BUSCH Sollux 8X30

Another pair of binoculars, a very popular and fairly common model in its time, but very hard to find in good condition today. Sollux is a lightweight wide angle binocular, sharp and has very well corrected image and neutral colours. Its pre WW II design is noticed by the central position of the focus wheel and uncoated optics. That is why it is not as bright as the best examples with coated optics at that time. Nevertheless, very good brightness for uncoated optics. I believe my example is a post WWII era, from 50' or 60'. It came in a standard brown leather case, with a black leather strap and black leather rain guard. Beautiful instrument.

HENSOLDT WETZLAR Diagon 8X30

There seem to be two versions of Diagon's. This one, with smaller ocular lenses and it looks like without any coatings. That's why it is not particularly bright and let's say with average sharpness. However it has wide field of view and quite natural colours. Decent pair of binoculars. Old German school. This type has a serial number under a Diagon 8X30 markings and the other one, probably the newer version has a serial number beside the objective lens and a typical blue coating, visible on the ocular and objective lenses.

RO RUHNKE OPTIK Noctovist 8X30

Late Noctovist MkI model with larger ocular lenses than MkII Noctovist, obviously an export model with English markings. It was cca 30% cheaper than Carl Zeiss Deltrintem. It is well built, but optically not even close to best German glass, with the exception of center sharpness. Wide Angle, Fully coated is just a marketing trick. Its field of view is much narrower than competition (130 m / 1000 m) and the view is very yellow, almost orange in colours.

SPINDLER & HOYER Moacht 8X30

Spindler & Hoyer, another great German brand in fine optics and precision engineering with more than 120 years of history. This little and lightweight instrument proved that very well. It's my smallest 8X30 binoculars, even smaller than KERN Pizar 6X24 and weighs only 360 g. Despite the size it surprises with very good optical performance. It's sharp, bright with good contrast and has very neutral colours. Only field of view is a little bit narrower than in best porro "full size" 8X30 binoculars. Still wide enough, especially for today's standards. Definitely does not deserve to be overlooked among the collectors. It was a budget German binocular. And even today you can get one really cheap.

Note: It has some kind of fabric strips on the sliding ocular tubes which fall apart within the years and are hard to replace.

CARL ZEISS 8X30 (West)

The 8X30 was the first model from a new Zeiss factory in the West - Oberkochen and was announced in 1954. It was produced along with its eastern brothers Deltrintem / Jenoptem and was sold for a double price. Is it worth it? My opinion is that it is not. For this price the view should have more neutral colours and it should be brighter than its cheaper and older rivals. Otherwise, this is a very good pair of binoculars. Simply disappears before your eyes. The view is very wide and sharp almost to the edge. Its optical construction allowed for short and very compact body, built to a very high standards.

CARL ZEISS Silvarem 6X30

Silvarem is Deltrintem's older brother,  produced between 1910-1975. Except for lesser magnification they share the same built quality and good optics. They also have the same field of view (150 m / 1000 m). This means that with Silvarem you can see the same image slightly more distant and view circle is smaller. That's why it does not impress as much as 8X30 wide angle binoculars. Silvarem's sharpness goes much further to the edge of the image, and should be a bit brighter at low light. This Silvarem is a newer version, which is much lighter than the original Silvarem and its eyepieces are shaped a little differently.

Second opinion: WpgBinoculars (older version)

HENSOLDT Sportglas 8X30

Sports cars are lightweight, so is the Hensoldt Sportglas. Weighs only 432 g! This is a great achievement for center focus 8X30 binoculars made somewhere between 1936 and 1943. For example, the same size Deltrintem weighs 100 g more. It's not the brightest binoculars around, let's say average. But its colours are very neutral and center sharpness is pretty good. Brown leather looks quite unique.

HARTMANN Porlerim 8X30

8X30 Porlerim was introduced after WW II in 1948. Therefore this Hartmann model is not so old in design. Its best features are clear image quality and neutral colours. Its light transmission could compete very well with top brands.  It also has a few interesting internal mechanical solutions. It has sharp wide field of view and is well build. Maybe a little too heavy. Excellent pair of binoculars!

Second opinion: Simon Spiers

E. LEITZ Binuxit 8X30

On the basis of information on the web, Binuxit supposed to be one of the best binoculars of its time. True, it is very easy to handle and look through. It is also very well made. Is sharp, bright and the colours are quite neutral. Certainly better than Deltrintem/Jenoptem and very tie to Kershaw Olympic. Definitely a must for any classical binoculars collection. Even today very, very useful.

Second opinion: Brin Best, Simon Spiers, WpgBinocular

RODENSTOCK Octonar 8X30

Beautiful little thing. It feels good, smells good and it is nice to look at. Unfortunately, it rapidly loses sharpness towards the edges and it is very slow to focus.

Second opinion: Simon Spiers

HEDLER 8X30

Bought out of curiosity. Huge field of view: 10.0 deg. Of course not sharp at the edges, nor very contrast image. Very small eye relief. "German", made ​​in Japan. For the price of € 16.50, a lot of binoculars. Its prisms are larger, too.