Vortex Razor hd blurry after a while.

[Western Hunter270]

So I just bought a pair of razor hd 12x50s and I took them out shed hunting yesterday to test them out. I sat on a knob for a few hours trying to locate some bulls and realized that after about an hour of being in the glass, the image started to get noticeable blurry. I found that if I took my eyes out of the binos for a minute and let my eyes refocus, the image would be clear again when I looked in the binos, but only for a minute and then it would become blurry again. I'm wondering, is this a result of poor optical quality or is it just my eyes being fatigued? I would really hate for it to be the binos that I just spent a pretty penny on.

 

[nobody]

Eye fatigue. You nailed it, your eyes need rest. People talk about working out to get in shape for hunting season, working out your eyes is the same. Higher dollar binos will help for sure, but you also just need to acclimate and train your eyes to be able to focus HARD for long period of time.

Did you have your binos on a tripod? If not, then it doesn't matter how high dollar your glass is, your eyes will fatigue exponentially quicker. Put those 12's on a good sturdy tripod and slow down your movement, you'll be able to go longer periods of time. It'll also blow your mind how "unsteady" you actually are without the tripod.

 

[svivian]

I would agree with eye fatigue, this happens to me looking through a spotting scope too long.

 

[Hoodie]

You may want to get the collimation (alignment between the barrels) checked. When a bino is out of collimation your brain can correct for it to a certain extent. But not indefinitely.

Collimation is a big cause of "eye fatigue."

Put them on a tripod and focus on a horizontal line in the distance. A powerline works well. Look at the powerline and slowly back away until you can see both barrels as depicted below. If the collimation is good, the line will be straight across between the two images. If not, it will look like these photos.

The test isn't perfect. but if it's bad you'll probably see it. Then send those puppies in. Had to do this with a Maven B6 recently. It can happen to any binocular.

 

[Western Hunter270]

Eye fatigue. You nailed it, your eyes need rest. People talk about working out to get in shape for hunting season, working out your eyes is the same. Higher dollar binos will help for sure, but you also just need to acclimate and train your eyes to be able to focus HARD for long period of time.

Did you have your binos on a tripod? If not, then it doesn't matter how high dollar your glass is, your eyes will fatigue exponentially quicker. Put those 12's on a good sturdy tripod and slow down your movement, you'll be able to go longer periods of time. It'll also blow your mind how "unsteady" you actually are without the tripod.

Okay thank you, that's relieving to hear as I don't usually glass for very long periods of time so it makes sense that my eyes aren't "in shape" and yes I had them on a tripod.

 

[Western Hunter270]

You may want to get the collimation (alignment between the barrels) checked. When a bino is out of collimation your brain can correct for it to a certain extent. But not indefinitely.

Collimation is a big cause of "eye fatigue."

Put them on a tripod and focus on a horizontal line in the distance. A powerline works well. Look at the powerline and slowly back away until you can see both barrels as depicted below. If the collimation is good, the line will be straight across between the two images. If not, it will look like these photos.

The test isn't perfect. but if it's bad you'll probably see it. Then send those puppies in. Had to do this with a Maven B6 recently. It can happen to any binocular.

View attachment 391514
View attachment 391515

I'll definitely have to test that out. Thank you.

 

[Hoodie]

Worth noting the above test only checks for vertical alignment, which is harder for your brain to adjust to. If they were out of collimation horizontally that test won't tell you.

I might send them back even if they passed the test. Worst case they'll send you a replacement probably and you can sell them and move on to something else if you still have issues.

 

[Freeride]

Check that the diopter is set for you. If it's not set right your eyes will fatigue faster.

Diopter Adjustment for Binoculars

 

[JGRaider]

If I weren't going to glass for very long periods of time, I wouldn't own a 12x bino as a do it all bino anyway. IMO you either have a collimation problem as mentioned, or a diopter issue. I've had numerous mid priced binos and never had them automatically go blurry.

 

[Firehawk]

As others have said, the glass isn't going blurry, what you are seeing is going blurry. This is either an eye issue, a collimation issue (although I'd notice that way sooner than an hour of glassing) or you need a more solid rest to hold the bino steady.

Good thing is, they are Vortex and are able to handle any warranty quickly if you find them out of collimation. But I would bet it is more of an eye fatigue issue.