zlotmachinskyr's Full Review: Zeiss DesignSelection B T* 522050 Monocular
Unless a person has low vision problems, such as macular degeneration, this lovely 4x12 instrument may be easily overlooked. But it should not be overlooked as the 4x magnification is ideal for theater, opera, street performances and museum exhibits. The sharpness and brightness are absolutely spot-on. But BEST of ALL is a remarkable close focusing distance of just one foot which proves priceless again and again for reading and also viewing museum objects in protective display cases. I have verified that this device uses prisms to achieve it's diminutive size by checking the Zeiss web site.
Exit pupil for the light is a very respectable 3 mm. And it is possible to have larger exit pupils at the eyepiece of any monocular but anything larger than the user's pupil is a waste. Five mm diameter exit pupil would probably be the upper practical limit for most monoculars and binoculars as well, if such was desired.
This optical device comes with: a multilanguage user manual; A user transferable lifetime warranty from Zeiss USA; permanently attached to the lens barrel on its underside is a flat woven nylon ribbon neck-strap with elegant silver and blue stripes; and a leather case sporting a nylon zipper. The Zeiss supplied leather case also has a chrome plated metal grommet which allows the permanently attached nylon strap to be fed through from the inside to the outside of the leather case so then the protective leather case can be left permanently attached to the cord.
I placed a black spherical plastic spring-loaded toggle over the nylon strap and then put a few heavy nylon stitches through the end of the folded nylon neck strap. My nylon stitches keep the lowly toggle from slipping off. The toggle keeps the leather case from getting separated from the neck strap and lost, unless you happen to lose the whole works. My own supplied toggle also allows the wearer of this monocular to quickly adjust the length of the attached neck strap. Toggles are available from outdoor recreation equipment specialists like REI, EMS, LL Bean... to name a few and are usable on a variety products limited only by one's imagination.
Gadzooks could my nylon thread penetrating the end of the folded neck ribbon void the user transferable lifetime warranty? I hope not! But you never know, maybe so. My stitches are removable and therefore reversible so "me think" technically doesn't violate the warranty.
But then I'm not paranoid. Besides just because one is paranoid DOES NOT MEAN THAT THEY ARE NOT AFTER YOU!
Given as a gift to my beloved auntie but lost on the first outing at the downtown philharmonic Sunday matinee. A check at the lost and found record book indicated no attempt to return this prize to it's rightful owner but it had no identification and the serial number is only on the box to my knowledge. So we deserved loosing it in a way, because this is really a personal optic for the owner and should not be shared least it suffer loss just like the first copy of this very wonderful visual aid.
Our second version now sports a Brother Laminated label with the owner's name, address and phone number as well inside the leather case. Guess we should put another label inside saying "REWARD FOR RETURN". That often works.
Focus is push-pull, but twisting is often needed to assist the chronologically gifted in starting the push pull action. The optics have Zeiss T* coating which gives the glass optics a ruby like glow to it. The rubber eyecup is very supple black rubber but needs to be rolled down to provide maximum viewing area with eyeglasses. Too bad the viewing end is not more like a high eyepoint viewfinder specifically allowing the user to view the entire field with glasses on and eyecup still up. When the eyecup is rolled down, and it is not easy to roll down, the focusing ring and the viewing end look very similar and may cause user confusion for those with low vision problems.
So You guessed it, I put a ring of white pin stripe tape around the focusing bezel at the end opposite the eyepiece. The body of this monocular is made of two tone plastic. Dark gray and black. The gray lens barrel is embossed with Zeiss' stylized Letter Z to provide gripping texture and the focusing ring has large alternating ridges to aid push pull twist focusing.
The Zeiss logo is proudly Emblazoned on a shield on the top middle of the lens barrel. I bet they would charge $20 for a replacement Zeiss shield if the one in place ever flaked off. Perhaps the Zeiss shield is actually embossed on the lens barrel so as to never fall off, instead just wear off. Focusing is super smooth for a plastic bodied instrument but clearly well engineered. No focus binding was noted and the focus does not creep due to gravity either, probably because it is so light weight to start with.
Note: that the instruction manual made no mention of this device being water resistant or water proof. So keep it dry please.
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