Pentax binoculars

[ghostlymoron]

I have a pair of Pentax compact binoculars not much use on my boat but excellent for cricket matches, casual birding etc. Now I don't remember bashing them but they seem to be out of kilter, it's not possible to get the images to align. They were relatively cheap <£50 I think. Would it be worth getting them serviced or are they for the scrap heap?

 

[davidej]

I had a £150 pair of binos and found that it would cost nearly £100 to get the prisms re-aligned.

Bin , I think.

 

[neilf39]

If you don't mind the chance of wrecking them if you get it wrong then you may may be able to do it yourself. I had a pair of Pentax binos that were out of alignment. I peeled back the outer plastic textured covering and discovered the adjustment screws for the prisms. After a bit of trial and error I got the images aligned fine and managed to stick back the covering more or less as it was. I adjusted each screw whilst looking through to see what happened as I did so worked out if it was getting better or worse... That supposes you have adjustment screws hidden. Cheap ones may not.

 

[Norman_E]

Probably going to cost too much to get them fixed. If the images won't align it is most likely that the internal prism on one side has moved. If they are anything like my Nikon compacts there does not seem to be any way of opening them up to look. Actually I find the 8x25 Nikon compact awkward to use and the image quality worse that an old pair of East German Zeiss 8x30's that I have.

 

[Praxinoscope]

Not all binoculars use prism adjustment for alignment, on some the objective of one of the oculars is in a concentric fixing and by rotating this the alignment can be re adjusted.
Ideally adjustment is fine on an optical collimator, but by fixing the binoculars securely on to something such as a tripod and then focussing on something like a telegraph pole or similar object at a good distance it is just possible to do your own re-alignment.

 

[[70521]]

I have just dropped an email to member here @actionoptics about repairing some Nikon binoculars

His web site is Home Page

 

[ghostlymoron]

I had a £150 pair of binos and found that it would cost nearly £100 to get the prisms re-aligned.

Bin , I think.

I see things rather differently. If the repair price is less than the replacement, I'll repair. Better for the environment as well - I hate throwing stuff away.

 

[ghostlymoron]

Thanks all, I'll contact Actionoptics.

 

[MikeCC]

I can vouch for Richard at Action Optics as well. I can't say if repair will be economic but worth dropping him a note to find out.

 

[dutyhog]

I did exactly the same as Neil when my wife’s Pentax had the same fault several years ago. I actually decided to cannibalize to make a monocular but found the adjustment hidden under the rubber. Realignment was very easy. They are fine now.

 

[LadyInBed]

focussing on something like a telegraph pole or similar object at a good distance it is just possible to do your own re-alignment.

I used a Star.

 

[Praxinoscope]

I used a Star.

Benedict Cumberbatch? He's sort of tall and thin like a telegraph pole.