount probably gets you mostly better design/ergonomics/warranty/ etc.

I'm kinda disappointed with Nikon though, this feels like excellent glass in a never updated 90's dumb design. Definitely returning those, I don't feel like wasting my time cleaning this mess.

 

[agus_m]

I don't really have a frame of reference, I usually look through EVFs on cameras, but my gut reaction was holy sh*t this looks good for a 700$ buy. I feel like with optics there's definitely diminishing returns, you reach a certain point where spending 5x the amount probably gets you mostly better design/ergonomics/warranty/ etc.

I'm kinda disappointed with Nikon though, this feels like excellent glass in a never updated 90's dumb design. Definitely returning those, I don't feel like wasting my time cleaning this mess.

I think it is not only that, but that you can't even remove the eyecup by unscrewing them. I don't understand why budget nikons have this feature, but the "premium" line doesn't.
At some point my MHG somehow got some grit in the eyecup mechanism and made a noise when using it. I rinsed the bino under the water tap, but the water kind of washed the grease away, some of it got on the lens and it was annoying to remove, and the grit didn't leave, it just got stuck in the remaining grease of the mechanism. Very annoying situation that could have been solved with unscrewable eyecups. Other than that I didn't have problems with the bino though.

 

[ArchStanton]

I don't really have a frame of reference, I usually look through EVFs on cameras, but my gut reaction was holy sh*t this looks good for a 700$ buy. I feel like with optics there's definitely diminishing returns, you reach a certain point where spending 5x the amount probably gets you mostly better design/ergonomics/warranty/ etc.

I'm kinda disappointed with Nikon though, this feels like excellent glass in a never updated 90's dumb design. Definitely returning those, I don't feel like wasting my time cleaning this mess.

If the eyes cups were removable, it would have been easier to remove the grease. I agree that for 1k pair of binoculars it’s unacceptable and should be returned. I bought a pair of the MHG 10x42’s and was turned off because the armor reminded me of the Bushnell porro prism binoculars we used in the 80’s, and it didn’t help that Amazon shipped them in a unpadded plastic envelope. I wasn’t impressed with the view probably more because they were 10x42’s and returned them.