[Leica] binoculars - looking for assistance

[marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small)]

I own a shitload of binoculars, ranging from a 
Zeiss 8x20 monocular to a pair of Russian 
20x60's.  Most of my binoculars are Zeiss though 
I own a really nice Wartime pair of Leitz 
('blc')  6x30's which are great for birding.  I 
also own an APO-Televid 77 Spotting Scope with 
all of the eyepieces and a few larger telescopes.

The absolute, positive best glasses I own are 
East German Zeiss, a pair of roof-prism 7x40 
"Checkpoint Charlie" EDF's and a pair of Docter 
10x40 Asphericals.  The latter went out of 
production following Docter's death, but the 
others are still available for around $500 or 
so.  The earlier Porro-prism 7x40 DF's often 
surface on eBay for around $300 and are, in 
general, even better than the roof-prism 
models.  Most of these come, incidentally, with 
an IR reader which allows you to find out when 
your neighbor is watching you with a sniperscope 
and also have an artillery reticle so you can 
call in a fire mission on his house to preserve 
neighborhood security.  <he grins>

The upper-end Zeiss and Leica binoculars are 
great but are quite expensive and the investment 
has to be balanced against frequency of use.  I 
have a couple of pair of new Zeiss glasses 
including a very handy roof-prism 10x40 with a 
decent close-focus.  I scored a pair of 6x42 
marine glasses on remainder from Christopher's 
when Zeiss dropped these a decade back, and those 
and my CZJ 15x60's are the standard for 
stargazing.  The older but still in production 
Zeiss 10x40 Classic roof-prism binoculars 
generally rate as the "second most wanted" 
binocular in surveys of birders and I can see 
why, as these are also a great pair of 
binoculars.  Used ones can often be found on eBay for $300 or so.

Zeiss makes three different families of 
binoculars now, Classic, Conquest, and 
Victory.  The 7x,42 and 8x,56 Classic glasses are 
the best-selling hunting binoculars in Europe and with good reason.

Swift has been mentioned.  I have owned Swift 
binoculars and telescopes and spotting scopes for 
more than 40 years and have never had occasion to 
question their great quality.  The binoculars are 
not up to high-end quality but they are still 
quite good.  Swift used to give great service 
when it was still headquartered in Boston -- 
several times when I called, the owner, Hob 
Swift, answered the phone -- but the recent 
division of the firm following Swift's death 
seems to have reduced their responsiveness though 
not the quality of service.  My standard 
telescopes for casual stargazing are a 3.5" 
quartz Questar -- and a 76mm Swift 731 telescope 
dating from around 1961.  (I spent my teen-age 
years lusting after both and it is great to find 
out that my early dreams were for two really grand telescopes.)

The Soviets took a lot of gear from the Zeiss 
works at Jena in 1945.  They also cleaned out the 
Zeiss plant at Eisfeld, the production site for 
binoculars, gunsights, and rangefinders (now the 
principal Docter Optic plant).  The Soviets 
established a production line for the CZJ 8x,30 
Porro-prism binoculars and these remain in 
production in Russia at several plants to this 
day.  These are great glasses.  The modern 
versions come with fully coated optics and can 
often be found new for around $100 or less.  They 
are light, optically superb, and have a nice, 
bright, wide field of view.  Look on eBay for 
"Tank Commander's Binoculars" and a bunch will 
come up.  (I have a 3x-10x,30mm riflescope from 
Arsenal in the Ukraine on my Mauser, and that is 
one fine scope as well, from the guys who amused 
us for so many years with the Kiev RF clones of 
the Prewar Contax RF camera line.)

I've never been very impressed with the Canon IS 
binoculars as I have found their optical 
performance unacceptably poor, but then I can 
handle a pair of fairly heavy 15x,60's reasonably 
well.  A LOT of binocular use will accustom you 
to learn how to view a steady image -- it IS a trick.  But the

I keep the Leitz 6x,30 and a pair of Zeiss 6x,30 
glasses and a pair of CZJ 8x,30 and Russian 
8x,30's at my desk to view the occasional bird or 
squirrel frolicking in my yard or to watch my 
neighbor working on his bomb-shelter to counter 
the next artillery strike I call in on his 
abode.  <neighborhood security again, he grins>

So what would I recommend?

High-end ($1200 to $1500)       Zeiss, Leica, Pentax, Docter
Middle-of-the-road ($700 to 
$1200)      Swarovski, Optolyth, Leupold, Docter, Zeiss, Leitz, Nikon
Bottom-of-the-middle ($350 to $700)     Nikon, Swift, Canon

A good source for information on binoculars in 
general and birding binoculars especially is 
Better View Desired 
<http://betterviewdesired.com/>  Generally 
creditable information in an easily absorbed 
format, though their dealer address sheet is at 
least six years out of date I noted today.

I also have a small collection of the 8x,21mm 
TURMON folding monocular, first introduced by 
Carl Zeiss Jena in 1921 and still in production 
today, surely a record rivaled only by Coleman 
gas lanterns and Klepper folding kayaks for 
longevity in the marketplace.  I even have a 
knock-off made by Wray in the UK around 1947.  I 
also have the complete set of diopter lenses for 
these and the little itty-bitty light-table, 
converted to 120v.  I either use this or my Swift 
10x jeweler's loupe to review negatives.

Gotta love them bie-knock-you-lars, as they call them in Southside Virginia.

Marc


msmall@aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!