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clschmalz
member
Reged: 03/02/09
Posts: 16
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As far as I can determine the last of the quality B&L branded Porros was the Custom series of the late 90's. They were Japanese made and produced in three sizes 7x26, 8x36 and 10x14. All are great performers optically. Their list price (1997) was in the $400-500 range. Interestingly, the 7x26 version is still marketed by Bushnell and commands a street price in the $300 range.
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Gordon Rayner
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 03/24/07
Posts: 970
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PG 8641 is engraved on the hinge tension adjusting screw at the front of the hinge of this Rochester Zephyr 9 x 35 individual focus. A tag on it says "1980 value $350-$400". The case is original and black.
I had or have another Rochester 9 x 35 IF , with its box, and a tan cowhide case. A two minute search did not find it. There is a 7 x 35 Rochester somewhere.
Did any of the 10 deg. 7 x 50 fat body wide angle Navy IF Rochester B&L WW II make it to Australia? What about the IF Navy 9 x 63? I took one to NSW and Qld. on an Elderhostel birding trip with my father in 1998. I used it for astronomy, and used a smaller c.f. for the birds, mostly. I saw a hobby falcon, my first one, coming headon at me during a random scan down a forest corridor. Very fast and agile, like a large swift. I could have had the wide angle 7 x 50 body molds free of charge if I had phoned a few weeks earlier in about 1973. I have microfilm and paper WW II reports on the wide angle 7 x 50 which give complete optical parts radii, spacings, thicknesses , and glass types, as well as program history and personalities. But I have not seen them for a long time.
I heard from a retired, German born archivist, who was involved in the effort to catalog and store the tons of microfilm, just after the war, that the archived films are so deteriorated, for many of the WW II era records, including a massive amount of German industrial records, that they have been placed off limits from the public, and there are no plans, nor funds, to transfer them to a more permanent medium. I did a lot of research in the records in 1967, and again in 1970, and bought some copies. Has anyone been digging in the British Library Annex at Boston Spa, in Yorkshire, where ,I was told, many Kriegsmarine records are stored? I wonder if there are any of the optical data for the various CZ 8 x 60 for the KM? Or for the 20 deg and 80 deg inclined 10 x 80 for KM? Maybe these are in Russia, or still around Jena? I have some incomplete WW II CZ binocular spec and test plans and drawings for 25 x 100, 12 x60, and to other types, which seem to have never reached production. I have plans and design data, including drawings for production tooling, for the KM 8 x 60 by Leitz. It is a Porro II. I have trouble in reading the old style German handwriting. I heard that it was abandoned in the schools shortly after the war.
I worked for Xerox in Rochester in the summer of 1966. I recall a phone conversation with Dr. A. F. Turner at B&L, who was one of the pioneers in antireflection coatings. I visited with Alexander Smakula, the Ukrainian born Zeiss coatings pioneer, at his home near Boston, in the same summer. He was working at MIT.
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tac45
member
Reged: 11/06/06
Posts: 57
Loc: Sydney, Australia
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Post deleted by tac45
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orbitaljump
sage
Reged: 01/29/06
Posts: 426
Loc: Charleston, SC
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Australian military was(is) using Nikons?
You learn something new everyday.
Im not a big fan of those B&L Custom 8x36 and 10x40....they had the "upside down" prism housings like the old Bushenll Customs from the 60s and 70s.....which feel awkward in the hand (at least to me). Addtionally they have smallish FOVs, but other than that they are competent binoculars.
Ive been looking to pick up a Discoverer series B&L porro on the cheap to check out.
I have several 9x35 and I think 7x35 Zephyrs I can inspect for identifiers and codes if it would be of benefit or interest to you tac. I just sold some, so I have to check how many and of what kind I have left.
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My God, it's full of stars!
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Edited by orbitaljump (03/13/09 02:31 AM)
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Gordon Rayner
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 03/24/07
Posts: 970
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I believe that Turner was independent. John Strong at Johns Hopkins was another pioneer. The Germans used cryolite, which is more efficient than MgF2, but is SOLUBLE IN WARM WATER. I learned that the hard way.
Yes. Dr. Seeger gave me a copy of the first edition. I bought the second edition, but have not seen the third. I have been told that the third is strong on serial numbers and numbers produced. Just the ticket for the now all too common speculator/investor who is looking for rarities per se. Seeger was at the Abrahams convention in San Diego in 2003. I attended also. The Busch 10 x 80 plans fragments in the Seeger book are (without credit) from my collection, via a third party.
I found the 200 mm in 1967. Kuhne(RIP) , who wrote the English language section in the Seeger II, learned about what I had found from George Morris (RIP), who owned the 200 mm Japanese 1932 periscopic style 300 or 400 pounder, whom I met in 1967, about the 200 mm Zeiss. I had dug out the Jena reports on the 200mm and the 25 x 100, by Irvine C. Gardner(RIP) whom I met in 1970, and had shared them with Morris. Morris sent them to Kuhne, who phoned frequently in the late 70's or early '80s . In the end, I practically led him to it. He passed himself off as an amateur astronomer, but was a speculator/investor, as well as a machinist. He used some well-off mutual acquaintances as banks. One prominent collector/historian with a huge collection wanted me to be a go-between to Kuhne to secure the return of something, but K.K.K. died.
That is interesting about Trautmann. I never heard about him, nor have I seen the patent. A rite of passage for the budding binocular repair person is the removal/insertion of the prism cluster into the B&L body style. Remember: Somebody put it in, so there is a way to remove it.
Edited by Gordon Rayner (03/14/09 05:19 PM)
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tac45
member
Reged: 11/06/06
Posts: 57
Loc: Sydney, Australia
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Post deleted by tac45
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orbitaljump
sage
Reged: 01/29/06
Posts: 426
Loc: Charleston, SC
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You mean this guy?
http://www.bigbinoculars.com/kuhne/kuhne200.jpg
http://www.bigbinoculars.com/nikko180.htm
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My God, it's full of stars!
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Gordon Rayner
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 03/24/07
Posts: 970
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Yes.
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Jonathan B.
journeyman
Reged: 05/22/07
Posts: 6
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Nobody has posted to this thread in months, but I thought I'd add something. I recently was able to use a coated Rochester 7x35 with immaculate optics and in perfect collimation. I was floored by its performance, despite its relatively narrow field of view and rather distant close-focus. It is extremely sharp, contrasty, and bright. I know this was a popular birding binocular in the USA, and I have to believe it was the finest binocular of its type made in the USA in its time. Do the other binoculars in this line--7x50, 8x30, 8x40, 9x35--perform like this?
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geezer88
member
Reged: 10/18/08
Posts: 19
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The 9x35 that I grew up with was a pretty good match in sharpness and brightness with my Zeiss 10x40 for terrestrial views. I didn't use it for night use, though, so I can't attest to it's performance in that arena. tom
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Jonathan B.
journeyman
Reged: 05/22/07
Posts: 6
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Here are some questions for tac45 or anybody else with access to B&L catalogs of 1939 or 1940. I'm curious about the introduction of magnesium for binocular bodies. These are questions about B&L, but I'd also like to know when German and other European manufacturers began using magnesium. I haven't found information on the comparative prices of magnesium and aluminum at that time. I assume magnesium was more expensive, possibly significantly so.
When B&L introduced the Zephyr, did they devote space in their catalogs to the use of magnesium alloy?
Did production of binoculars in the same configurations (6x30, 7x35, etc.) in aluminum cease when the magnesium binoculars were introduced?
Did the prices of the magnesium-bodied binoculars increase notably over the prior year?
Edited by Jonathan B. (11/14/09 11:38 PM)
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