I bought a great pair of 10x50mm Bushnell binoculars about 5-6 months ago. They have that triangle shaped focus system that allows only one stroke/movement to focus on an object. They call it 'Insta-focus'.... I think.
Anyway, the reason I ask is because something very strange happened the other day. I went for a day trip up to a great birding area in Northwestern CT... when I was leaving, I packed up all my stuff in the same duffle bag, the same way I always do. I packed my camera and lenses, large binoculars, tri-pod, hiking boots, field guides, empty drink bottles, and the smaller binocs. I know for a fact that they were fine when I put them in there because on the ride out on the dirt road I had to stop and pull them out to watch a Black Vulture soaring over the Housatonic River. They worked great, as usualy, when I put them back in the duffle bag.
After I put them in there I drove to McDonalds, then home.... about a 2 hour ride. The whole time, the bag was sitting on my passenger seat, with no stress on it, and not jammed in or being pressed on or anything.
When I got home, I put the duffel bag in the same place it always goes. Maybe 2-3 days later, there were 3 flycatchers perched along the picket fence in my backyard..... so I run downstairs to grab my binocs, run back upstairs and sloooowly open the back door... and the focus is broken.
They still work, but I have to manually move the eyepiece part back and forth to focus. To see what was wrong, I pulled out the eyepiece part... the part that comes out is the 2 eyepieces connected to a bar that slides down into the main part. On this bar there is a hole/slit where a pin or something needs to go. And, inside the shaft on the main part, where the bar fits into, there is another hole/slit where the pin form the bar would be inserted. There is no pin.... the hole/slit on the inside of the shaft is on the inside of the 'Insta-focus' triangle. So, if the pin was in there, it would be inserted in the hole/slit on the bar that is connected to the eyepiece part, and in the hole/slit that is inside the shaft on the main part that is controlled by the triangle focus knob.
So.... I know what the problem is. I do not know how it happened. And, I do not know how I would go about fixing it. Its not like the binocs were hundreds of dollars, they were only about $70. But, 70 bux is 70 bux and I can't afford to buy another pair.
Has this happened to anyone before?? Any suggestiong about how I can go about fixing them?? Obviously the best course of action would be to buy another pair... but as of now, that is not in the cards. As far as I know, there is no warrenty any more.
2010 Highlights: Orange-crowned Warbler (CT, 1/8), Lapland Longspur (1/6), Snowy Owl (1/1)
Life List: 304
Life Higlights: No Wheatear (CT), Pacific Loon (CT), Whooping Crane (ND!!), Prothonatary warbler (CT), Trumpeter Swan (AK), Golden Eagle (CT)
