I do not consider myself an equipment "junkie" but one of my habits has been to regularly scan the "Binoculars & telescopes" section of ebay just to see what is up for sale. At present most of the listings are for overpriced junk, but having a look at past sales gives some interesting results. So over the past two weeks we have seen sold............
8mm Ethos $600
Kowa TS-2 60mm spotting scope +case $175
Celestron Celestar 8 $268 (a thread was posted on this one)
Pentax J-60 classic vintage refractor $200.50 (I really liked this one)
Zeiss Jena Binoctem 7x 50 two pairs, both excellent $165 and $150
Canon IS 8x25 $190.
clearly there is some stuff out there offering good value.
By the 1980s Zeiss made about 1 million binoculars, even that number was not enough for the demand worldwide... a Japanese company started making 'knock-offs', lots of them... with some differences, and certainly of lesser quality, they have been mainly sold through eBay etc often from the UK....
Rumour has it that eventually Zeiss licenced the Japanese company to continue making them as Zeiss in DDR couldn't keep up with demand. The Japanese versions were sub-standard....
The real deal have 7 digit serial numbers, many of the 'fakes' only have 6 digit serials....
Recently counterfeit versions of other Zeiss binoculars are coming in from China...... some sold as cheap as $70 and if you read the fine print, some say "high quality imitation" .... you need a magnifying glass though...
BUT we digress, as John posted, there are certainly bargains to be had... even here on IIS classifieds some items go very cheaply.......... others, not so much !!
BUT we digress, as John posted, there are certainly bargains to be had... even here on IIS classifieds some items go very cheaply.......... others, not so much !!
Totally agree - and there truly are some "hopers" who are hoping someone will pay them near retail for their second hand items (or even worse, when they resell something you sold them for a LOT more than they paid, thinking it's increased in value)
I've bought some bargains on both eBay and Gumtree, often good prices are realised in eBay, I offered my low count 5DII on IIS for $500 and had only nibbles, sold on ebay for double that amount.
Re Zeiss binoculars...
I have a pair of Dekarem 10 x 50 (#1 Quality marked) Carl Zeiss Jena -DDR
and according to the serial (#3854821) built around 1967.
I won't embarrass anyone by saying what I paid for them.....
Re Zeiss binoculars...
I have a pair of Dekarem 10 x 50 (#1 Quality marked) Carl Zeiss Jena -DDR
and according to the serial (#3854821) built around 1967.
I won't embarrass anyone by saying what I paid for them.....
A friend of mine, who's a militaria fanatic, gave me 3 pair of German military issue WWII Zeiss 10x50.
Varying degrees of wear and condition.
I've tried using them for astronomy and terrestrial, but the separate eyepiece focusing for looking at anything, makes them effectively unusable for me, as I'm badly shortsighted in the right eye, and slightly long sighted and lazy eye in the left. So getting the 2 eyepieces in sharp focus on anything, every time I want to try to view anything in them, is a very prompt exercise in frustration.
Right now, I'm blowed if I know what I'll wind up doing to them.
AI've tried using them for astronomy and terrestrial, but the separate eyepiece focusing for looking at anything, makes them effectively unusable for me,
Separate or individual (IF) focusing is the best for astronomy use. Just set the eyepieces once and you don't need to change them unless your eyes change over time. Sure they are more difficult to use in daylight for objects of widely varying distances.
I suggest you try to focus them at night on a bright star cluster, covering each of the objectives in turn with a lens cap, and focusing the other.
You may be amazed at the results.
Separate or individual (IF) focusing is the best for astronomy use. Just set the eyepieces once and you don't need to change them unless your eyes change over time. Sure they are more difficult to use in daylight for objects of widely carrying distances.
I suggest you try to focus them at night on a bright star cluster, covering each of the objectives in turn with a lens cap, and focusing the other.
You may be amazed at the results.
Thanks very much for the suggestion.
Finding a bright star cluster is going to be difficult at best, as I live in a Bortle 8 area. This summer, I've watched the number of visible stars I can see from my ESE facing balcony, dwindle to a mere 4 over the course of sunset to about 11pm.
I'll give your suggestion a go, though, on what I can see, and try to get it to work, if the clouds will let up.
Just set the eyepieces once and you don't need to change them unless your eyes change over time.
I suggest you try to focus them at night on a bright star cluster, covering each of the objectives in turn with a lens cap, and focusing the other.
You may be amazed at the results.
I was able to put your advice to work with the clear skies this evening.
I used Sirius when I was setting the focus on the binocs.
Figured I'd add pics to this post, of the particular pair of binocs I've set up to use for astronomy.
