Excelsis - Display Vote

Orion Vista 8x42

Bought a pair of these about 18 months back, for birding. The view is sharp and bright, much better than my old 7x50's. My wife loves the close focus for checking out critters on our bird feeders. Unfortunately, they have developed an annoying problem with slop in the central focus. The way this shows up is... if you focus it correctly for each eye, then bump one or other eyepiece, that eyepiece goes out of focus. This can probably be fixed by use of special tools, which i do not have. Other than this i would give these binocs a 9-10.
Bob

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date: 04/06/2001 01:39:19 am PST
By: Anonymous (xxx.xxx.231.1)
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=41840

This is an update (3/11/05) to my previous posting re the Vistas with the sloppy focuser movement. A few weeks back, my wife lent my Vistas to a friend, who then took them for an accidental swim in Seattle's Lake Union. They were returned to me half full of water, with a brief apology. I considered junking them, and replacing with a higher priced pair, but decided instead to return them to Orion for a cleanup. Just got them back yesterday.
WOW! ORION CAME THROUGH!
The eye and field lenses have been cleaned up to look like new - no smears or stains. I have not looked inside to check the prisms, but i can attest that the performance is once again top-notch - IMO the equal of my wife's Eagle Optics Rangers, but with better off-axis sharpness and less false colour (although the Vistas are *still* not waterproof =:O
Incidentally, the Orion technician also managed to tighten up the focuser slop, to the point that it is no longer noticeable.
Thanks Orion for a great job!
Bob Bennett, Maple Vly, WA

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