doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Binoculars

Where did you get your information regarding the Swarovski company actually being the Karl Kahles company? Everything I know of the two companys is that when it comes to optics, Kahles is the older of the two and as far as I know, Swarovski is the owner of Karl Kahles (rather recentley at that), but Kahles still maintains its own, completely seperate factory, etc. I have never heard or have I read that Swarovski is actually Karl Kahles. With all things considered Kahles would really just be a "branch of", but totally seperate of Swarovski Optik. If you can point me to where you found this info, it is very interesting and I would sure appreciate it!

http://www.opticstalk.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=280&PN=3

This is what I found.

LeFusil,

Sorry for the delay responding, had to look about a bit & still not positive. I had read that when researching, also rather recently, a vintage Karl Khales scope in a Stoeger's claw mount as shown in their 1926 catalogue. That is what the article said. I was not aware of the tie between Kahles & Swarvoski in any form before looking about on the web. Perhaps they got it wrong or didn't state the acquisition of the Khales company correctly. I THINK it was either from the link below or through it to some other ref, but it won't come up on my computer this morning, I get a message the page cannot be displayed or the page no longer exists. It was just a few weeks ago when I read it and I too thought it was interesting. I'm not positive about this being the link, I looked at number of Kahles related links, some foreign.

http://www.free-pagerank.info/Laser-Rifle-Scope-Development-Date/Khales-Rifle-Scopes.php

I read the link you attached and wish had found it when I was searching about, but did not. Always glad for getting the best & correct information to the table here.

Yeh, they have tendency to accumulate. My second pair is Zeiss 7x40BGA #G053143 (1989vintage) with FMC lenses, 7.5deg fov and 22mm eye relief and +/-7 diopter settings per ocular (no eye glasses necessary). I have used them very hard and had to replace both ocular and objective rubber cups with those scope "pop up" lens covers (they work great). The only useless thing is extra prism piece in right barrel with 2 different range-finding reticles. I was going to have it removed, but chose not to in order to preserve waterproofness of the piece. Once the seals are broken the inert gas escapes one gets fogging und mold growth.
The 7x42 are for social gatherings such as pony racing, und ball games while the 7x40s are purely for hunting (commandobubba all the way).

Good topic. I have a pair of Leitz Trinovid 8 x 20c very compact, nice for carrying. I got them from my father and sent them out for servicing--cleaning, etc as dad had used them fairly hard and they were a bit foggy. They came back only a little brighter. I am wondering if once they get into that condition (maybe from bringing them indoors after being out in the cold) if they can ever be restored to their original clarity.

I have a pair of Zeiss 6x42 Dialyts that I use on the water, small boat and kayak. Amazing clarity and brightness. They replaced my 20 year old Nikon 8x30DIF's for hunting several years back in spite of their size. As I mentioned I recently went to the Minox 6.5x32, almost as good as the Zeiss and half the size. Yesterday I compared the Minox to the Nikon's, which I now keep in my truck, and the Nikons were just terrible. Amazing, the technology improvements in 20 years, those Nikon were top shelf glass in 1987.

Gil, perhaps the coatings are worn off, that would cause them to fall off in clarity and cut back on light transmission.

For years I used those "lens pens" that leupold made popular but they just ground dirt into lenses and removed coatings. Now I use comp. air, then cleaner and a lens cloth.

Rob

Those "Marine" 6x42s with grey rubber and black eyepeices were quite cute, but I could never settle for 6x in full size glass. I did look at at 7x50BGATs certain Astronomy mag ad had special $599 on at that time, but just could not settle for that 13mm eye relief. Reeeejected. I also looked at Swarovski porros at the time, but their eye relief was PATHETIC just like that found in most of those old Habicht scopes. I never did go to that brand again and when time came to get couple scopes recently I went with Kahles instead.
PS. My thing with binos is long eye relief/wide FOV combo with exceptional edge of view sharpness. I am very vein in this respect and I actually examine them by looking at starlit sky for any peripheral distortions. Long relief/wide FOV means more complex Erfle eyepieces and always means big $$$.

By the way, just for you binocular fanatics, I found that the classiest most reasonable priced leather optics cases on the market is offered by Triple K Leather thru Cabelas. I have two of them and they are nice. I never understood why most high end optic companies who sell precision glass for thousands of dollars always include the cheeziest, el cheepo cases they can get their hands on.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templa...&hasJS=true

I can't hold anything higher than 6X still in a kayak so they fit the bill for that application.