12 replies to this topic

[Stacy]

The man, the myth, the legend. And apparently quite modest.

 

Sending the BT-100 45's to him to clean/collimate. So excited to get these things dialed in.

 

He has a three year backlog, but said potentially a 90 day turnaround*

 

* If I bug him enough?

[Mark Y.]

Good luck...You have a nice bino there.

[Stacy]

Good luck...You have a nice bino there.

Thanks Mark! Wish I still owned them. I sold them to my boss about 10 years ago so he can watch the ferry come and go from the Edmonds dock. $800

 

But I still get to use them whenever I want. win/win 

[Doug Culbertson]

I’m glad to hear that he’s still around. He cleaned and collimated an antique Navy binocular that my wife inherited probably 20 years ago. Back then turnaround was more like three weeks. 

[Stacy]

I’m glad to hear that he’s still around. He cleaned and collimated an antique Navy binocular that my wife inherited probably 20 years ago. Back then turnaround was more like three weeks. 

You and me both! I have heard so much about his quality of work, I was happy to see he's still accepting new projects. What will the world do when he retires? 

 

Oberwerk recommends him on their site for all out-of-warranty repairs/service. So excited to see the results of his skilled hands. 

[Rich V.]

You and me both! I have heard so much about his quality of work, I was happy to see he's still accepting new projects. What will the world do when he retires? 

 

Oberwerk recommends him on their site for all out-of-warranty repairs/service. So excited to see the results of his skilled hands. 

Cory's son Eric has learned the ropes from him over the years, so SOR can continue to carry on a family tradition.  

[LoveWillSteerTheStars]

3 years for Big Eye type projects, or everything?

[Terra Nova]

The man, the myth, the legend. And apparently quite modest.

 

Sending the BT-100 45's to him to clean/collimate. So excited to get these things dialed in.

 

He has a three year backlog, but said potentially a 90 day turnaround*

 

* If I bug him enough?

He’s not cheap but real quality seldom is, and is also worth waiting for. SOR did a wonderful job for me in cleaning and collimating a couple of my binoculars. Satisfaction guaranteed! And communication was directly with Cory, very personable.

[Stacy]

3 years for Big Eye type projects, or everything?

I am guessing that would be everything. Must be a lot of binos around his place.

[B 26354]

He’s not cheap but real quality seldom is, and is also worth waiting for. SOR did a wonderful job for me in cleaning and collimating a couple of my binoculars. Satisfaction guaranteed! And communication was directly with Cory, very personable.

 

I am guessing that would be everything. Must be a lot of binos around his place.

I completely concur with Terra.

 

Last fall, my APM MS 20x70 EDs arrived from APM Germany very, very slightly out of collimation. Being reluctant to risk making things worse -- or somehow compromising their nitrogen filling or water-proofing seals, by attempting to adjust them myself -- I e-mailed Suddarth Optical Repair, and after a few e-mail exchanges, regarding further questions that I had, I sent them off... first putting them in a solidly-protective Pelican case that I had customized with Kaizen foam, and then double-boxing them for shipment.

 

Cory's estimate for return was approximately twelve weeks, but I'd explained that I did not need to have the binoculars repaired and returned to me "asap"... and that I was only interested in having it done well, regardless of how long it might take.

 

Remarkably, four days after his receiving them, I got an e-mail from him, saying that "This APM greatly resembles the Takahashi in its internal structure and collimation mechanism. Nice!"... and that they were ready for shipment back to me! In a subsequent phone conversation, he explained that he had several very involved, "long-term" repair/restorations on his schedule, and that since mine was such a relatively straightforward collimation-only project, he had been able to quickly squeeze it in, before tying up his equipment with the more complicated ones.

 

For the return shipment, he used the same packing-boxes that I'd shipped them in, and they arrived safe and sound, with no apparent damage to the shipping boxes at all. That afternoon, I was able to utilize some star-like sun-reflections from a distant power-line's insulators to confirm that his absolutely perfect job of collimation had survived the return journey... with further confirmation of the same, later that night, on actual stars.

 

During the entire time that this transaction took place, every time that I called SOR, it was Cory himself who answered the phone. As we all have experienced, business dealings are often extremely impersonal... but dealing with Cory was like talking to an old friend, and our communications were replete with genuine, easy comfort and light-heartedness.

 

As so many others have done, I can sincerely say that for anyone in need of the kinds of services that he offers, Suddarth Optical Repair should always be the first name on the list.

 

[Rich V.]

Last fall, my APM MS 20x70 EDs arrived from APM Germany very, very slightly out of collimation. Being reluctant to risk making things worse -- or somehow compromising their nitrogen filling or water-proofing seals, by attempting to adjust them myself -- I e-mailed Suddarth Optical Repair, and after a few e-mail exchanges, regarding further questions that I had, I sent them off... 

 

It's too bad that some new, higher priced binos like the MS can stillturn up showing some mis-collimation.  However, even over 20 years ago now, my new to me then 16x70 Fuji FMTs weren't immune to this.  Cory collimated my FMTs and extended the + focus range so I could view without my contact lenses, when necessary.  Not enough +D to get me infinity focus.  The FMT's short ER didn't work at all for me with eyeglasses.  Cory even blackened the edges of the optical components while he had the FMTs apart at the shop.  You've got to love the personalized service he can give you.

 

My 16x70 MS EDs, as received, had divergent, non-concentric FOVs even though they showed merged images.  I didn't like the "figure eight" effect, but played around with the tilt screws to see what could be done to make the fields concentric.  I improved that to some degree but of course, conditional alignment was the result and I knew Cory was the guy to take a look at them and make them as perfect as they could be.  He gave me a report on the internals, along with photos of the prism assys, eyepieces, etc.  I think it was the first MS ED he'd worked on (Jan '18) and he said the build quality impressed him.  These are his findings on the MS EDs as he related to me:

 

"Prisms are nicely light shielded AND edges painted. Edges are epoxied in 4 places and top strap is robust. Some folks dislike the spring loaded prism plate, I find it favorable for a couple reasons. First of all, it does absorb shock. Yeah, bad things happen to good binoculars. Two points are accessible thru access ports, the third adjuster is accessed internally and needed only to correct tilt range. The two ports let you adjust while watching motion thru the auxiliary scope. No blind adjustments! Nice! I personally prefer a socket head cap screw (Allen head) over the slotted brass screw heads, but that's just me. This set up is really nice to use as a trainer when teaching the Mark 5 collimation technique as it is much less frustrating than eccentric rings. After calculating position C, manipulating the optics to this new point is very straight forward.

 

I didn't tear into the eyepieces, but will suffice to say eye relief is generous. Chromatic is noted only on the edge of the field while examining white on black background, but is faint. Edge sharpness during daytime use is quite impressive".

 

Cory is a gem; he won't give you bad advice and does his finest work always.     I'm thinking Eric will fill his shoes well if Cory ever loses interest in being "The Binofixer".

 

Rich

[Scott99]

The 3 year backlog is for special projects, I've had a couple porros cleaned, collimated and re-greased and the turnaround has been a couple months at most.

[SMark]

I had a whole box of binos turned around in 4 months total, stretching over the holidays. I think the first two came back in less than 3 months. Worth waiting for regardless.