BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kevin Purcell" data-source="post: 1511694" data-attributes="member: 68323">Thanks, John.No one is claiming the SE is waterproof. We are trying to determine how weather resistant they are. And there is also plenty of evidence on this forum for weather resistance in the face of rain. That's a useful statistic to know. And how long it takes to "defog" should they fog.I certainly wouldn't take a SE to sea (that's just being silly) but there is always the question of how much rain you can get on the bin without it fogging. I have no idea why they blackened though. That seems rather odd. More like a roof with a silvered mirror that's reacted with the chloride in the sea water than a porro that uses TIR and has oxide AR coatings (really, TiO2, ZrO2 and the other oxide layers in the AR coating don't react with a weak sodium chloride solution. You may get NaCL crystals that need care to remove). FWIW, the generally recommended procedure for bin cleaning says not to spray or apply cleaner directly to a bin lens (I think for exactly this reason of wicking through the lens mounting). Apply cleaner to the thing that you use to clean the lens then apply that "wet" thing to the lens.That said I've used direct flowing water on "waterproof" Celestron DX porros. Not water  immersion just on the EP or the objectives (with a cloth wrapped around the middle section to keep water away from the bridge) with no ill effects. Different lens/enclosure seals perhaps.They used a similar system on the "external focus" Dialyt too, I believe. This was a (corregated or reentrant) rubber tube attached to the EP and body that would fold in on itself as the EP moved in and out. If the rubber didn't crack and the two ends were attached properly this system should be fully waterproof. Quite a few other makers used the scheme (Swaro describe it in some patents and you can see it in patents backin the 70s). So it was well known and out of patent protection but I guess it was fiddly to get right for most makers.<a href="http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=-ag7AAAAEBAJ" target="_blank">http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=-ag7AAAAEBAJ</a><a href="http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=dX4rAAAAEBAJ" target="_blank">http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=dX4rAAAAEBAJ</a>I'm like John and Herman though. I have really waterproof bins that I know can stand the rain and they get used in the wet. But I do think we baby the SEs too much. And it's nice to know what the limit is.</blockquote>

Verification