Greetings, Ronald ...
This statement intrigues me. Once you set it, tricky or not, it's set for life, right? Doesn't that make the issue of diopter adjustment a 2 minute red-herring. If the long-term, day to day ergonomics and optics are at question then, sure, you have a real issue. But if the diopter settings are ultimately accurate, even if a bit cumbersome, then this whole issue is nothing less than silly.
That's my 2 cents.
Robert / Seattle
Hi Robert,
You're absolutely right, it shouldn't be an issue and I agree with you it sounds silly; but I prefer a separated diopter adjustment like the one I described, due to personal experience with my former Zeiss FL 7x42. :C
The FL's have only one clickstop in the diopter ring under the focus knob, a very firm one on zero. Changing the diopter and locking it is easy, but I noticed that when I moved the hinged barrels in or out to change the IPD, the diopter had shifted somewhat. Not all the time, but every now and again, very irregularly, it had moved up to 0.5 diopter unintendedly. Since it didn't move the slightest bit in the clickstop position, it really had me wondering if Zeiss had done the right thing and not found it necessary to put in more clickstops. After I read that more people were having trouble with the FL diopter I was convinced it could be a design fault.
As I said, it didn't happen very often, but the unpredictability of the self-moving diopter made me check the scale every 5 minutes or so. It could have been a faulty specimen, but I'm more inclined to think the whole design is the issue here.
Perhaps I should have written this straightaway in my first post, because the Swaro EL's with clickstop diopters seem fine, and no problems with Leica as well, that's why I DO wholeheartedly agree with you that a well-designed system is very good and not worth arguing about. :t:
The FL's gave me trouble with my eyesight ( lazy eye could not cope with the huge FOV ), so I changed them for a pair of midpriced 10x roofs. A birding mate of mine is now very happy using the FL's, even when I told him about the diopter issue. He didn't mind, he's using the zero position. But I felt obliged to charge him only € 250 ( euro's, not pounds! ) for the Zeiss, as he's a mate and he very much wanted them.
My new roofs have a clickstop diopter on the right ocular, very simple, very good. No locking necessary. No unintended moving. That's what I like. I can SEE my preferred diopter position, and I can trust it not to move when I don't want it to.
I wonder if the Nikon EDG's have a clickstop diopter adjustment, and if it's under the focus knob, should have been my initial question in my first post.
But I still think the LXL's have the best system ( though I don't own them ) as long as you want one permanent diopter position. It has proven its value, hasn't it? So why change it?
Greetings, Ronald
P.S. : What on earth is a 2 minute red-herring?? I tried to look it up but it's
not mentioned in my English dictionary.