After borrowing back the old Leitz 7x35 Trinovids I gave my hunting buddy's son a long time ago because they were too expensive to repair, I wondered if there were other options other than Leica for cleaning and repairing these great old bins.
Back in 1994 after twenty years of use, I realized I could no longer live with my favorite old bins, they had noticeable black specks inside the lenses, they were out of colimation and generally fuzzy. I sent them back to Leica USA for a repair estimate. The estimate came in at $410.00, this was when you could by a brand new pair of Leica Trinovid BAs for around $600.00 and the new pentax DCF roofs for $350.00. I ended up not repairing the old Trinovids and bought a new pair of 8x42 Pentax DCFs.
I used those Pentax for the last 14 years but never liked them near as much as the old Trinovids. I recently upgraded (a lot), 8x42 Ultravid, 10x42 Nikon SE and 8x32 Trinovid BN, but after using those old Leitz I'm wondering if I give the kid a new pair of bins that would blow him away and keep the 7x35s, could they be fixed for a reasonable amount. I remember reading about some guy who specializes in repairing Swifts at his house, could he or somebody else work on these old Trinovids?
Hello John,
A PM is on the way.
Happy bird watching,
Arthur
John,
Look at this link. Go to Item 6.
http://company7.com/accused.html
There is a used Leitz 7 x 42 Trinovid listed that was sold a couple of years ago. Note how much it cost to refurbish it. If you are willing to spend that kind of money, you might as well keep yours. I contacted Leica by phone to discuss cleaning my 7 x 42 Leitz. They estimated it would cost $250.00. They also could not guarantee that they would have any replacement parts if needed.
By the way, this is a very interesting optics website.
Bob