Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Service Life of Rangefinding Binoculars

On another thread, someone posted


Has anyone else had this happen?

Thanks,


Okie John

I have two rangefinding binoculars, one a Bushnell 10x40 Fusion I've had for over a decade. The rangefinder still works fine--and its been used hard.

The other is a Zeiss Victory RF 10x40, which I've been using for over years. Zeiss's warranty on the rangefinder is among the longest in the business, five years. It still works fine, and if something happens to the laser function I still have one of the finest 10x40 binoculars available.

But would also suspect that even if I had to pay to have the laser system repaired it wouldn't cost all that much--especially compared to the disadvantage of not having a rangefinder inside the binocular. Have used a separate RF a lot, but much prefer having an RF binocular, because of the time it saves, and complications it avoids.

One of the major advantages of RF binoculars is their better ability to actually get a reading, due to being able to hold them steadier than a small, light hand-held RF.

John I totally agree.

Whoever posted that is retarded.

Repairs are always a gamble. Most electronics' parts are out of date within about 5 years regardless of price. Ask me what I think about a $5K Trimble GPS unit. Now my $90 Garmin Etrex is still ticking.

I personally shy away from multitasking gimmicks finding single dedicated functions more dependable and supporting better battery life. I constantly keep my cell phone in submarine mode. That is, it's turned off until I want to use it. Gets charged about every three months, and if I'm being tracked, I am constantly on top of our kitchen microwave.

Things like Rhino's don't float my boat either. I simply detest failure.

I too agree with JB with regards to actual field use vs. a small handheld.
I'm on my 8th year with my GEOVID HD-R's and had the previous two generations before them, never an issue with any of them.

Still using a 1st. Gen set of Geovids that I have literally used every day. They work fine!
I have replaced the battery once

Graeme,

Am not surprised! We still have our first-generation Leica hand-held rangefinder, and it still works fine...as do a couple of other hand-helds.

But we do have to replace the batteries occasionally!

John

+1

I have separate units and am not interested in a combined tool.

I don’t have binos but I guess my Leica 1000 is 15 years old now and still going strong

I graduated from a Swarovski LRF to a set of Leica Geovids last year. So much faster in the field and you have no need to reacquire the target with a handheld wasting valuable time in a shooting scenario.


Frog---OUT!

My experience with most things electronic, it's either a case of infant mortality, or they last forever. It just seems that if there's an issue, it usually shows up early in its use.

I guess I’m different than some, as I buy the rf binoculars to use. What happens to them afterwords is somewhere In the future and I am going to use them for purpose I bought them.

I have had 3 generations of Leica rf binoculars and 2 Swarovski. I now have the latest 10X42 Swarovski rf binoculars and find them more suitable than the Leica HD-B as the Leica was just too big.

They all work, optics are important, so I stay with Swarovski. The latest 8X32 are in at my dealer and I am going to pick them up this week. I am anxious to see how well they work for size and range finding. I did get the Leica 8X32 range when they first came out, but they had a 2-3 second delay in read out, so I sold them.

Of course, you want reliability when you buy something this expensive, but I guess I’m willing to risk it for the use of the binoculars when they work and not dwell on the potential of them not working…

Well, I wrote that and it was based upon my experience with range finding products which was a good number of years past - say 10 years and has included 2 sets of Leica range finding binoculars and Leupold and Bushnell range finders.

If your experience was better, then good for you but, in the meantime, ask your mom how she liked sucking my retarded dick.

John
I must have gotten one of those 1 in a 1,000,000 batteries to start with :-)

I just picked up some GPO 10×50 ranging binos. Shoutout to Doug on how fast he got them to me.

I read a bunch of reviews, including a thread here in the optics forum about them. They also have a great warranty if needed. First time I'm using something like these, I always carried separate binos and rangefinder. The more I'm using them, the more I'm liking them. I guess time will tell how long they last.

Lol.....retard, being a retard.

You Leica's guys must have got all of the good bino/rf units. I had a previous version (403 model) that wouldn't range anything when temps got around freezing. Then a few years after that (couple of years ago now) I had 3 different 3200.com's that never would range even remotely close to what they claimed, even on large oil storage tanks, not deer. Leica gave up trying to help, and I went a different direction. Every Leica I've had has paled in comparison to the Vortex Fury AB, which has as kickasss RF, AB ballistic program out as far as you can range, more than adequate optics (easily past legal shooting light), and guaranteed for life. IMHO, the best combo of optics and RF ability is the GPO 10x50's.

Ha!

Maybe Leica cheaped out on the batteries, to reduce retail price $2....