The Best Vintage Tripod Mounted Binoculars
The Fuji Meibo 15x80 binoculars were originally designed as a commercial grade instrument for marine use in the 1950’s. They are considered the Rolls Royce in the binocular market. They are a large set of binoculars with exceptional field of vision, perfect for mounting to a tripod. The Fuji Meibo series remains one of the most desired binocular collections on the market. This is down to their robust design which features Porro prism technology, 80mm objective lenses which produce a 70-metre field of view at 1000 metres and 15 times magnification, hence the name 15x80. Porro Prisms are the more traditional type of prism design which is generally found in older binoculars. They are shaped like a zigzag and produce less light loss so the images have good contrast and are very clear. Smaller modern binoculars that you might purchase for bird watching feature a roof prism design, specifically to make the binoculars lighter & easier to carry.
The Nikon 15x80 binoculars were made in Japan in 1943 by Tokyo Kogaku Kikai (Tokyo Optiucal Company) as an instrument for wartime battleships predominantly used by the Japanese Navy who were more reliant on optics for surveillance rather than the developing radar detection systems.
These binoculars were manufactured in Germany by Carl Zeiss Jena during WW2 marked as BLC. In 1942 the German Armaments Ministry assigned three letter code marks to the companies that manufactured military hardware, to use instead of their normal trademark. This was so that the factories could not be identified and bombed by Allies.
These binoculars were designed to be used in conjunction with a 4-meter-long range finder for directing heavy Flak guns and were engineered to be tripod mounted.
Read all about the history of Carl Zeiss, one of the most respected names in optics.
The Vintage Tripod
We aim to mount our binoculars with a vintage tripod of a similar era to create the perfect set of vintage tripod mounted binoculars. We source wooden military tripods and make a bespoke part so that the binoculars and tripod fit together perfectly.
For more information on any of these binoculars please visit the product pages. If you are looking for something in particular get in touch, as we may be able to source it.