Telescope Reviews: Modestly priced astro binos come not aligned?

Rich,

Seems like the astro bin market falls sharply into two categories: "modestly priced" bins and expensive bins (e.g., Obies vs. Fujis, Burgess vs. Zeiss, Celestron vs. Miyauchi). If you buy inexpensive astro bins and want good optics, you have to expect some compromises, and from my personal experience and the experience of others I know or have read about, the compromise is with the binocular mechanics, including the prism holders. Also, large astro bins have longer barrels that are more likely to be "flexed" from handling than small aperture bins, which could affect the collimation, hence why astro bins over 70mm often come with barrel braces.

Given this, it shouldn't be surprising that Chinese astro bins arrive out of collimation more often than higher cost Japanese and German bins. It's not "hearsay", as I hope the posts to this thread will confirm. I had two Obies, one new, one used (bought from a reputable used bin dealer, who collimated them before he shipped them, packed them well, marked the package FRAGILE, and sent it Priority Mail, which is usually safer than the United Pulverizing Service). Both Obies arrived out of collimation.

I have a friend who bought FIVE new Oberwerks (one was a replacement), and he also bought one used -- five out of the six arrived miscollimated. I know another buyer who bought a new Obie 10X60 Mariner, which look like tanks, and yet arrived miscollimated.

Oberwerk binoculars are hand checked before shipping, I even saw Kevin's initials on the box of new Obies I ordered. So apparently the miscollimation issues are not due to lack of quality control but rather from Obies being suspectible to being bumped out of alignment from "shipping and [mis]handling." This also means that the user has to handle the binoculars more carefully than he would a more hardily-built astro bin such as a mil-spec Fuji.

Oberwerk stands behind their products, they have a Webpage devoted to collimating them (I don't think any other dealer has this, so that tells you something), and Kevin will walk you through the adjustments via phone if necessary. Consequently, the miscollimation issue is something that most buyers seem willing to accept as a trade-off for affordable prices and good optics. Without dealers like Oberwerk, Burgess, and Celestron, bioncular astronomers would be forced to buy high-priced Japanese and German bins (or buy smaller aperture bins they could afford like Nikon AEs, Minolta Activas, etc.).

While I greatly appreciate moderately-priced astro bins and those who design them, I would like to see new lines of moderately priced astro bins that have good optics AND good mechanics -- not only sturdier prism holders, but better eyecups, diopter adjustments, focusers, etc.

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Oscar Zoroaster Diggs
"O.Z."

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