Most Worthless New-Age Product Feature: Bino's with Twist-Up Eyecups

Is there anything more worthless than twist-up eyecups on binoculars?

Today, I just returned my SECOND pair (in 2 years) of C.abelas Alpha bino's (I intentionally circumvented the profanity filter so I could slam them - apologies in advance). Sure, they have a lifetime warranty, but seriously... How many times do these wretched things need to fall apart before they design a better system?



IMO - it's engineered obsolescence. They KNOW that these miserable eyecups will eventually either get totally funked-up with debris so as to become non-functional, or the whole damn plastic eyepiece will just fall off. They're absolutely banking on the fact that you'll either lose the receipt or be too lazy to bring them back, and just buy a new pair.

Not this guy. He saves receipts.

Now, I'll admit that I'm harder on certain pieces of gear than the majority of guys. Besides the everyday wear and tear of being beat around like a rag doll under my passenger's seat, they're dragged through mud, muck and grass while I crawl around to gain position on turkeys or root for sheds in the nastiest of the nasty. But that's beside the point. One year. One year, and they're ruined. Twice in a row.

Seriously - you either want the eyecups permanently up or permanently down. There is no ongoing need to twist up, twist down, twist up, twist down. What a worthless system.

I feel like they're just fishing for another "feature" to list in bullet points on the side of the box, so they decide to spend the extra fifty cents in cheapass plastic gizmos and add "Twist-up Eyecups" to the offering.

Twist-up Eyecups are the bane of my existence.

So, in my infinite wisdom, I traded the second pair in for store credit, which I promptly spent on a new pair of Leo's. Again, with bloody twist-up eyecups. (Not because I wanted twist-up eyecups, might I add, but because apparently EVERYBODY is DYING to peddle bino's with these miserable twisty eyepieces). I might as well just go ahead and pre-purchase my shipping container for my Summer, 2012 return, and have it addressed to Leupold and ready to go.

There is nothing as chintzy and worthless as a pair of stupidass twist-up eyecups that are destined to ruin an otherwise perfectly good set of binoculars.


OOOOOHHHH! Look at the extension! This is the baddest assed thing I've ever seen!!!



Honey, look at the way these things extend! Quick, get the debit card!

I'm convinced that this is just a case of manufacturer-planned obsolescence.

Hear me out:

Back in the day, we bought a pair of bino's, and hung onto them for 5-10-15 years. There are (ballpark) 40 million hunters in the US. If an average pair of glasses runs $100, you're looking at a potential sales volume of $4 Billion every 10 years. That's $400 Million every year, split between maybe a half-dozen large manufacturers. I'm just making off-the-cuff guesses at the financials here, so just bear with me.

If you can cut the life expectancy of a pair of binoculars in half, you're going to effectively force your target demographic to purchase new glasses twice as often. This doubles the gross sales numbers from $400M/year to $800M.

Follow the money and look at the motivation.

The advent of the the mechanical eyecup, has shortened the life expectancy of the product by at least 50% (in my opinion). I guess they're gambling on the fact that consumers won't go so far as to mail them back, and instead of seeking warranty work, they'll just go out and buy a new pair.

This isn't a technological innovation or upgrade in quality - this is a calculated gamble to dupe consumers into spending twice as much money on binoculars.

 

Funny you bring this up. I just sent my Vortex binos back to them to have a little warranty work done (unrelated to the blasted twist up eye cups.)

BUT mine do have the twist up eye cups as well and would never stay up. Each time I brought them to my eyes the cups would turn slightly. So each time I went to look through them again, I had to twist them back up or they'd close all the way. I solved that problem by zip tying two zip ties around each eye piece (one wouldn't cut it b/c they would still try to close) so the cups had no choice but to remain up. Works great. I feel...well...felt your pain. Good luck with the new set.

 

Install zip ties here.

 

Finch, I like where your head's at. Tomorrow, it will be done.

I was considering just stuffing some JB weld on the inside twist-up track and permanently locking it into position, but I like your way better.

You shouldn't need to do this to a $300 pair of binoculars. Despite the solution, I'm still chapped about it.

Seriously - who are they marketing these things to? Who on earth WANTS a pair of binoculars where the eyepieces keep flopping in an out? Whose idea was this? When they show up at the trade shows with junk like this, somebody needs to sack-up and tell them that their binoculars blow.

 

My dad had a pair of Steiners with a rubber molding around the eye pieces. Since he wore glasses, he always had it rolled down. Whenever I used them, I would have to roll it back up.

I see the purpose of the twist up eye-cups, but also agree that they are made a little cheap.

Maybe you should have become and engineer instead of an attorney Fran. At least then we could get some solutions out of you, instead of just *****ing. :p

 

Yes...it should not have to be done but I "upgrade" a lot of my equipment to make it perfect. Hope it works for you...it did on mine. Let me know how it works.

 

See, I LIKE the rubber eyepieces! If you wear glasses, you just roll them back, and they stay there. If you don't, you just leave them as-is. It's only really a problem if you're sitting next to a guy who wears glasses and you're passing them back and forth.

Sidenote - I almost bought a pair of Steiner Predators, but I went Leo instead. Steiner makes a nice pair of glasses.

I'm a professional complainer. Lawyering was a no-brainer for me. LOL

 

The eye cups on my Nikon Monarchs have broke 3 times. The cheap plastic eye cups split so the threading doesnt catch. So needless to say they are not twisting eye cups any longer.

 

One is broke on mine also.

 

I don't think they're worthless, I do agree that they were engineered poorly though. Depending on what I'm doing, I might be wearing sunglasses, so it's nice to have the option to have them rolled down if I want them to be.

 

Problem solved:
http://www.zen-ray.com/shop/binoculars/zened2/zened2-8x43.html

 

Piece of chit!

 

Update:

3 weeks after my purchase of a pair of Leupold Yosemite bino's (complete with twist-up eyecups) - I was jamming them back under my passenger's seat, and I managed to tear the left eyecup right off. The housing split, and it just fell right off the studs, leaving only the round, metal frame sticking out. Perfect!

So, back they went.



Now, I will try a pair of Redfield Rebels (also, with twist-up eyecups). I'm 100% confident that these, too, will be destroyed and subsequently returned.



This is another pair of armor-clad binos with awesome glass. High light transmission, supreme clarity, seemingly indestructible - and would normally be a pair of binoculars that I could live with for 3-5 years.

Unfortunately, they are also equipped with a chintzy-arse plastic twist-up eyecup that will never make one full season.

Seriously - why do they insist on ruining otherwise good bino's with this garbage?

For anyone keeping score at home, this is now my 4th pair in 2 years.

 

Busted the **** out of mine too......and I thought of you.

 

Dan, it does me good to know that I'm not alone in the struggle.

Nothing makes me cuss and puts me in a bad way like those miserable eyecups. I BARELY even bumped these ones to rip it off! I didn't even realize it until my wife picked an eyecup off the passenger's seat floor and said "what's this??"

I immediately just started *****ing about Leupold's design failures and binoculars in general.

 

Fran...I have an update for you as well. Remember I sent my Vortex binos off for a little work (see post #2)? See below. You should give these guys a chance one day.

http://forums.bowhunting.com/showth...rsenal.-(cust-service-story)&highlight=vortex

 

Awesome, Donnie! Good to see they took good care of you.

I don't really have any customer service or warranty problems, though. Hell, I can't even get past the initial "in-store" warranty deadline - so I just keep doing swaps at the point of sale!

I actually looked at the Vortex binos, but they were about $75 more than I wanted to spend, so I got all nostalgic and decided to go back to my Redfield roots. I'm sure that honeymoon will be short-lived. LOL

 

Ha...well, good luck! I'm sure they will treat you well.

In the meantime, I will be working on a prototype eye cup that will satisfy all your needs/desires. :D

 

Interesting. I guess I'll just hang on to my old school binos with no twist up eye cup. THat twist up configuration sounds dumb.

 

If I am thinking correctly Redfield is now made by Leupold so hopefully they went a different route in design compared to your last pair?

Gd Luck.....and for the record I got a pair of Bushnell's with twist ups and so far so good(KNOCK ON WOOD)!