Association Forum - CL score, a pair of Steiner 7x50 marine binoculars

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

Notice:
The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

CL score, a pair of Steiner 7x50 marine binoculars

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

Member Avatar

USA
4479 Posts

Initially Posted - 02/10/2013 : 12:00:07

I was browsing on one of the other forums I belong to, and a guy had a pair of Steiner 8x30 Marine binoculars for $150 for sale. Actually two pairs. I was interested, but really wanted a pair of 7x50 for the larger light gathering ability. My old Tasco pair of 7x50's have gone out of alignment, and the rubber grip covers are pealing off, so it was time for a new pair. I took a look through CL & found a pawn shop in Tukwila, which is about seven miles from my marina, that had a pair of the Steiner 7x50 Marine binoculars for $150. I also searched back & noticed they'd had the ad up for a few weeks, so maybe they were willing to work with me on the price. I stopped by after spinning the boat around (another thread), and took a look at them. Not a scratch on them, except for a tiny scratch on one of the front lenses. They had the case, straps, manual and even the cleaning cloth, almost like they'd never been used. I offered them $120 cash expecting a bit of dickering. The lady went back & checked with her manager and said that was as low as they'd go, but it'd be $150 OTD (no tax), so I said "deal".

I got them home & took a closer look at the "scratch" on the lens. It turned out to be some sort of goo that smeared when I wiped it with a cloth, like that really sticky stuff they use to glue pallets of stuff together, but still comes apart relatively easily.

The cheapest I've been able to find them online is around $300 before tax & shipping, so I'm pretty happy with the price.

David
C-250 Mainsheet Editor

Sirius Lepak
1997 C-250 WK TR #271 --Seattle area Port Captain --

Edited by - delliottg on 02/10/2013 12:23:41

britinusa
Web Editor

Members Avatar

USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 02/10/2013 : 13:33:06

Cool! You have to love the discounts like that.

Paul

Edited by - on

Voyager
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
5378 Posts

Response Posted - 02/10/2013 : 18:19:43

Congratulations. Nice deal.
I realize they must be really good binocs, however, I am not a connoisseur of them. I have a Fujinon 8 x 23 pair I got during a trade show that do the job just fine - far as I can tell.
I assume the 8 indicates the magnification power and 23 describes the size of the objective lenses, and the corresponding light gathering capability, presumably to improve resolving power in lower light conditions.
It's got an eyepiece adjustment gizmo with 16 steps.

No idea whether it is a good set or a piece of crap, but they seem to work (aside from making me extremely dizzy when I use them!

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

Members Avatar

USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 02/10/2013 : 21:37:28

The magnification is the leading number, so mine are 7 power, and yours are 8 power, meaning they magnify the image 7 or 8 times. The trailing number is the size of the lens in millimeters. Mine has 50mm lenses, while yours have 23mm front lenses.

In general for boat use, a somewhat lower power with greater light gathering capability (larger lenses) is considered, "good". Too much magnification makes the resultant view jumpier, and a smaller set of lenses collects less light, so they'd be better suited for high light situation where there's not much movement. This could explain your headaches. This can be mitigated by image stabilization, but this adds enormous cost to the binoculars, and requires batteries.

The reason I wasn't so interested in the 8x30 Steiners was exactly because of what I've outlined above. More magnification with smaller lenses makes them more difficult to use on a boat.

Fujinon makes pretty good binoculars so unless they're out of adjustment, they shouldn't make you dizzy. However, if you're trying to use them on the boat, the movement might be what's causing it.

Edited by - on

Voyager
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
5378 Posts

Response Posted - 02/13/2013 : 19:40:02

Thanks David
Yes I've used them out hiking spotting birds and such, and no problem with the dizziness. Good image clarity and little "rainbow" effect (chromatic aberration).
I find on the boat I might try to track a moving object like a boat or a plane and that's when I get the discomfort.
Like the old joke goes "Doc it only hurts when I do this" Doctor says, "So don't do that and it won't hurt!"

Edited by - on

britinusa
Web Editor

Members Avatar

USA
5404 Posts

Response Posted - 02/14/2013 : 03:40:16

And just in case anyone doesn't know.
When using binocs at night, look slightly off center from the object in view.
The eye's monochrome things are around the edge of normal vision and hence faint images are seen clearer off center.

(There's a technical description of it somewhere)
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Central vision is relatively weak at night or in the dark, when the lack of color cues and lighting makes cone cells far less useful. Rod cells, which are concentrated further away from the retina, operate better than cone cells in low light. This makes peripheral vision useful for seeing movement at night. In fact, pilots are taught to use peripheral vision to scan for aircraft at night<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Paul

Edited by - on

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.