Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics vintage binoculars which was better?

When it came to vintage binoculars which was better? Bausch & Lomb 9x35 Zephyrs or Bushnell Broadfields? And how do Leupold's stand up next to these two binoculars?

Off hand, I'd say it would take a very good, maybe a Gold Ring Leupold to match or beat the old 9X35 Zephurs.
I've compared my old 9X35 Zephurs to some of the earlier 10X40 Zeiss Classics as well as an 8X56 Classic and could see no difference. E

That is a bit of a head scratcher. I have a collection of older vintage porros, and in my searches I have never seen a Bushnell Broadfield.

However there are a couple of Japanese vintage porros that are the physical and optical equal of the B&L Zephyr. Zephyr Eremicus, Zephyr, not Zephur. I think the parts even will interchange and if I switched the prism plates I seriously doubt anyone could tell them apart. Bak-4 prisms on all of them, which was a step above most of the vintage porros. The Bushnell variant is the Bushnell Featherweight. Cannon's standard porro (no model name I've ever seen) is the other. Note also that in the last days of the Zephyr, the production switched to Japan. These are often referred to as "standard field" and all magnifications were in the 7*+/- range, say from 370-390' at 1,000 yds, depending on magnification.

There are a couple of other vintage Bushnell models that are optically right up to modern standards too. One is the Bushnell Custom and the other is the Bushnell Rangemaster. They are however quite physically different from the Zephyr, and the Custom can easily bee seen as the precursor to the Rangemaster. The Rangemaster is often held as an example of the best widefield binocular ever made, it is 11* or 578' at 1,000 yards. Kind of sci-fi looking and brings the thought that these look like something George Jetson would have.

I also had a Leupold Gold Ring 9x35 for a number of years and the design looks like another dead ringer for the B&L, Bushnell, and Canon. ETA, I bet the parts on the leupold would also interchange with the others too.

Any of these will do to hunt with today if they are clean and collimated.

Bushnell back in the 50's sold model Bushnell Broadfield 6x25's. apparently they had a great broad field of view with good clarity. I've never seen them I read about them from an old gun writer and hunter Francis E Sell, in one of his books "Advanced Hunting on deer and elk trails." He got my curiosity up.

Lotta Leupolds out there. I have the 7x35 Zephyr's and some single coated 8x40 Fuji's. Great glass and first class construction BUT no contest with multicoatings if all else is even close to equal. I have hunted with the Fuji's when I knew it would be dry. More than adequate.
The low cost Leupold Rogue's give a better view than most of the older porro's because they are fully multicoated.
I had some Hayward Scientific 7x50's from WWII that you could pick up and use today they were so good. Don't know if they were multicoated or not but they really handled color and contrast well.
What Leupold's are you looking at?

I recently purchased 8x42 Cascades Leupolds. They are not as good as a pair of Bausch & Lomb 8x42 elite's I have, but they are definitely lighter. What made me curious about the older vintage B&L 9x35's and the Bushnell Broadfields was reading about these two binoculars in old hunting books. Got my interest up and wondered how they measured up with today's modern Leupold's and against each other. For what it's worth My B&L Elite's are far superior over the Leupold's in definition and clarity. I have never personally seen their equal so far, but I have read plenty here at 24 hour that the European binoculars are superior. Too rich for my blood! LOL

Ah, yes. Zephyr, not Zephur. E

There was a time when you got alot more in a binocular by paying top dollar. But not nearly as much anymore.
However, not all the cheaper to mid priced binoculars are equal. Some of them aren't even close.
So, buy from somebody like Doug at Camerland or Cabela's who will take back whatever you buy and give you a full refund if it isn't damaged. That way, you'll get something for your money. E

If my memory is correct, I used a 8x30 Bushnell Broadfield roof prism binoculars in 1973 and 1974. They were not very good, but were light and handy.

In the late 1970s or so bought a pair of 9x35 B&L Zephyrs that were made in Japan. Still have them, they are still optically very good. Last year I compared them to two pairs of Nikon 8x32 SEs, a Zeiss ClassiC 7x42, and a Zen Ray 8X43 ED. The old B&L did very well in spite of the abuse they have experienced. They just don't like getting wet -- neither do the Nikons.

That old pair of B&L binos were left on the roof of my car and dumped onto a gravel road ---STUPID, STUPID, STUPID !! But they remained collimated and very clear even with a chip in the objective of one lens.

I used them for years after that as my only pair of personal binoculars while using others at work including Rochester made 7x35 Zephyrs which were excellent.

I really like these older Nikon/Nippon Kogaku binoculars, and they can sometimes be had for a song:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-60s...018?pt=Binocular&hash=item27c579a83a

This one is a bit over priced, IMO, but I have several of them, 7x35, 8x30 and 9x35 and they are are extremely good optics. They are not waterproof, but are a great find when you come across them.

Yep, those new Elites are a nice binocular and will surpass most Leupolds. Don't know if it is a dead heat with the Gold Ring HD's but I bet it would be close.
Lots of good glass out there and the bang for you buck just keeps getting better.