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We are enjoying our mountain living in part with help of our frequently used binoculars. We have the Nikon 12x50 Fieldmaster, work perfect for us. Something happened and the barrels got badly out of alignment so they are unusable. I was wondering if we should have it repaired, what cost, and whre? Or, get new binoculars, in that case what is the nowadays replacement for the Fieldmaster? Any other recomendations?
I don't know what the replacement is, nor where to get them fixed (might get an address and at least send them to Nikon service, as they may replace of repair with a cost estimate).
I do wish I had purchased the Bushnell binoculars with the built-in digital camera that I saw at Sam's last December for around $150. May have not been the best optics, but have thought of several times where a close-up photo of what I was viewing in the binocs would have been great to have digitized. I don't remember much of the details, but 8X rings a bell.
I had a Meade brand binos with camera and they were great, BUT GOT BROKE & purchased a cheaper brand that does pretty good/not as good a Meade! Sundays Target ad had a sale on a Busnell>>>>Wait a minute, BIG QUESTION! Have YOU ever seen something in paper & go back the next day & can't find it! Well walked over to check sale paper & can't find AD! Must have been my imagination! Never mind! Sorry to have mentioned it!
roho, You too may be a victim of CRS. Meade has some good optics for the price. Nicon is hard to top.
I'd sure try to get a repair estimate on the Nicons before I bought a repacement. My father-in-law, among other things, was a physicist specializing in optics. He worked with Von Braun at the cape and at JPL designed the stereo cameras on the first soft lunar lander that checked out landing places for the Apollo missions. He taught me a lot about optics in general and much about binocs.
He had a pair of Navy issue night glasses that were beyond his ability to repair... The left and right tubes were not parallel and were too far out to adjust... so he gave them to me. I took them apart and used them as two separate monoculars. Together they were an instant eyestrain and headache but individually they were great. I kept one in the cockpit of our sailboat and the other below decks as a back up.
If your binocs were dropped on a hard surface or jarred excessively it is possible that a prism shifted which can give the same effect as if the tubes aren't parallel. In any case, those are GOOD optics and the cost of repair could be well worth it and less than a replacement of equal qualilty.
12X requires an unusually steady hand or something to rest against. I have been thinking about getting a set with IS (Image Stabilization) With IS you can use 10-12 power from moving platforms like planes, trains, and airplanes (or boats) OR my hands when there isn't anything to lean against!
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Nikon is pretty good glass. Decent quality for the money. I used their spotting scope on a sheep hunt in Alaska once. Much better then my Redfield.
Couldn't tell you what Nikon service is like, but Swarovski has fixed and repaired every mine, and my friends for the cost of shipping. They have even cleaned and put new coatings on the lenses without charging anything for this.
Redfield fixed a foged up scope for me at no cost also. Just contact them, tell them the problem and get an authoraztion code to ship it in.
I'd hope Nikon has similar service standards.
Eddie