Denkmaier via BW Binoviewer

Hi Guys,

beeing back from the Winterstarparty I have a few questions.
Due the great reviews on the Denkmaier unit I liked to check them out at WSP with reason maybe to start selling them in Germany as a bino priced between Baader and BW Optik, where the Denkmaier offers also the aperture between.
2 Dealers at WSP have had the Denkmaier unit and I got it for loan to check it out. I was told this are brandnew units , but In found problems which shall not excist after reading all this reviews.

Here what I found and I like some feedback of owners If I have had only faulty units in my hands or if that represents the real production quality.

1, the prisms showed the edge badly polished, partly looking like extremly rough worked, as I have seen before only in cheapest chinese stuff
2, the prisms have been perfectly clean but showed a bit like fogged against the total clean BW Optik Modell

I wrote reports that the DENKMAIER shall have a higher transmission, but what I saw was a superb clean crystalclear BW Optik unit and dimmer Denkmaier unit.

The dealer there took one my ´BW Optik unit and sold them all, nobody wanted the Denkmaier when they saw the big diffrant in brightness, contrast and quality of the BW Optik.

This mail is not a insulting of Denkmaier stuff, its a simple question if the dealers at WSP showed faulty stuff or if that shall be really the units about everybody reports only good things.

thanks for your feedback if you have a denkmaier unit

best wishes
Markus

Markus,

How are OEM binoviewers made. From your review, they may be
just mass OEM binoviewers made to a VAR spec.

Are binoviewers from each VAR unique or mass produced to a
common specification from a common source?

Hi Markes. I had asked Mike Harvey if you climbed his ladder and also saw the “G” star in the Trapezium through the Denkmeier Standard Deepsky Binoviewer and the 2” OCS. He and several others did and also observed tack sharp images of Jupiter and Saturn. Transmission of Deepsky was deemed incredible too. Please indicate the dealers that did not like our unit as I am interested in contacting them.

You raise a few issues that I would like to address. But before I do, I would like to say that I consider you to be a reliable judge of quality. However, I do not think that you or anyone else would actually see dimmer views through the Denkmeier Standard Deepsky Binoviewer when compared to a BW Optik unit _in a telescope_. I have closely compared the two. I found the images to be brighter in the Standards that I compared to the BW Optik. But, then I am the president of the corporation. That’s why I refrain from mentioning other’s products except in rare instances like now.

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The BW Optik was still an excellent unit and I have told that to many callers who ask if they should sell and buy ours. I did this as recently as two days ago and still have the sent email, though I would not post it w/o prior permission of the recipient.

So the issues:

As you know, most all small optics ordered in the USA are then made overseas. This is the reality now. We order all of our parts etc. here in the USA (100%)but I realize that some parts are made overseas. We are performance oriented and always saw that performance in the Standard Binoviewers that we have shipped. The many testimonials about the Standard Deepsky Binoviewer indicate outstanding performance. Many of these folks have used everything out there and have comparison tested. We have always been pleased with performance of our binoviewers and have rejected maybe 5% of the prisms that show artifacts or stray reflections discerned by us via artificial star tests or outdoor tests.

But performance wise, we always felt that for $599 or any price, we could compete with the very best out there. Did we want better? Anyone that deals with me and knows me will tell you that they know that we will not stop until we have the best possible product, PERIOD. I say it now, publicly. If there is room for improvement, I won’t sit here bellowing out the “old review” sites from years ago. We will make a better product and wait for new reviews.

So how about the finish of the prism edges? We were not satisfied and dogged the company to improve this. "Is there a problem with performance" they would ask. Well...er no. We opened up another “top” brand and found the edges to be virtually identical. Maybe the Germans finish the edges better, sure. Well, then, do we just ignore this? We would never ignore poor performance and performance was not an issue so we had trouble getting the company to refine the “look”.


We strongly feel that performance wise, the Standard Deepsky Binoviewer is right up there with anything in the world. Are the prism edges as nice as the BW? Maybe not. What would I want in my scope? The Denkmeier for sure but again, I am involved with this company! Who cares what I would prefer?

We decided that the only way to fine tune our product into the “ultimate binoviewer” was to take total control of such matters ourselves. Therefore we have announced recently the details of our new Premium Binoviewer.

With our Patent Pending Multi-Purpose OCS and the Patent Pending SCT Richfield Starsweeper, we plan to forge a new path into the Binoviewer future. Sounds like a commercial? Well, I’ve got to say it all here, don’t I? Do I have a choice? I have confidence and am psyched bigtime.
I have no interest in attempting to manipulate the buyers out there with BS rhetoric quite frankly. I have no time for that. So here are the facts.

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All of the new Premium Prisms are being made entirely in the USA under our combined efforts with a team of engineers. The prisms details can be seen on our website under “Optical Quality”. They will be incomparable. They will have a 100% dielectric coating (rather than metallic or hybrid) on the beam Splitter junction. They will have 27MM apertures. They will have Broad Band coatings on all of the transmission surfaces that will rate at 99.75% and actually ~ 99.9% in the 500nm-550nm range. There will be both transmission and Zygo data indicating the surface quality (~ 1/8 wave!) and also a certificate of origin accompamying each Premium Unit.

We are taking our own profit to do this project and honoring the price of $799 for all buyers that signed on for the Premiums which were originally going to be the same 26mm prisms from the other guys. We fired the other guys. When we say premium, we mean Premium. The Standard was a “Standard” and a damn incredible one too! Perfect looking prisms?? No. Incredible performance??? Yes.

Will we continue to sell Standards? The great Standard units? I suppose by request. As an ecomomical alternative with incredible performance but maybe some imperfect aspects? If you guys want 'em, we'll make 'em.

Russ/Denkmeier Optical , Inc.