Dear Forum
Please can I ask advice: I bought some binoculars for £4.00 second hand. they are an old pair the make is "Lieberman & Gortz". They are in good condition the lenses arent scratched or anything and there is no double vision. An acquaintance told me this make is a good make. Indeed they do look a solid set of binoculars. However when I look through them I am a little disappointed by what I see. The image is just a little dimmer than I would have hoped perhaps a little "misty" would perhaps be the best way to describe it.
I am therefore thinking it might be a good idea to have them refurbished. I am thinking perhaps these bins might have just got a little dust inside them and someone might be able to clean them inside for me.
On the other hand I am also thinking perhaps it would be a waste of money to pay for a refurb and there proved to be no resultant improvement. Can anyone help please - Ian
hi ian
i dont meen to be harsh but the bins you have are not as your friend says good quality, they were sold in department stores all over the place during the 70's and 80's for around £10 to £20 and are not worth refurbishing. i see them all the time at car boot sales for any thing from a pound up to £20!!! more than they cost new and the sellers are convinced that they are top quality!!!! i did find a vintage pair of nikon jb7 made japanese water proof 7x50's with individual focusing eye pieses of excelent quality for there day that would have cost over £100 back in the early 70's or two weeks avarage wages!... they were mint and i paid £15 for them
it could be they are cloudy because of mould or dust on the prisms/internal lenses but it's just as likely there not clear because of there poor quality, you dont say what magnification they are but if its around 15 or 20x with a 50mm objective that could be part of the reason there dim. most of the cheaper vintage boots, zenith, mark schefell, tasco(althogh a few old tascos are good) ranger and a load of others i cant recall now are pretty bad opticaly there were just as many bad bins back then as there are now unfortunatly, i think it would cost you at least £50 to get them cleaned
ps for £50 you could buy your self a pair of nikon action 7x35 porro's. i got some for my dad for his birthday to replace his cheap ruby coated orion optics 8x40's which were truly awfull, he bought them at a country fair also for £50... a shame because he thought they were good until i showed him what else he could have had for £50
the nikons were sharp, bright with a good wide fov and sharp centre image... he was very pleased with them and i must say i was impressed also for £50, which is why i bought them for him.
regards mark
Hi - thank you so much for this information. It is good to find out the truth even though tis not pleasant .
The bins are 7 X50 incidentally when I look down the bins "the wrong way" I can see dust and spots inside them.
Please do you think if I were to personally unscrew the bins and give the lens/prisms a careful clean before reassembling the bins it would likely improve them or is it likely I would ruin them
Your kind advice would be appreciated
Yours sincerely
Ian
ps The Nikon bins you mentioned - they sound good. What model did you say they are called precisely please