Anonymous
Unregistered
|
|
Hi all,
I am considering making the leap into what is commonly referred to as giant binos. I am considering the Zhumell Tachyon 25X100; the Oberwerk 22X100; and the Orion 25X100. While I have seen reviews on the Orion and the Obies, I have not seen any on the Zhumell. Can someone point me to one or more reviews of the Zhumell or perhaps describe their experience with one. The price seems unbeatable and very competitive with the Obies and the Orion. Would appreciate some guidance here. Oh.. yes I am very much a newbie but very eager to learn and to appreciate this great hobby.
Thank you,
|
Glassthrower
Vendor - Galactic Stone & Ironworks
Reged: 04/07/05
Posts: 14703
Loc: Hurricane Alley
|
|
Hi Mathieu, welcome to CN.
I also looked at the Zhumell and came up nearly empty handed. There are not many reviews or writeups about these binos. From what I was able to gather, they are made in China, they use Bk-7 prisms, and they carry a 25-year warranty. Other than that, info is scarce. I wrote an article about the buyer's market of giant 100mm binos under $500.00, you can read it at the following link :
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/604020/page/2/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1
The Obie 22x100 is discontinued. The Orion 25x100 has met with mixed reviews. If I was buying a new 100mm bino, it would likely be the Oberwerk 25x100IF. It's about the best in the price range, IMO.
MikeG
--------------------
Michael Gilmer - Member of the Meteoritical Society & Collector of Falling Stars.
Galactic Stone & Ironworks - Buy/Sell/Trade Meteorites, Moon Rocks, Mars Rocks, & 35 different falls and types!
|
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
|
There is not a review of the Zhumell bin, or ANY bins from Zhumell, on excelsis.com either. So mums the word I guess.
|
KennyJ
Reged: 04/27/03
Posts: 10163
Loc: Lancashire UK
|
|
I might have made this comment previously .
I have absolutely NO knowledge of Zhumell binoculars .
Even if this IS a top quality product , worthy of mention in the same BIG BINO breath as Japanese giants Kowa , Fujinon , Nikon or Miyauchi , there is " something " about that NAME " Zhumell " which puts me right off from the start !
Anyone else agree ?
Kenny
--------------------
If everyone is thinking the same thing , no-one is thinking - General George S.Patton
Zeiss 7 x 42 BGAT
Captain's Helmsman 7 x 50
Nikon 10 x 42 Superior E
Swift Audubon Kestrel 10 x 50
Helios 15 x 70 Observation
Strathspey 20 x 90
Televue 76 APO
Zeiss 85 Diascope
Helios 102 f5 refractor
Various eyepieces barlows tripods mounts etc.
Panasonic Lumix DMC - TZ5 digital camera
|
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
|
Thank you much Mike G.
In fact I did read your very useful articles on the buyer's market. If I may just alert you to some information however. I spoke to the folks at Zhumell last Friday and they informed me that they have replaced the 25X100 with a newer model with Bak 4 prism. The model that you refer to in your article with Bak7 prism has been discontinued.
Thank you,
|
Glassthrower
Vendor - Galactic Stone & Ironworks
Reged: 04/07/05
Posts: 14703
Loc: Hurricane Alley
|
|
Quote:
Thank you much Mike G.
In fact I did read your very useful articles on the buyer's market. If I may just alert you to some information however. I spoke to the folks at Zhumell last Friday and they informed me that they have replaced the 25X100 with a newer model with Bak 4 prism. The model that you refer to in your article with Bak7 prism has been discontinued.
Thank you
Thanks for the heads-up, that is good to know. It's times like this that I notice the lack of brick-and-mortar telescope shops in my area. Even though I must agree with Kenny, the name "Zhumell" for some odd reason makes a negative association in my mind, I would still like to try a pair out and see what the optical quality is like. Given the lack of Zhumell chatter/reviews, they remain a question mark in the market.
MikeG
--------------------
Michael Gilmer - Member of the Meteoritical Society & Collector of Falling Stars.
Galactic Stone & Ironworks - Buy/Sell/Trade Meteorites, Moon Rocks, Mars Rocks, & 35 different falls and types!
|
refractory
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 02/05/05
Posts: 1016
|
|
As I've studied sound/meaning associations for some 25 years now (advertizing and brand-naming companies do a lot of research in this area as well), just thinking about it for a couple of minutes it appears that Zhumell (despite spelling) has a close association with the word SMELL, with all the baggage that carries.
Zhumell itself almost sounds like an artificially fancied up version of "smell" (the British show "Keeping Up Appearances" immediately sprang to mind). In many languages around the world the word for taking in an odor (of for Kenny, odour) one sees a fricative initial consonant (s, sh, lh, f, etc.) followed by m or n as the root, with various vowels in between. This is the essence of what linguists call sound symbolism, where there is some natural linkage between the form of a word, and its meaning.
Zhumell fits right in there, and in the system just described, entails a very long, deep inhale.
Jess Tauber
|
KennyJ
Reged: 04/27/03
Posts: 10163
Loc: Lancashire UK
|
|
Thanks for the mini - lecture on word association Jess .
There is also more than a hint of " zoom " about the word .
" zoom " + binoculars usually = BAD !
Kenny
--------------------
If everyone is thinking the same thing , no-one is thinking - General George S.Patton
Zeiss 7 x 42 BGAT
Captain's Helmsman 7 x 50
Nikon 10 x 42 Superior E
Swift Audubon Kestrel 10 x 50
Helios 15 x 70 Observation
Strathspey 20 x 90
Televue 76 APO
Zeiss 85 Diascope
Helios 102 f5 refractor
Various eyepieces barlows tripods mounts etc.
Panasonic Lumix DMC - TZ5 digital camera
|
Glassthrower
Vendor - Galactic Stone & Ironworks
Reged: 04/07/05
Posts: 14703
Loc: Hurricane Alley
|
|
Quote:
Zhumell fits right in there, and in the system just described, entails a very long, deep inhale.
A cigar-smoker's binocular?
MikeG
--------------------
Michael Gilmer - Member of the Meteoritical Society & Collector of Falling Stars.
Galactic Stone & Ironworks - Buy/Sell/Trade Meteorites, Moon Rocks, Mars Rocks, & 35 different falls and types!
|
KennyJ
Reged: 04/27/03
Posts: 10163
Loc: Lancashire UK
|
|
Even the word " Tachyon " sounds a bit " tacky " :-)
Kenny
--------------------
If everyone is thinking the same thing , no-one is thinking - General George S.Patton
Zeiss 7 x 42 BGAT
Captain's Helmsman 7 x 50
Nikon 10 x 42 Superior E
Swift Audubon Kestrel 10 x 50
Helios 15 x 70 Observation
Strathspey 20 x 90
Televue 76 APO
Zeiss 85 Diascope
Helios 102 f5 refractor
Various eyepieces barlows tripods mounts etc.
Panasonic Lumix DMC - TZ5 digital camera
|
Rich V.
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 01/02/05
Posts: 988
Loc: Carson Valley, Nevada USA
|
|
Isn't a tachyon a particle purported to travel faster than light? If this were the case, with these special glasses, you could see DSOs _more recently_ than your observing buddies.
You could be the first to see the initial blast from that long awaited supernova we've all been looking for! Be the first on your block to have that experience! ;^)
Rich V
--------------------
Binoculars:
33-150x100 Saturn III, 16x70FMT-SX, 10x50 PCF-V, 10x43 DCF-SP, 10x35 E2, 7x35 E, 8x30 E2, 7x26 Custom, 8x23AS Diplomat, 8x23 Travelite
Scopes:
C9.25, 6" f8 reflector, SV80S
|
refractory
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 02/05/05
Posts: 1016
|
|
Your problem would be to get the glasses to actually interact with the tachyons and leave an image in photons, which behave rather differently. My guess is that any fermionic matter (us) that can't ever reach C would have a hard time interacting with particles with the opposite problem (i.e. that never slow down to C). Assuming they exist at all. I think there is a way around this, but you would have to redefine the notion of "particle" to take higher dimensionalities into account (and I'm NOT referring to the "hidden" ones of superstring theory).
Which is good, because if your supernova blast is delivered to you faster than light its energy would vaporize the universe before it had even been created. Its that nasty little causality problem. No universe, no you, no binos, no DSO's. If tachyons aren't standard-issue particles, though, but rooted in higher dimensions, then this energy might be diffused through time and space. And nobody would notice. All aboard the Tardis, anyone? Jelly-baby?
Jess Tauber
|
faltered
super member
Reged: 04/01/05
Posts: 182
|
|
I have the Zhumell Tachyon 25x100 and I am very happy with it. When I compare all of the <500$ giant binoculars, it becomes pretty clear that they all come from the same factory. The Zhumell with its 25 year warranty is what sold me and what I think sets it apart from the others. I am sure there is a better glass out there, but not for that price.
My first mistake with this binocular was using a flimsy tripod - if your going to get the Zhumell 25x100, be sure to invest in a quality tripod.
I am satisfied with them, the 25 year warranty is what sold me on the Zhumell. When I am too lazy to set up the LX200, these binoculars are great.
|
Glassthrower
Vendor - Galactic Stone & Ironworks
Reged: 04/07/05
Posts: 14703
Loc: Hurricane Alley
|
|
Quote:
I have the Zhumell Tachyon 25x100 and I am very happy with it. When I compare all of the <500$ giant binoculars, it becomes pretty clear that they all come from the same factory. The Zhumell with its 25 year warranty is what sold me and what I think sets it apart from the others. I am sure there is a better glass out there, but not for that price.
My first mistake with this binocular was using a flimsy tripod - if your going to get the Zhumell 25x100, be sure to invest in a quality tripod.
I am satisfied with them, the 25 year warranty is what sold me on the Zhumell. When I am too lazy to set up the LX200, these binoculars are great.
Faltered,
You are the first person I have run across who owns the Tachyons. If you don't mind, could you answer a couple of questions for me?
1) How would you rate the optical quality in terms of "sharpness across the field of view"? Virtually all binos begin to suffer from a loss of brightness and contrast (or blurred) as one's eyes move closer to the outer edge of the FOV. Could you estimate at what percentage of the total FOV does the view begin to degrade? 60%? 75%? 80%? ???
2) What is the build quality (and fit/finish) like?
Are they tight? A little wobbly here and there? Good focusers?
I ask because I am trying to keep an updated guide to the 100mm buyer's market going here on CN and my data on the Zhumell's is sorely lacking.
Thanks....
MikeG
--------------------
Michael Gilmer - Member of the Meteoritical Society & Collector of Falling Stars.
Galactic Stone & Ironworks - Buy/Sell/Trade Meteorites, Moon Rocks, Mars Rocks, & 35 different falls and types!
|
KennyJ
Reged: 04/27/03
Posts: 10163
Loc: Lancashire UK
|
|
What a remarkable co - incidence this is !
We find a binocular ( which may genuinely be as good , if not better than ANY 25 x 100s on the market as far as I REALLY know ) which has a double barrel name , one of which reminds me of ZOOM , the other of TACKY , seemingly owned by only one person in the entire universe , who happens to have a name which reminds me of FAULTY :-)
Kenny
--------------------
If everyone is thinking the same thing , no-one is thinking - General George S.Patton
Zeiss 7 x 42 BGAT
Captain's Helmsman 7 x 50
Nikon 10 x 42 Superior E
Swift Audubon Kestrel 10 x 50
Helios 15 x 70 Observation
Strathspey 20 x 90
Televue 76 APO
Zeiss 85 Diascope
Helios 102 f5 refractor
Various eyepieces barlows tripods mounts etc.
Panasonic Lumix DMC - TZ5 digital camera
|
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
|
My name is Daniel Thralow. I founded Zhumell. A customer emailed me a copy of this exchange about our brand and products. I am not a regular on Cloudy Nights. In fact I just created this account to specifically address this string.
First the names… Zhumell simply comes from the French word for binoculars “Jumelles”. However, in the early days customers were pronouncing the name with a “j” like in jelly. Rather than try to education every non-French speaking person to proper French pronunciation we decided to change the spelling to a phonetic version of English. There where other benefits to this new spelling and name as well. (For example the domain was available and I kind of like being at the very end of the alphabetical listing of a list of binocular brands.) Now that you know the inner workings of the corporate mind… have it about our brand name. I do appreciate the humor.
While German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld is credited with the first theoretical description of tachyons, I first learned of tachyons from Star Trek. Since I tend to have a, perhaps irrational, positive feeling toward anything from Star Trek the word seemed cool. Again, the inner workings revealed. Please don’t tell our competitors.
Along with the previous post we have many, many satisfied customers of the 25x100 tachyon. We do not purport it to be the quality of $12,000 Miyauchi. But I think the Tachyon is easily the best value of the money.
I do not know if this violates the rules of this forum but, if anyone reading this string wants to try the Tachyon for themselves they can me a call 218-728-7953 and ask for me. My Zhumell will pay the shipping cost to get you a Tachyon. If you are not happy Zhumell will pay the shipping cost back. You will have to pay $345 for the binoculars and the $345 will be refunded if the binoculars are returned. You will have to mention the “Cloudy Night String” to get this privilege. You will be able to try the binoculars risk free for 10 days that should be long enough review them or even decide if you want to keep them. I reserve the right to refuse any person who I think might be abusing this offer or to end this offer at anytime.
|
Glassthrower
Vendor - Galactic Stone & Ironworks
Reged: 04/07/05
Posts: 14703
Loc: Hurricane Alley
|
|
Hi Daniel and Welcome to CN.
I'm not entirely sure about the rules of the forum concerning vendors, but I think your post may be moderated or moved to the vendor's forum.
To respond :
Please don't take anything we said in this thread as being negative towards Zhumell. We are quite prone to silliness on occasion and the whole thing about the "smell" associations was just that - inane chatter. Thank you for clearing up the mystery surrounding the name. I had even gone to your website looking for some clue about the origin or meaning of the name.
What started this whole discussion was the fact that I had a hard time finding any reviews or information regarding the Tachyon binoculars. I wrote an article some time back (linked in this thread) about the buyer's market for 100mm binoculars, and while researching the article I came across the Zhumell Tachyon bino. I was impressed by some of the features that are usually present only in higher-end binos (the 25 year warranty, the hard carrying case, etc). And I was also intrigued about the use of Bk-7 prisms, which is out of the ordinary compared to other binos in that class. The usage of those prisms started a different discussion about the virtues of Bak-4 vs Bk-7 prisms.
Your offer is generous and I am sure someone here will take you up on it. I look forward to reading some first-hand reviews of the Tachyons and perhaps owning a pair in the future.
MikeG
--------------------
Michael Gilmer - Member of the Meteoritical Society & Collector of Falling Stars.
Galactic Stone & Ironworks - Buy/Sell/Trade Meteorites, Moon Rocks, Mars Rocks, & 35 different falls and types!
|
refractory
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 02/05/05
Posts: 1016
|
|
Hello Daniel- I was a newbie here myself a few months ago. Its a fun spot for the bino bugged. Please don't mind my own "inane chatter"- too many years of studying sound/meaning associations have left largish vacuoles in what used to be my brain. And the "smell" association could just as easily be "smile".
Since you're into Trekkie? Trekker? associations maybe you could pretty please name your next product The Transporter?
Lots of nifty cognitive associations there, all positive. And when you do, put in a sound card so that when you focus you get that neat noise the transporter made in the show.
We joke about smells and textures, but nobody has thought about the sound angle- heck, it IS a light show we're after, isn't it? Why not have music and such? Combination binocular and MP3?
Jess Tauber
|
Joad
Wordsmith
Reged: 03/22/05
Posts: 11923
|
|
Hi Zhumell, welcome to Cloudy Nights. You've already given us a linguistic lesson and a fascinating background in corporate naming. Sounds like you've got some nice binoculars there too. Generally it's best to get to business, though, on the Vendor's Forum. In fact, you'd be more likely to find customers if you were to post the information in your last paragraph here on the Vendor's Forum instead. But by all means don't hesitate to join in all the discussions. We can learn a lot from you.
|
EdZ
Professor EdZ
Reged: 02/15/02
Posts: 12601
Loc: Cumberland, R I , USA42N71.4W
|
|
Quote:
Generally it's best to get to business, though, on the Vendor's Forum. In fact, you'd be more likely to find customers if you were to post the information in your last paragraph here on the Vendor's Forum instead. But by all means don't hesitate to join in all the discussions.
This is correct. While we welcome vendor participation in the discussion forums, we do not permit vendor advertising in the discussion forums. So that last bit would be more appropriate in the Vendor Forum. You can answer any and all questions about your products here in the discussion forums.
edz
--------------------
Teach a kid something today. The feeling you'll get is one of life's greatest rewards.
member#21
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit
Reply
Quote
