Japanese External Reverse Porro Prism Binoculars. Binoculars MUSEUM |
SWAP SHOP & MISC |
Seeking “JUNK” Miniature Binoculars for Reuse of Parts in Repairs to the Collection. miniature.binoculars@gmail.com
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We are interested in purchasing “Junk” examples of these miniature binoculars: dirty, chipped prisms, cracked lens, fungus inside, not working. We would be buying them for parts to repair others in the collection, so they must have both eye cups (not chipped or stripped) and both diopter rings and prisms. |
Must not be missing ! |
We are willing to pay US $18 each (postage inclusive) for “junk” miniature binoculars that still have their eyecups and diopter rings, to use for parts. If you have some to get rid of email us at miniature.binoculars@gmail.com |
WHO IS LOOKING? Das Publikum ? Les Visionneuses ? 誰 が見ている? Кто смотрит? Som söker? Wie Kijkt Er? Quién Está Viendo? Chi Sta Guardando ? 誰在看? Wie ziet er uit? Ποιος ψάχνει; |
It was always a very conscious and specific goal in creating this website to reach the widest and the most diverse audience possible. We use a custom program to tabulate the internet provider top domain level country code (TLD/ ISO #) of people viewing the website (examining ONLY that). It is crude methodology and if if you have viewed from a country* not listed kindly email and tell us at miniature.binoculars@gmail.com. |
Leute aus 221 ändern haben diese Website angesehen. Les gens de 221 pays ont regardé ce site Web. люди из 221 стран рассматривали этот сайт. 221 カ国から人々がこのウェブサイトを見たこと . Daoine ó 221 tíortha amharc an suíomh gréasáin seo. Människor från 221 länder har sett den här webbplatsen. Personas de 221 países han visto este sitio web. |
Special Acknowledgements. Spezielle Bestätigungen. Reconnaissances Spéciales. 特 . Особые лагодарности. Speciella Tack. Reconocimientos Especiales. Riconosciment Speciali. |
It was my intent to try to acknowledge information sources, photos used with the permission of the photographer, assistance given, and to redirect people to other information sources. Also it was my intent to encourage other enthusiasts to contribute to the public information of this website as a group effort. In addition to specific acknowledgements that may appear in the body of the website for specific things, I would like to thank my friend Nico Westphal for his very substantial effort in providing research information on a substantial number binoculars for my list, as well as for information on his Fata Morgana binoculars, and for being a source of binoculars as he downsized his collections. I also want to thank Hans Braakhuis for sharing the photos he took in Japan of the unique prototype Mikron binoculars; and Ulrich Zeun for sharing serial numbers on his Fata Morgana binoculars, and thank noted binocular historian Dr. Hans Seeger for corrections and a wealth of information on Fata Morgana serial numbers and for inspiring my inexpert efforts at crafting a multilingual presentation. I would like to thank Jack Kelly and Ted Brink for photos and information about their Fata Morgana binoculars, and Roland Obst for information and photos and Werner J Becker for assistance. I want to give special thanks to Kate Ohno and to Günter Kampf for investing time and effort in the task of helping to improve the readability of my multi lingual effort, which is a progressive and ongoing challenge. I want to that John Ohno for writing custom code and posting revisions. I also want to thank friends and acquaintances for being good sports about having binoculars stuck in their hands and cameras in their faces. And I would like to acknowledge all the people who have provided JB codes on binoculars they were selling, mostly without realizing they were supporting this research effort. |
Interesting Miniature Binoculars Owned by Website Viewers . Interessante Mini Fernglas im Besitz der Website Zuschauer. Intéressant Jumelles Miniatures Appartenant par site Web Téléspectateurs. Миниатюрный бинокли фотографии отправлено веб-сайт зрителей. ウェブサイトの訪問者による興味深いミニチュ 双眼. Intressanta Miniatyr Kikare Ägda av Website Tittare. Los Prismáticos en Miniatura Interesante Propiedad de los Espectadores de la Página Web. Binocoli Miniature Interessanti in Posesso di Visualzzatori di Siti Web. |
From time to time viewers of this website will share photos of particularly uncommon or interesting miniature reverse poro prism binoculars, and of particular interest are ones that were not widely geographically distributed. This is a gallery section to enjoy a few of these shared photos. |
Pollux 15x30 CF binoculars Collection of Roland Obst, Sweden Photo Roland Obst, Sweden |
These binoculars carry a label for Optica Helsinborg AB, Kullagatan 12, Helsinborg Sweden, one of the oldest optical shops in Sweden and in operation since 1932. I suspect that while many of these small Japanese reverse poro prism binoculars sold in the US market were sold through mail order, or catalog sales, or big box chain retailers, as well as camera shops, most of those sold in the European market were probably sold by specialty camera and optical shops. |
HOC 10x20 CF binoculars Collection of Göran Wallin, Sweden Photo Roland Obst, Sweden |
MAX 8x20 CF binoculars Collection of Marton Demeter Photo Marton Demeter |
Cutaway or Cross Section Binoculars. Querschnitt Fernglas. Usiné Sectionnée Jumelles. Срежьте бинокль. クロスセクション双眼鏡. Tvärsnitt Kikare. Corte y Seccionado Prismáticos. Binocolo a Taglio oa Sezione trasversale. |
“Cutaways” are products that have been cross sectioned or have had windows created by custom machining to display the internal technical parts, and to demonstrate visually how they function. Always rare, and always produced in limited numbers, these are sometimes professionally produced as a saleman’s sample, or for trade displays. Machining an object so that it stays together but allows an internal view is partly machinist skill and partly art form. I have a fondness for these, and own cutaway padlocks, cutaway lock cylinders, cutaway locks, cutaway firearms, a cutaway door closer, cutaway munitions/ fuses/ hand grenades, and a pair of [full size] cutaway binoculars. I have never heard of cutaway miniature binoculars, so I spent some time with a Proxxon® rotary tool with abrasive wheels and created one for myself and another one for a friend. |
Factory cutaway of conventional poro prism binoculars Collection of Mark Ohno |
Home Made cutaway of Binolux 7x18 miniature poro prism binoculars (sectioned glass has been painted white... in part because it came out a bit ragged) Collection of Mark Ohno Cutaway machining by Mark Ohno |
Miniature Binoculars and the JFK Assassination. Miniaturfernglässer und die JFL Ermordung. Jumelles Miniatures et le JFK Assassinat. ミニチュア双眼鏡やケネディ暗殺。 Миниатюрные бинокли и убийства Кеннеди. Miniatyr kikare och Kennedy Assas. Los Prismáticos en Miniatura y el JFK Asesinato. Binocoli Miniaturizzati e L’assassinio JFK. |
After the JKK assassination, three pairs of miniature binoculars were seized at the Ruth Paine house in Irving Texas, where Lee Harvey Oswald had stayed, and are shown in police photos. A 11/22/63 police inventory identified “binoculars Mikron 6x coated and brown leather case”. [These would have been the ubiquitous Nippon Kogaku 6x15 Mikron binoculars] Though I spent some time looking, I could not find any mention of the second pair shown in the evidence photo. And there is a third pair in the case because the carry cord is visible. The presence of these miniature binoculars and a case and light meter for a Minox subminiature camera were cited as being proof of “clandestine spy equipment and spy activity.” There has been a lot of argument about whether there was a camera, and what the film might show if there was a camera, or where the camera might have gone to if it existed. Nobody seems to care about the binoculars. And it isn’t clear who any of this belonged to or if it had any connection to Oswald. I wonder if all these unaccounted for binoculars are evidence of “conspiracy”. Just kidding... it makes me think they went home in somebody’s pocket as a “souvenir”. Americans love souvenirs. After all, Kennedy’s brain was not buried, and then it was stolen from the National Archives, either as a souvenir, or probably to cover up JFK’s now well documented addictions to opioid narcotics |
Snapshot: Occupied Japan produced binoculars , US Occupation Seabee Troops, and Merle Slye |
Home Made cutaway of Binolux 6x15 miniature reverse poro prism binoculars JB47 maker marked: Tokuhiro Koki Seisakusho Inc Collection of Nico Westphal, Netherlands Cutaway machining by Mark Ohno |
Afghanistan .af Aland Islands .ax Albania .al Algeria .dz Algeria .dz American Samoa .as Andorra, principality of .ad Angola .ao Anguilla .ai Antarctica .aq Antigua and Barbuda .ag Argentina .ar Armenia .am Aruba .aw Asia Pacific TDL .ap Australia .au Austria .at Azerbaijan .az Bahamas .bs Bahrain .bh Bangladesh .bd Barbados .bb Belarus .by Belgium .be Belize .bz Benin .bj Bermuda .bm Bhutan .bt Bolivia .bo Bonaire, St Eustatius, Saba .bq Bosnia &Herzegovina .ba Botswana .bw Brazil .br Brunei Darussalam .bn Bulgaria .bg Burkina Faso .bf Cambodia .kh Cameroon .cm Canada .ca Cape Verde .cv Cayman Islands .ky Chile .cl China .cn Colombia .co Congo, Dem Republic .cd Congo, Republic .cg Costa Rica .cr Cote D'Ivoire .ci Croatia (Hrvatska) .hr Cuba .cu Curacao .cw Cyprus .cy Czech Republic .cz Denmark .dk Djibouti .dj Dominican Republic .do Ecuador .ec Egypt .eg El Salvador .sv |
Some Website Technical Details. Einige Website–Technische Informationen. Informations Techniques du Site Web. ウェブサイトの技術的な詳細. Веб-сайт технической информации. Website Tekniska Detaljer. Detalles Técnicos del Sitio Web. Alcuni Dettagli Tecnici del Sito Web. |
ROYAL MINI 8x20 CF binoculars Mfgr: Tokuhiro Koki Seisakusho Inc Collection/photo Göran Wallin, Sweden |
Miniature Binoculars: The Colors. Mini Fernglas: Die Farben. Jumelles Miniatures : Les Couleurs. ミニチュア双眼鏡:色。 Миниатюрные бинокль: в цвета. Miniatyr Kkikare: Färger. Los Prismáticos en miniatura: Los colores. Binocolo Miniatura: I Colori. |
Miniature binoculars are normally found with some combination of black paint, bright or brushed chrome plate. Gilding (gold plate) is occasionally encountered. Other colors combinations as brown or white or anodized colors are exceptionally uncommon, but examples such the ones pictured do exist. |
Ocean binoculars: Brown Paint/Chrome |
Bushnell binoculars: Chocolate Paint/Gilding |
T.O.M. Vision binoculars: Green Annodized/ Chrome |
NOCTOREX SPEZIALE 7x25 CF binoculars Collection of Hendrik Venebrügge, Germany Photo Hendrik Venebrügge, Germany |
GERMAN MARKET |
SWEDISH MARKET |
SWEDISH MARKET |
SWEDISH MARKET |
Fata Morgana binoculars: Gilding |
Abkhazia ( no ISO/TLD ) Ascension Island .ac Bouvet Island .bv British Indian Island ter .io Burundi .bi Central African Republic .cf Chad .td Christmas Island .cx (790) Cocos (Keeling) Islands .cc Comoros, Union of .km Cook Islands .ck (4881) Dominica .dm French S. Ter/ Antarctica .tf Guinea Bissau .gw Herd & McDonald Islands .hm Kiribati .ki (15,946) Lesotho .ls Mayotte .yt Monserrat . ms (2860) Nagorno-Karabakh ( no TLD ) Nauru .nr (5524) |
Seeking website viewers from the following locations. If you looked at the website from any of these places, let me know so I can fill in those missing dots. Contact me at: miniature.binoculars@gmail.com. |
Niger .ne Niue (formerly Savage Is) .nu (1,000) Norfolk Island .nf (765) Northern Mariana Isl .mp Pitcairn Island .pn (54) Saint Pierre & Miquelon .pm (4500) São Tome & Principe .st Solomon Islands .sb S. Georgia & S. Sandwich Is .gs South Ossetia ( no ISO/TLD ) Svalbard & Jan Mayan Isl. .sj Tokelau .tk (805) Transnistria ( no ISO/TLD ) Tromelin Island .te Wallis & Futuna Islands .wf (3450) Western Sahara .eh |
OUR VALUED VISITORS |
Viewers sought |
CONTACT US WITH INFORMATION OR COMMENTS: miniature.binoculars@gmail.com |
Lucifer 7x15 IF binoculars (all silver variant) Collection/ photo Roland Obst, Sweden |
The top 30 countries for viewers in descending order as of Oct 2017 were the USA, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Japan, Italy, Netherlands, Russian Federation, Australia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Spain, France, China, Poland, Brazil, Denmark, Ukraine, Belgium, Mexico, New Zealand, Israel, Norway, Republic of Korea, Finland, Switzerland, Romania, Ireland, and Serbia. |
Mark Ohno |
Palomar binoculars: White Paint/Chrome |
Zermatt 6x15 IF binoculars Collection/ photo Jacques Gaillard, Switzerland |
221 countries* so far... |
Equatorial Guinea .sv Eritrea .er Estonia .ee Ethiopia .et European union TDL .eu Falklands Islands .fk Faroe Islands .fo Fiji .fj Finland fl France .fr French Guiana .gf French Polynesia .pf Gabon .ga Gambia .gm Georgia .ge Germany .de Ghana .gh Gibraltar .gi Great Britain .uk Greece .gr Greenland .gl Grenada .gd Guadeloupe .gp Guam .gu Guatemala .gt Guernsey .gg Guinea .gn Guyana .gy Haiti .ht Honduras .hn Hong Kong .hk Hungary .hu Iceland .is India .in Indonesia .id Iran, Islamic Republic .ir Iraq .iq Ireland .ie Israel .il Isle of Man .im Italy .it Jamaica .jm Japan .jp Jersey .je Jordan .jo Kazakhstan .kz Kenya .ke Korea, Democratic Peoples Republic (N. Korea) .kp Korea, Republic of .kr Kuwait .kw Kyrgyzstan .kg Lao, Peoples Dem. Rep. .la Latvia .lv Lebanon .lb Liberia .lr Libya .ly Liechtenstein .li Lithuania .lt Luxembourg .lu Macau .mo |
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Here are some mechanical and technical details about the website for anyone interested in how such things may work. The website is written and converted to html in Microsoft Publisher®2003. That program was never really meant to do what I am doing with it, but so far I have made it work, though it has taken some manipulation and a bit of creativity and has been a challenge. Photos were initially improved with Adobe Photoshop CS2®, and then later on with the stand alone version of PIXLR®, which I liked for it’s ability to rotate and sharpen and ease of use, but since being purchased bya new owner the stand alone version seems to have issues, and only stays working if not connected to the internet. So now I transitioned to Fastone Image Viewer®, which has worked well for me once I got used to it. This website is hosted at nearlyfreespeach.net, which charges by data as people look at the site. I like them a lot, and it has made it all affordable. As well as piles of memory sticks, I have upgraded through six or seven used laptops utilized to edit the website that have struggled to cope as the website grew beyond 2 gigs. The latest is a Lenovo R500. Because the 2003 32 bit version of Publisher cannot fully exploit the capabilities of a 64 bit computer in terms of ram, I had to split the website into three separate Publisher files, and then in April 2021 split it again into 4 sections because of finally reaching a brick wall on picture heavy sections where changes wouldn't save. After splits, editing and new content becomes much more nimble. Photos of people looking through binoculars were taken with a number of point and shoot Cannon Power Shot cameras which could be carried around as fairly expendable, and sometimes an iPhone 5 or 6. And a few people pictures were taken by other people with whatever they had. Binocular photos were initially taken with a Nikon D200® camera with a cheap 18-55 Nikkor lens plus an aftermarket macro lens, which took decent close ups of small markings but distorted the overall binocular photos, and also required getting so close to the marks that it created lighting issues. I next added a second Nikon D200 with a better quality Nikkor 12-24mm lens that had a macro feature. (I need wide angle for another purpose). It was an improvement, and I re-shot a lot of binoculars. But it still distorted the binoculars a bit, and wasn’t particularly good for the small markings. Then in 2016 I purchased a more dedicated Nikon macro lens, the Micro Nikkor AF 105mmF2.8 D. It takes nice macro photos, but the depth of field on binoculars photos is more challenging and has a stand off that makes it difficult to hold binoculars in hand. Oh well. I wore out the port on one Nikon D200, and the exposure on another developed issues, and as a result have acquired a couple more low picture count Nikon D200 bodies, so as not to have to swap lenses as much. The photos are intended to be “utility” photos. These are “weasel words”, to excuse quality issues, distortion, and hide the fact I sometimes want to take expedient photos when it is early morning, dusk, raining, and otherwise fairly unsuitable for natural light macro photography, or when I have no patience to invest the time and effort at getting better photos. Photo editing software can compensate a lot and I used it on almost every photo (Fastone Image Viewer® at present). I’ve also tried a variety of photo lights when outside weather won’t cooperate or when it is cold enough outside to fog my lenses. I probably should dust and cleaned binoculars before photographing them rather than after. But I usually don’t. I probably should scrub my hands before shooting pictures, but if I have been working on my old Land Rovers, then all that old grease and grunge is hard to get off. When the website is viewed on Firefox® or certain other web browsers, or on iphones or other phone platforms, the original typeface (Arial Black) may be presented differently, because Microsoft® enforces their typeface copyrights, and this may degrade the layout and spacing and appearance. (So if it doesn’t look good...just blame Microsoft®). This website is very content heavy. Scroll down navigation was used to keep topics grouped together. If I had not utilized a scroll down approach, then the website might be around 900 or 1,000 ordinary screen size pages instead of 84 and growing scroll down pages. Without scrolling down the navigation would be annoying. And the website is growing all the time. This does cause some technical issues. Posting can take hours. So if the website displays or acts oddly (distorted images or headers or navigation issues or freezes up), it might be because it is in the process of being revised. Also, because of the massive amount of data (and specifically images) any hiccup in the posting of even one of the over 13,000 images and headers can affect everything that follows (usually pictures out of place and distorted because the wrong picture is forced into a space not intended for it). And any electrical or internet blip during uploads causes issues. Everything you see is a result of a massive army of coded commands, which you don’t see. Browsers do present differently than the creating program. A page layout may look great as created, but less so on a browser. This is usually because the browser pushes text into an additional line the text box is not sized for. So what you see may be partly what browser and device you are using when some things that don’t look right. After updates I look on the internet and go through and compensate for the next update. These days I normally correct for Google Chrome. ® on laptop. Each item (such as the 13,000 or so photos) is toggled between publisher and HTML each time the website is worked on. Which is another factor that can create issues. For example a text box that continues off to the right past the intended page is usually due to a translation imported into publisher as HTML preformatted where I forgot to cancel that formatting (glitch I caused by mistake). Also I have worn out several memory sticks, and the first sign of corrupted data on them is usually corrupted sections on the website. Some difficulties have been encountered due to unexpected things, including the continued use of some legacy software. Websites that imbed a Multi lingual and multi character approach were not really all that common when this website was first created, and when the 2003 software I am using was created So this website used mostly Latin1 character encoding (Unicode block Latin-1 Supplement) but then it also used UTF-8 character encoding for Japanese and Russian language sections and perhaps a few other languages, and that created some (now hopefully suppressed) issues when the hosting expected everything to be UTF-8. Because of the large number of images per page, you may experience a pronounced delay in the images on a page loading, depending on your computer and your internet speed, and this is usually experienced as the images popping in place progressively. So please be a little patient: this is the trade off for having so much stuff to look at. Sometimes viewers link to the site via a Google image (these are not real time) and see displaced pictures due to some form of cache conflict in your computer (saved prior view of website). The fix is to reload (circular arrow) or erase the cache. Also an older Google image may link elsewhere on the website after website revisions. visit the site directly at www.miniaturebinoculars.com if the google image link presents any issues. While we did not initially use a SSL Security Certificate service, this eventually became more of an issue to people on certain browsers, so we have now acquired a SSL Security certificate through “Let’s Encrypt”. While we do keep track of what country (top domain level /TDL ISO number) we collect only this, and only for country viewer count, and the website does not participate in any commercial data collection or sharing, or in any commercial advertising or other commercial activity. Translations over the years have been done with a couple online translation sites ( initially the Israeli one that apparently tried to hijack your search functions if you actually downloaded their toolbar or software rather than just translating stuff) and later after it became available with “Google Translate”, which I like and seems to work well. The translations allow me to make efforts in multi-lingual outreach, which was always a very specific goal. But I do fully realize that this is extremely likely to result in some awkward, odd, incorrect, or bizarre language or phrasing or sentence structure. I am improving the translations when I can get generous native speakers to help me do so, but apologize that my non-English sections may be crude. While I create all the content, layout, graphics, and most of the photos, my son John (a software engineer) does the uploading/ web posting, and writes the custom codes such as used with the index linking; page view count; navigation box links and jumps; navigation to PDF catalog content; and the country origin analysis TDL ISO# program. And this is all done for fun, and as a not for profit activity with no monetary compensation or motivation of any type: purely as a experiment in how far we can push the envelope in what we can learn, create, share, and accomplish |
Just for perspective, some of the places where viewers are still sought are uninhabited such as Bouvet, or have few internet users such as Pitcairn island/54; Norfolk Island/765; Christmas Island/790; Tokelau/ 805; and Niue/1090. |
Binoculars Co. Promotional Items. Werbeartikel von Fernglasherstellern und Händlern. Articles promotionnels des fabricants et distributeurs de jumelles. Рекламные предметы от производителей и дистрибьюторов биноклей. 双眼鏡 メーカーと販売店からの販促品 Artículos promocionales de fabricantes y distribuidores de binoculars.Articoli promozionali da produttori e distributori di binocoli. |
The catch-22 about collecting anything in depth is it eventually becomes hard to find examples you don’t already have. Sometimes leading to seeking other related things. Like binoculars catalogs. Or the scarce promotional items given out by binoculars manufacturers and distributors to clients. |
1960’s “Shrine Manon” money clip knife. Shrine and Manon were brands used on binoculars by the Japanese exporter Miura Shojii KK. This would have been a gift given by Miura Shojii to an importer or prospective client at a business meeting or trade show. |
Miniature Binoculars, Jumelles Miniatures, Miniatur-Ferngläser, ミニチュア双眼鏡, миниатюрные бинокли |
BINOCULARS RESEARCH WEBSITE, NOT FOR PROFIT FERNGLAS-FORSCHUNGS-WEBSITE, NICHT GEWINNORIENTIERT SITE DE RECHERCHE SUR LES JUMELLES, À BUT NON LUCRATIF |
We have enjoyed viewers from countries with relatively few people who have internet connections, such as the Falklands Islands/3,000.; Antarctica/4400; Tuvalu/5498; Palau/ 7650; North Korea/ 14,000; Anguilla/14,211; American Samoa/17,000; and San Marino/ 20,328. (most figures ca 2021) |
Guzzi 6x15 IF binoculars (prewar) Collection : Tianming-Huang, China Photos: Tianming-Huang, China |
Made by Earth Kogaku Co. Ltd |
*countries, territories, protectorates, principalities, kingdoms, islands, other locations/ providers with TDL identity, as of Dec. 22, 2023 |
Zrak D.D. is optical firm founded in 1948 to produce military optic located in Sarajevo in Bosnia & Herzegovina (formally Yugoslavia), with a long history of making military and civilian optical products, including binoculars. |
Occupied Japan was quite interesting. The U.S. military directed planning, economic recovery, and industrial output of occupied Japan in much the same way as the US govt. had directed U.S. war production. Japanese industry was instructed and allocated resources for products thought to be particularly desirable for the US consumer market. Binocular production resumed in 1946, and tin mechanical toys were another early target commodity, as were items of a gift orientation. U.S. occupation troops were also considered an active sales market. Seventeen U.S. Navy Seebee (construction & trades) battalions served in occupied Japan constructing and maintaining military bases in 7 Japanese regions. Merle Slye of Wisconsin was a Seaee with them, with specialties of electrical, refrigeration, and sanitation, and he acquired these particular “made in occupied Japan” marked (so date Feb. 1947-1951) KOC / Kuroki Optical Co Ltd. Lichter 6x15 independent focus binoculars. Troops particularly liked binoculars, which were considered a high desirability consumer luxury item in the US at that time. |
Many thanks to Randy Richert who donated these Lichter KOC Occupied Japan binoculars to this collection ! ! |
T.O.M. Vision binoculars: Red Annodized/ Chrome |
We have some duplicate miniature binoculars in good condition to trade for miniature binoculars that we don’t have: miniature.binoculars@gmail.com |
My collection of 16 Zrak binoculars romotional lapel pins and a key chain. |
Seeking “JUNK” Minature Binoculars for Reuse of the Parts in Repairs to the Collection |
Miniature Binoculars donations to the collection will be publicly thanked, & can reimburse postage. miniature.binoculars@gmail.com |
Nikon binoculars retailer display base |