I bought some 7x40 EDF Zeiss binos on this forum and got a great price for them. They are near new. I do suspect they are out of culmination ever so slightly. I haven't had time to spend long time glassing with them yet.

I plan on looking at the stars soon as I believe that will help me determine as an object very far away will be harder for my eyes and brain to correct. Close testing seems to be easy for me to correct and most the time the image seems perfect.

Any advice? Who is regarded as the best bino repair person.

Deutsch Optic referred me to Mountain Optic in Lakeside Mt... anybody used this guy?

Aaron

Proper collimation of binoculars seems to be most manufacturer's weakest point. When the two barrels are pointing slightly different places not only is the image degraded, but the manner in which your eyes involuntarily react in attempting to reconcile the two slightly different images will give you a terrific headache in just a little while. The mechanics of center-focused binoculars make them particularly susceptible to being knocked out of (or failing to hold) alignment, which is one among many reasons that I much prefer individual focusing eyepieces on my instruments.

To test collimation, go to Google (or your preferred privacy-invading search engine) and type in "binocular collimation test". You'll get back a number of sites which describe similar, but varying methodologies for determining just how far off your binos are.

But be forewarned: It seems as if few establishments which represent themselves as binocular repair facilities actually understand or are equipped to correct improper collimation. Give a facility a phone call before sending your binos to them to see if they seem to understand what the goal is.

For example, I think fairly highly of Leupold and thier vaunted repair services, but so far as I can tell they don't have a clue what binocular collimation is.

Get them properly tested and fixed by a pro who can do it. The effect of looking through binos that are out of collimation is that you will get a splitting head ach that won't go away for days. (Maybe weeks) Long spells behind the glass such as looking for sheep, goats and bears in Alaska require long hours of use. If they can't be fixed properly then sell or trade them off.

Good Hunting

Tetonka
DRSS

quote:

Originally posted by Aaron Rust:
I bought some 7x40 EDF Zeiss binos on this forum and got a great price for them. They are near new. I do suspect they are out of culmination ever so slightly. I haven't had time to spend long time glassing with them yet.

I plan on looking at the stars soon as I believe that will help me determine as an object very far away will be harder for my eyes and brain to correct. Close testing seems to be easy for me to correct and most the time the image seems perfect.

Any advice? Who is regarded as the best bino repair person.

Deutsch Optic referred me to Mountain Optic in Lakeside Mt... anybody used this guy?

Aaron

When Zeiss-USA's in-house repair facility is backed-up with work, they recommend Land Sea & Sky (Texas Nautical Repair) of, I believe, Houston, Texas.

"TakahashiAmerica" <esales@lsstnr.com>

They have worked on one Zeiss binocular for me. Cost was acceptable; staff were co-operative and pleasant; quality of work was good; and they completed the work in a timely way.

Hope this helps.

I have called around and talk to many... houston's Texas Nautical Rapair seems to be the place!~!!!