Telescope Reviews: Test of Docter Nobilem 8x56 B/GA

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: The famous Carl Zeiss Jena factory, after
unification of two parts of Germany, could not use Zeiss trademark
anymore. The factory was bought by Analytik Jena company, which now
continues making wide range of optical instruments among them we can
find Docter Nobilem binoculars. They are the Porro-prism binoculars with
50, 56 and 60 mm obiectives. In our test we had two models: 8x56 and
15x60.

All binoculars belonging to the Nobilem series are big and heavy
instruments equipped with large prisms. They contain two-elements
objective and 4 elements eyepiece (as shown in the Docter leaflet). All
air-to-glass surfaces are mulitcoated. The body is made of aluminium
with good quality rubber armour. The binoculars are waterproof and
are offered with both idiviual and central focusing. The buyer gets
30 years guarantee.

POLISH DISTRIBUTOR: Hubertus Pro Hunting,
ul. Ptasia 4a, 00-138 Warszawa, Poland
tel. (+48-22) 654-88-77, fax (+48-22) 654-88-78
http://www.hubertusprohunting.pl,
e-mail: hubertusprohunting@xl.wp.pl

PRIZE: 3300 plz = 825 USD (September 2003)

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MANUFACTURER'S DATA
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Magnifi-| Object. | Field of view | Type of | Eye | Weight |
cation | diameter| linear / angular | prisms | relief | [g] |
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8x | 56 mm | 110m/1000m (6.3 deg) | BaK-4/Porro | 17.5mm | 1350 |
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REAL OBJECTIVE DIAMETER: Right objective: 55.93 mm 8.0/8.0
Left objective: 55.95 mm
REAL MAGNIFICATION: 7.5 +\- 0.2 times 2.5/3.0
OPTICAL PERFORMANCE: 99% +\- 3% 15.0/15.0
CHROMATIC ABERRATION: Small in the center and at the egdes. 8.0/10.0
ASTIGMATISM: Not seen. Almost point-like images of the stars 8.8/10.0
DISTORTION: The first curved line is seen in 62.5% +\- 3.9% 7.0/10.0
distance from the center of the field of view.
COMA: Detectable at the edge of the field. 6.6/10.0
SHARPNESS: The image is sharp up to 89.2% +\- 1.7% from the center 8.0/10.0
of the field of view.
DARKENING AT THE EDGE OF FIELD: None. 4.6/5.0
WHITENESS OF THE IMAGE: Almost ideal! 4.7/5.0
COLLIMATION: Almost ideal. 4.7/5.0
INTERNAL REFLECTIONS: Small but detectable. 3.2/5.0
BODY QUALITY: Very good and heavy binocular. Body made of aluminium 6.4/8.0
with rubber armouring. The binocluar is quite handy.
Comfortable usage. Objective cups do not fit the
body well.
FOCUSING: Working smooth and well. Strongly pressing the eyepieces 4.1/5.0
one can slightly defocus the binocular. You need to have
long finger to reach central focusing knob.
TRIPOD: Tripod exit difficult to use and in untypical position. 2.0/3.0
EYEPIECES SPACING: 52.8 - 74.5 mm. 5.0/6.0
SHARP IMAGE SEEN STARTING FROM: 3.80 meter 2.0/2.0
EYEPIECES: Good quality 4-elements eyepieces with angular field of 4.0/10.0
view of 48 deg.
FIELD OF VIEW: Measured value is 6.38 +\- 0.02 deg was even slightly 7.0/8.0
larger than given by the manufacturer.
BLACKENING AND DUST INSIDE: No dust. Excellent blackening. Ideal! 5.0/5.0
VIGNETTING: Right eyepiece 0%, left eyepiece 0%. 8.0/8.0
PRISMS QUALITY: Very good. Darkening: left eyepiece 0%, 8.0/8.0
right eyepiece 0%.
ANTIREFLECTION COATINGS: Multicoated on all air-to-glass surfaces. 4.5/5.0
GUARANTEE: 30 years. 5.0/6.0

SUMMARY: The next binocular with almost no disadventages. The Analytik
Jena company continues good traditions of Carl Zeiss Jena and both
Nobilems are good examples of this continuation. Model 8x56 had
excellent optical performance, large field of view, small astigmatism
and chromatic abberation very low even at the edge of field. This low
aberration is especially worth to note because both Nobilems had
whitest and clearest image in which even small color artifacts are
visible.

Both Docters have huge Porro prisms which produce nice views with no
central vignetting and no darkening at the edge.

Buying the Docters we get 30 years guarantee.

There are only few small disadventages. Careful observer will find
coma, distortion and some blurring at the edge of field. The tripod
socket in placed near the left prism and it causes problems with
equilibrium of mounted bino.

Taking into account that both Docters are two times cheaper than
Swarovski SLC binoculars and only slightly worse, they are certainly
worth of buying!

FINAL RESULT: 3 place, 142.4 points from 170.0 (83.8%)

Edited by Arek (11/17/05 03:59 AM)

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