I have a pair of the older Bushnell 7x26 Custom Compacts that I've owned for 25 years or so. When they were new, I thought they were fantastic. I made the mistake of having them "cleaned" by a reputable camera store years ago. They had to go back two additional times because some moron kept screwing them up (loose barrels 1st time, deliberate fingerprint inside objective the 2nd). They never seemed right after that. And after owning 3 Swarovski binocs, and now a Leica and a Zeiss, they really pale as far as brightness.
I don't believe they were ever nitrogen purged and I assume the lack of "brightness" is due to the lack of coatings that my current models have. They still show a reasonable amount of detail but it's as if I'm looking thru a dull haze or something.
Just wondering if the "zip" can be restored or is this exactly how they were 25 years ago and they newer alphas are just that much better now? Thanks.
I never had the Custom Compacts, but I do have a Swarovski 8x30SLC neu and had use of an older slow focus Swaro 8.5x42 EL and compared these two to older binoculars I have and everytime I picked up the two Swaros it seemed like the "lights" were turned on when viewing. This was in the evening comparing towards dark on a rainy day. My Celestron 8x42 Regal LX was close behind these two Swarovski binoculars. I can't answer your question other than what I noticed. I have looked through older Custom Compacts and liked the view for what the binocular is, but never compared.
Regards,Steve
[QUOTE=tpcollins;1848387]
Just wondering if the "zip" can be restored or is this exactly how they were 25 years ago and they newer alphas are just that much better now? Thanks.[/QUOTE]
Hello TPcollins,
Age and a lousy cleaning will take a lot contrast and resolution from a bincoular. However, the coatings on those Leica and Zeiss binoculars have probably the best coatings available. Even if those Bushnells had multicoatings, they are way behind what the top brands have, today.
I think that even careful and competent cleaning and collimation may still leave that binocular looking dim, compared to to today's binoculars, even the mid-priced ones.
Happy bird watching,
Arthur Pinewood