Over the last couple of days, my PM box has been buzzing from different folks with questions about my remarks about the winged eye shields of the Kruger Caldera.
This all brought to mind an accessory from an outfit called Field Optics Research. I really don't recall where I first heard about these, although they have been discussed here some, and that may well have been it.
http://www.fieldopticsresearch.com/
They advertise shields for birders and another section for hunters. I ordered one of each and guess what...there is no difference!
This is a handy little gadget I like a lot. But if you have to wear glasses with your binoculars, this won't interest you very much. Yo get them in compact, lar and spotting scope sizes. They consist of a rubber ring with a large rubber flap moldeds as part of the accessory on one side of the ring. I extend the eye cup and stretch the ring over the eye cup and place it on the barrel below the eye cup. You could put it over the eye cup, but the rainguard then won't fit. I leave the guard on as a more or less permanent arrangement. They can be folded down when not needed, and then the rainguard fits too.
They come packed in a nice metal box that makes a nice knick knack holder and is something a little different in this day and age of plastic stuff. You will find there is a limit to stretching these and as you can see in the pictures, one is obviously torn through the ring. This won't be a problem as long as you use the right size for the right application. The one I tore is a compact size, I was trying to put on a Vortex Razor HD. The regular size was a bit loose on the Razor and I thought I'd see if the compact size would work. You see the result. I've had the proper sized ones on and off several times, and other than being ham handed once, I have had no problems. The spotter size is frankly too small for the ZEN ED 2 20-60x 82 scope I have.
Bottom line is these things work. They will come to adorn every binocular I use regularly. The two most used are my ZEN ED 2 7x36, and the Kruger Caldera 8x42, with the ZEN ED 2 10x43 next.
OK, I lost internet conncetion during the last post so here are some more pictures. You can see where I cut off the winged shield that came on the Kruger. The top segment of the Kruger eye cup spins around to allow placement of the Kruger shield. It movestoo easily and it was a pain for me to use, so here we are with a FOR eyeshield.
Steve:
I agree with you, and I also like these eye shields. I have both sizes like you mention.
There was an earlier post on these, when they first came out. I also don't wear glasses,
so that is the best way to use them. Well designed and as your picture shows, they
flip down to put the rainguard on.
Jerry