SF armour misbehaving (1 Viewer)

[BryanP]

Hi all,
I’m having an unacceptable cosmetic problem with my SF 42’s and was wondering if I could get some advice from the knowledgable Zeiss folks here.

The armour has bubbled and is coming loose. This condition is not static and seems to be progressing. Interestingly the bubble(s) seems to similar in shape, size and location on both barrels, almost symmetrical you might say.
A little history,
They’re around one and a half years old, purchased new from B&H and have lived a sheltered life where they’re babied, cleaned, indulged and treated like the member of the family they are 😉.
We were caught in Costa Rica when covid lock downs happened and have been stuck here for over a year now. I‘ve got in a lot of birding in with these bins so I’m not complaining.
In spite of our location I don’t think the armour coming loose was caused by heat or humidity.
Neither are as bad and certainly not any worse than any I’ve experienced in the summers of eastern and southern US and Canada. We do get hot and humid days here of course but up in the mountains where we live the climate is without the extremes common to the Caribbean or Pacific coasts.

When I get back to Canada I‘ll be able to ship them to the Zeiss repair centre in Kentucky but not till then, sending packages from Central America can be a wee bit dodgy.

For now my question is this. Is there anything I can do to slow or stop this till then? My suspicion is no but I thought I’d run it by you guys first.

In the photo you can’t actually see where the armour is coming away so I sketched in where its wonky. I tried to include a vid but the forum software didn’t like MP4’s or Quicktime movies no matter how small.
Cheers,
Bryan

 

[Nethero]

Hi all,
I’m having an unacceptable cosmetic problem with my SF 42’s and was wondering if I could get some advice from the knowledgable Zeiss folks here.

The armour has bubbled and is coming loose. This condition is not static and seems to be progressing. Interestingly the bubble(s) seems to similar in shape, size and location on both barrels, almost symmetrical you might say.
A little history,
They’re around one and a half years old, purchased new from B&H and have lived a sheltered life where they’re babied, cleaned, indulged and treated like the member of the family they are 😉.
We were caught in Costa Rica when covid lock downs happened and have been stuck here for over a year now. I‘ve got in a lot of birding in with these bins so I’m not complaining.
In spite of our location I don’t think the armour coming loose was caused by heat or humidity.
Neither are as bad and certainly not any worse than any I’ve experienced in the summers of eastern and southern US and Canada. We do get hot and humid days here of course but up in the mountains where we live the climate is without the extremes common to the Caribbean or Pacific coasts.

When I get back to Canada I‘ll be able to ship them to the Zeiss repair centre in Kentucky but not till then, sending packages from Central America can be a wee bit dodgy.

For now my question is this. Is there anything I can do to slow or stop this till then? My suspicion is no but I thought I’d run it by you guys first.

In the photo you can’t actually see where the armour is coming away so I sketched in where its wonky. I tried to include a vid but the forum software didn’t like MP4’s or Quicktime movies no matter how small.
Cheers,
Bryan

Bryan, while I can’t say I have been stuck in Costa Rica for a year like you (unlucky or really lucky?!) I have actually been experiencing this exact issue on my new generation SF 8x42’s.

I just shipped them off to Kentucky for repair, but quite honestly it might be something you can do yourself for a quick fix.

From a different thread from a year or so ago I remember somebody talking about rubber armor coming loose. The trick they used to fix it, and the exact same stuff the manufacturer puts under the rubber skin, is 3M contact paper. It’s essentially extremely thin double sided tape. Whether this means you would have to peel the skin back to get to the problem area, I don’t know. But I thought that maybe this can be of use to you. I hope you can keep enjoying them and enjoying Costa Rica!

 

[BryanP]

Bryan, while I can’t say I have been stuck in Costa Rica for a year like you (unlucky or really lucky?!) I have actually been experiencing this exact issue on my new generation SF 8x42’s.

I just shipped them off to Kentucky for repair, but quite honestly it might be something you can do yourself for a quick fix.

From a different thread from a year or so ago I remember somebody talking about rubber armor coming loose. The trick they used to fix it, and the exact same stuff the manufacturer puts under the rubber skin, is 3M contact paper. It’s essentially extremely thin double sided tape. Whether this means you would have to peel the skin back to get to the problem area, I don’t know. But I thought that maybe this can be of use to you. I hope you can keep enjoying them and enjoying Costa Rica!

Thanks Nethero!
I’ll dig around for that repair thread. It might be something I can tackle although finding that double sided 3m tape here in CR might be problematic. Even if I find some and mess up I won’t panic since I’ll still be sending it to Kentucky anyway. Of course before I do that I’ll have to snag a second pair of bins. I don’t really want to go without while the SF is getting its facelift in Kentucky.

I’ll be really interested in your timeline and experiences with the Zeiss repair centre.

Lucky and unlucky to tell the truth. Lucky because the pandemic meant we were going to have to hunker down somewhere and getting caught here was well, lucky. Unlucky because like a lot of folks things like life are on hold so we do feel stuck at times. Not complaining though.
I am grateful to the Costa Rican government since they’ve been automatically renewing our 3 month visas every 3 months for over a year now. Its nice not to have to travel to Panama to roll over those things.
Cheers,
Bryan

 

[Maljunulo]

Bryan:

I'm curious, are you "stuck" because Costa Rica won't let you leave, or Canada won't let you in?

Apologies if I missed this somewhere.

 

[BryanP]

Bryan:

I'm curious, are you "stuck" because Costa Rica won't let you leave, or Canada won't let you in?

Apologies if I missed this somewhere.

Hi Maljunulo,
Costa Rica would've let us out and Canada would let even me in with certain conditions of course. 😉
I only feel “stuck” because of the travelling we've missed out on over the past year.

We decided to ride out the pandemic here because going back last spring would've been nerve racking. As well not having a permanent physical residence back home was an extra bonus worry.
Cheers,
Bryan

 

[Maljunulo]

Thanks.

Cheers! indeed.

 

[Nethero]

Thanks Nethero!
I’ll dig around for that repair thread. It might be something I can tackle although finding that double sided 3m tape here in CR might be problematic. Even if I find some and mess up I won’t panic since I’ll still be sending it to Kentucky anyway. Of course before I do that I’ll have to snag a second pair of bins. I don’t really want to go without while the SF is getting its facelift in Kentucky.

I’ll be really interested in your timeline and experiences with the Zeiss repair centre.

Lucky and unlucky to tell the truth. Lucky because the pandemic meant we were going to have to hunker down somewhere and getting caught here was well, lucky. Unlucky because like a lot of folks things like life are on hold so we do feel stuck at times. Not complaining though.
I am grateful to the Costa Rican government since they’ve been automatically renewing our 3 month visas every 3 months for over a year now. Its nice not to have to travel to Panama to roll over those things.
Cheers,
Bryan

Well, I received an email from Zeiss. My binos are being sent to Germany and the turn around time is between 6-12 weeks. FYI, I also requested them clean the internals because I could see a black speck in my extreme field of view on my right ocular.

Whether it’s the speck, armoring, or both, I don’t know, but they can’t be serviced in Kentucky...

Definitely wait until you are back home before attempting to have service done! Hopefully you can deal with or find an easy solution for the armoring until then.

 

[BryanP]

Well, I received an email from Zeiss. My binos are being sent to Germany and the turn around time is between 6-12 weeks. FYI, I also requested them clean the internals because I could see a black speck in my extreme field of view on my right ocular.

Whether it’s the speck, armoring, or both, I don’t know, but they can’t be serviced in Kentucky...

Definitely wait until you are back home before attempting to have service done! Hopefully you can deal with or find an easy solution for the armoring until then.

Hi Nethero,
Thanks for the update, I wonder what can't be fixed in Kentucky that necessities going on holiday to Germany?
6 to 12 weeks is too long to go without binoculars so I guess I'll be picking up a new pair before the SF's head to Kentucky.
Cheers,
Bryan