• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Where premium quality meets exceptional value. ZEISS Conquest HDX.

Zeiss Jena - charity shop find (1 Viewer)

Lavablobs1

New member
Wales
Hi,

I picked up some Zeiss binoculars at the charity shop for my Dad as a Christmas present because heard him mention Zeiss and how he would like a pair. However, I know nothing about them and I don’t even know if they are all ok to gift. What would be the best way for me to check? I’ve taken some photos and can see white dots, though this is not visible to the eye. Is it mould? Would that ruin the lens?

When I was searching for this information, I saw a post about serial numbers and I am now also wondering if these are even genuine. The serial number is 115375 which I can see is pre-war unless I am reading it wrong? However, they have the multi coating which I believe is more recent.

I don’t want to gift on Christmas Day something not working or fake, so any help would be much appreciated.

Many Thanks 🙏🏻
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2953.jpeg
    IMG_2953.jpeg
    2.1 MB · Views: 96
  • IMG_2954.jpeg
    IMG_2954.jpeg
    1.9 MB · Views: 96
The serial number would date it to 1906/07 whereas the print on the r.h. prism cover (multi-coated, Jenoptem, 8x30W) would date it to the 1980s. I have never seen one of those 'Field 8.2°' stickers before. The position of the upper cover screws is off, too, afaik. Maybe it's a Frankenzeissig.
Better wait until someone more knowledgeable comes along. Likely won't be long.
 
Unfortunately that looks very much like a fake:
Position of the screws is wrong, serial number is wrong, focus wheel looks wrong, it doesn't even look like being muti-coated but that might be the pictures.
Very suspicious. But I am by no means an expert for fake Jenoptems. You might wanna wait for more opinions on this. And even if it's a fake, doesn't mean that it's a bad bino. In fact some of the fakes were good enough that Jena allowed the Japanese company making them, to license the product and make official "Jena" binos. However the quality was not as good as an original.
 
All the 8x30 Jenoptems which were made in Japan under licence for CZJ had that "Field 8.2" sticker on them.

They were manufactured by Kama-Ko, hence the "K in a triangle logo" on the sticker.

Zeiss went into this manufacturing arrangement because there was a lot of demand for their products from catalogue stores such as Argos and discount dealers such as Dixons and they could not keep up with demand at the Jena factory. Nor could they supply Jena manufactured products at the low prices that these stores wanted.
 
Have a look at the second hand section in Ace Optics. That’s where I got my Carl Zeiss Jena from. All serviced etc or have a look for a Soviet pair (1980s or so) on eBay !
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top