Well we all would liketo go for the branded ones but how about trying a chinese copycat bin.
Anyone having any experience with chinese binoculars.
Well we all would liketo go for the branded ones but how about trying a chinese copycat bin.
Syed,
Since several years the big japanese brands like Nikon, Pentax, Minolta, and more produce their low and midpriced binoculars in China. Chinese binoculars are very high value for the money today, the best of them is rivalling the best japanese and europan brands.
But there is still a lack in the quality control, if your are lucky you will get an excellent example. If you are unlucky you will get a worse example.
There are companies who sell chinese binoculars and have their own quality control, however. As you will notice of the design, the most of them are from the same fabric in China.
Here are two of them, both of them well reknowned:
http://www.oberwerk.com
http://www.garrettoptical.com/
Regards, Patric
Hi Syed,
A convenience store just around the corner had some big Chinese 10x50 porro's.
Just out of curiosity I had a look through them, and within a minute I plunked down € 60 and took them home. Must have been the fastest purchase of any pair of bins in my life, but the views I got made me want to own them.
It's been 25 years since my last pair of porro's, always had roofs, but I immediately liked the feel of the big, clunky Chinese beast, and the images I got were the best I've ever seen. Note that I recently sold my Zeiss 7x42 FL's, after 20 months of trying but only scarcely finding a truly relaxed view I gave up on them. The Chinese porro's instantly gave a fine relaxed view, and after nearly two months they still do; my eyes seem to have found their state of Nirvana, in fact the view reminded me of the Nikon Venturer 10x42 I once looked through a decade ago. Should have bought it then, because the LXL's don't give me that relaxed view. I wonder if the former Venturer and these Chinese porro's share something no longer to be found in modern binoculars: lead containing glass. Could the lead in the glass be responsible for that relaxed view?
Anyway, as good as the views were, the other features of the Chinabeast were somewhat of a disappointment; close focus is no less than 8 metres, it's not waterproof though a tight fitting rainguard is provided as well as tethered objective covers. Though useless, these covers are perfectly made, fitting snugly inside the objectives' rims. Way better than the covers of the FL's. Another anomaly are two diopter settings on both the oculars. Finetuning is very easy this way. The only other pair of bins I know of to have two diopter settings is the new Steiner. Focussing is firm but smooth, and without slack, the focus wheel being centrally placed on the hinge, a small distance away from the eyepiece end which allows for focussing under the rim of a baseball cap, if it's raining. The broad housing forces me to focus with the tip of my left middle finger, my right hand holding the bins near the objectives. It's surprisingly steady for a 10x, probably due to the weight of 985 grams. That's another issue that I'm currently trying to tackle, to make some sort of comfortable strap arrangement. The strap provided was way too thin so I changed that for an OpTech comfort strap.
The Chinese porro's outperform my 10x42 Bynolyt roofs in every aspect, optically. Strange, but true. After nearly two months of using them the view amazes me every time when I'm out birding. There is a threaded tripod attachment on the far side of the hinge, I've got to have a tripod adapter to mount them and use them for raptor watching. The FOV is 6.6 degrees, as it states on the bins, and it shows; a nice, wide image, sharp to the edge, but sharpest in the center. Depth of field is spectacular, way better than my 10x roofs; from 10 to 100 metres sharp requires only a minor movement of the focus. The possibility to focus past infinity is gross, nearly a full turn of the focus wheel. I would have liked that to be less in favour of a better close focus, but now I can see without my glasses even beyond infinity.
The coatings on the eyepieces are blue, on the objectives pale green. I've only cleaned them a few times, and they seem scratch resistant.
The brand is Xinxinxin, or Gingingin, written on the left in a rather awkward style so I'm not certain I have that right. I tried to Google the brand name, but the nearest I came was a " JAXY binoculars " website; searching there I did not find my 10x50's but to my surprise DID find a spitting image in the form of a 8x40.
I had one hit with Gingingin 10x50 on a Norwegian forum. I couldn't understand a thing so that appeared to be a dead end. It's a pity, because I wanted to have more info on the stated "long eye relief " written under the brand name on the bins.
To conclude, I can only say these chunky bins are a joy to own, for a mere 60 euro's.
The bag that came with them is an unpadded, soft, tight, and not very trustworthy item.
I suppose that is fair for the amount I payed. But the peculiar thing is, I now have a 60 euro bin on a 30 euro strap.
My original intent to get me a Canon Image Stabilized pair of binoculars is completely out the window, well, until next year at least. I'm just glad that I finally found a pair of bins my eyes are comfortable with.
Regards, Ronald