Zeiss Jenoptem 8x30 porro prism binoculars

 These binoculars are almost legendary and they were made in East Germany for decades up to the early 1990s. After the second world war it was possible to sell these binoculars for peppercorn prices because of the favourable exchange rate for hard currency buyers. I bought mine in the late 80s for about £35. Equivalent binoculars made in West Germany would have cost you an awful lot more. There were fakes on the market, made in the far east, and Zeiss even licensed producers in Japan to market the binoculars under the Zeiss brand name. Mine are not fakes and are genuinely from the East German factory. All the component parts including the lens were East German made. The lenses are superb.

I still use these binoculars for local bird watching as they are strong and fit in the hand nicely, and I particularly like the fast and accurate focusing. They are not so good in low light because of the 30 mm objective lenses. You need 40 mm lenses, at least, for observing at dusk. The lenses are fully multi-coated.

Modern binoculars have overtaken them for light transmission, but that is about all. The lenses are excellent and they they show virtually no chromatic and spherical aberrations over 80% of the field of view. The colours and contrast are natural, and for me they show none of the yellow tinge which some observers criticise them for. 

These binoculars have served me well for bird watching and general nature observations; they are strong, made of metal and feel solid and have kept their collimation from over 40 years of use. They are not waterproof so you have to protect them when it starts  to rain. At a push you can use them for astronomy if nothing else is available. Stars appear pinpoint and from dark sky locations I have observed the 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter. The moon has hardly any colour fringing and you can observe the Beehive cluster, the Pleiades cluster and the Orion nebula with ease.

I compared these binoculars to my Minox 8 x 24 reverse-porro-prism, Minox 8x25 roof-prism and Minox BL HD 8x44 roof-prism binoculars. The Zeiss binoculars compared favourably especially with 8x24  and 8x25. The 8x25 were brighter because of their modern coatings. The reverse-porro-prism performed just about the same.

Perhaps, it is a  little unfair but the Minox 8x44 BL HD performed noticeably better for light transmission, resolution of distance objects ( 1 km away) and colour brilliance. However, if you score the HD bins 8 out of 10 then the Zeiss are 7 out of 10. which just about shows how far we have come in 40 years or so. The Minox 8x44 BL HD cost 100s of pounds. If you are strapped for cash, you will not go far wrong buying a  second hand pair of Zeiss Jenoptem 8x30 from Ebay. However, you need to check the optics and collimation and that the lenses are not scratched and have not been infected by mould. They will be a bargain they will not compete with the Nikkon E2 or Swarovski Habicht 8x30 equivalents but they will still run them close and you will get a nice leather case thrown in. I am not selling mine.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/Carl-Zeiss-Jena-Jenoptem-8x30/83880/bn_7023494102?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5336728181&customid=&toolid=10001

Also see thee website: http://holgermerlitz.de/czj_85/czj_85.html and https://www.allbinos.com/193-binoculars_review-Carl_Zeiss_Jena_Jenoptem_8x30W.html

 

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