I broke my SF so you don't have to... (1 Viewer)

[HighNorth]

Hi All!

I have been loath to share this, but since there is currently a discussion going on about the robustness of the new Zeiss Victory SF, I thought you should know...

A few days ago, I had just come in from a birding session in the cold (about -4° C) , when I was a bit too quick to remove the woolen hood I wore, and my brand new SF 8x42 was sent hurtling to the floor with it!

As you can see from the pictures, the front bridge broke clean off at the hinge.

The binoculars were otherwise fine though: I could not discern any damage to the optics or focusing mechanism, and the bins weren't even out of collimation as far as I could see. I guess the armouring worked as it was supposed to! :t:

I have sent the bins back to the dealer, and the dealer will send them to Zeiss in Germany for an assessment. As the damage is "self inflicted", I know I can't expect to have them repaired under warranty, but in that case, I hope they can be fixed at a reasonable price and within a reasonable time frame...

The dealer (which was very helpful by the way) was quite surprised at this mishap actually, as Zeiss has touted the triple bridge as more robust than the double bridge on the Swarovski EL series.

I also told the dealer to ask Zeiss to have a look at the focuser, since it has now become clear that the uneven movement could be due to a manufacturing flaw.

I just pray that the SF comes back to me as good as (or better than) new, and that it won't cost me an arm and a leg!

 

[HighNorth]

Attempting once more to upload the pictures.

 

[Vespobuteo]

sad story,
hope they will get fixed soon!
from what hight was the fall?

 

[Torview]

Ouch ! Bad luck.............I`d have expected it to survive a fall from less than 2m (I`m assuming here) onto an indoor floor though at this level.

 

[HighNorth]

sad story,
hope they will get fixed soon!
from what hight was the fall?

Fall was from a little less than 1m.

 

[HighNorth]

Ouch ! Bad luck.............I`d have expected it to survive a fall from less than 2m (I`m assuming here) onto an indoor floor though at this level.

Yes, I had too, although the sub zero temperatures outside might have made the bridge a bit more brittle than usual.

 

[Original PaulE]

When the wind blew over tripod taking my scope with it, breaking off the mounting bracket and scratching the lens Swarvaski fixed it free of charge,i told them the truth and it was second hand! be interesting to see what Zeiss do in this case as i have their Bins!

cheers

 

[Alexis Powell]

My guess is that the bin flew to the floor in an attempt to remove that cheesy "ZEISS"-labeled hinge end cap in protest and in hopes that Zeiss might replace it with one with the classic stylized "Z" design.

--AP

 

[HighNorth]

My guess is that the bin flew to the floor in an attempt to remove that cheesy "ZEISS"-labeled hinge end cap in protest and in hopes that Zeiss might replace it with one with the classic stylized "Z" design.

--AP

Don't get your hopes up!

 

[HighNorth]

When the wind blew over tripod taking my scope with it, breaking off the mounting bracket and scratching the lens Swarvaski fixed it free of charge,i told them the truth and it was second hand! be interesting to see what Zeiss do in this case as i have their Bins!

cheers

Yes, it should be interesting to see how Zeiss deals with this, although I hadn't expected to test their warranty/service so soon...

 

[Swedpat]

Sorry HighNorth. I Hope Zeiss fixes it for you!

 

[oetzi]

A bit of duck tape and its as good as new

 

[james holdsworth]

Cold or not, that piece should not be that brittle.

And, completely agree with Alexis - the 'new' Zeiss logo looks cheap and cheesy...boggles the mind that they chose to ditch their iconic Z logo. It is not even written in the standard Zeiss font - unless that too is a thing of the past.

I think Zeiss, overall, needs a rethink.

 

[AndyRB]

Real bad luck and my sympathies, and good for you for making us aware of this. I shall be ultra careful with mine now!!

I wouldn't have thought the temperature at -4 would have been extreme enough to make the metal that brittle. At the worst I would have thought some distortion rather than a complete fracture.

 

[HighNorth]

Real bad luck and my sympathies, and good for you for making us aware of this. I shall be ultra careful with mine now!!

I wouldn't have thought the temperature at -4 would have been extreme enough to make the metal that brittle. At the worst I would have thought some distortion rather than a complete fracture.

Well, the bridge is actually not all metal, it's mostly plastic it seems. If it were made of metal, it wouldn't break like that.

 

[AndyRB]

Even stranger then that it broke. I wouldn't have expected a plastic to do that from the height it fell - although I'm not a materials expert.

 

[AndyRB]

I guess any material is vulnerable under the 'wrong conditions'. I had an ultra expensive Diawa Morethan Branzino carbon fiber lure rod tip snap when on holiday last year - of course it happened to be my favourite lure rod.........

 

[Kammerdiner]

My sympathies, too. 1 m doesn't sound like all that much, but I'm guessing you have hard floors? I've dropped optical stuff from that height onto carpet and never had a problem.

And -4 C? Right now I'd call that balmy.:-O I'm sitting on -8 as I write and we've been down to -25. If any kind of metal gets brittle at that temp there's something wrong with it, right? My guess is Zeiss may have lightened up the front end a little too much? Lots of talk about moving the weight to the eyepiece. Maybe there's a "robust" cost involved? You mentioned plastic, but I kind of doubt that. Maybe just too little Mg.

I don't know. I think Zeiss will take care of you though. Best of luck.

And where do you get off up in Kirkenes with -4 C? Heck, yesterday we hit 0 C and I was sitting outside in a lawn chair reading The New Yorker and watching the birds. Felt like Florida or something.

Keep us posted,
Mark

 

[HighNorth]

My sympathies, too. 1 m doesn't sound like all that much, but I'm guessing you have hard floors? I've dropped optical stuff from that height onto carpet and never had a problem.

And -4 C? Right now I'd call that balmy.:-O I'm sitting on -8 as I write and we've been down to -25. If any kind of metal gets brittle at that temp there's something wrong with it, right? My guess is Zeiss may have lightened up the front end a little too much? Lots of talk about moving the weight to the eyepiece. Maybe there's a "robust" cost involved? You mentioned plastic, but I kind of doubt that. Maybe just too little Mg.

I don't know. I think Zeiss will take care of you though. Best of luck.

And where do you get off up in Kirkenes with -4 C? Heck, yesterday we hit 0 C and I was sitting outside in a lawn chair reading The New Yorker and watching the birds. Felt like Florida or something.

Keep us posted,
Mark

Hi Kammerdiner!

The floor in the entrance hall of my appartment is covered in stone tiles, so it might be a bit harder than your average floor... Had the binoculars been dropped in the wooden-floored living room a few more feet away, the outcome might have been different (although I doubt it).

I am pretty sure the bridge on the SF is made from plastic, and not magnesium, but I am not a materials expert, so don't take my word for it.

If not plastic, I'd guess carbon fibre, but that tends to fray a bit in my experience and not break clean off like you see in the pictures.

A temperature of - 4 C is pretty warm for Kirkenes at this time of year, as it should normally be at least -20 C. I blame global warming..

Still, nothing is nicer at those temperatures than sitting outside in a wood-fired hot tub and swilling whisky and beer while wearing a huge Russian fur hat!

 

[HighNorth]

Actually, I don't have much experience with magnesium, except for setting it alight in science class while attending middle school!