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="WJC" data-source="post: 3645075" data-attributes="member: 25191">Being the quintessential underdog, I love stories of the underdog coming out on top. It’s kinda like when one of the best fighter pilots of WWII, and test pilots directly after, (Chuck Yeager, first to break the sound barrier) was not allowed to be an astronaut because he wasn’t a college grad.Early in the life of the Zeiss Night Owl, I was visited by two Zeiss reps—one local, one national. Knowing that I had ordered a few and that I was a Zeiss fan, they—showing much pride—asked me what I thought of the Night Owl.Bill: Two years.Zeiss: What do you mean “two years”?Bill: That’s about as much time as I will give it on the market.Zeiss: It’s one of our newest and best products. What do you see that we don’t. It has our best optics.Bill: Oh, I think your optics are superb—Zeiss all the way. It’s the mechanics that concern me. You drive a desk; and I drive 5 display cases visited by real live customers who often share their observations. It is too heavy, it lacks balance, the focus mechanisms are atrocious and ... it’s ugly. Aunt Myrtle the retired birdwatcher likes lightweight and ... pretty.The foremost focus wheel is not bad. However, the one most frequently used is hard to actuate—your finger often slides over the top with little movement. And, if you need gloves ... forget it.After that, we got into more reasonable manufacturer / dealer discussion of many things.As they left, one said: And, as far as the Night Owl, I guess time will tell.TWO YEARS LATERAll the northwest Zeiss dealers were invited to a conference in Portland where we were introduced to the new Victory.During the meeting, one dealer brought up the Night Owl. He was told that the Night Owl was being replaced by the Victory.At that time, I raised my hand to ask just how long the Night Owl was in production. His response: “Two years.” Knowing he had been one of my national visitors from two years prior, I asked again: “How long?”Somewhere in his response, he recognized me, as he responded: “two ...... years.”No one else knew the story and I didn’t pursue the matter. We both knew and that was good enough.Screw turner 1: Zeiss engineer 0 Bill</blockquote>

Verification