Carl Zeiss | 20 x 60s binoculars | This purely mechanical image stabilisation was invented in 1978!
Updated: Feb 25, 2025
My neighbor Michel hands me a sturdy pair of binoculars: "Press this button on the top to stabilize the image." I bring the binoculars to my eyes and immediately press the button: the magnification, the luminosity, the sharpness, and the stability are stellar! I am impressed but also very curious about the product itself:
"How is the image stabilization powered? Where is the battery?" I asked. "There's no battery, it's all mechanical, I bought them a long time ago". I am shocked, I always thought that it would be great to develop a purely mechanical image stabilization system but I didn't know it existed before I was actually born!
Let's have a look at this beautiful invention first filed the 4th of August 1978 (DE2834158A) that is behind certainly the most exclusive (and expensive) binoculars on the market.
Learn more on Zeiss website.
PRISM TELESCOPE WITH IMAGE STABILISING DEVICE.
EP0016137A1
Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH
Bibliographic data:
Publication date: | 1983-09-07 |
Application date: | 1980-03-11 |
Priority date: | 1978-08-04 (DE2834158A) |
Application number: | EP79900854 |
Current assignee: | Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH |
Inventors: | WEYRAUCH, ADOLF |
CPC classification: | G02B 27/646 |
IPC classification: | G02B 27/64 |
Legal status: | INACTIVE (Expired) |
Family status: | UNKNOWN |
External links: |
A. What is the invention?
B. How does it work?
C. What is new?
D. Why is it useful?
A. The invention is a binocular telescope with an image stabilization device. The key aspects are:
- It is a prism telescope, meaning it uses reversing prisms to correct the inverted image.
- The reversing prism systems of the two telescopes that make up the binocular device are mounted on a gimbal system.
- The pivot point of the gimbal bearing is positioned at the same distance from the objective lens and the eyepiece plane.
B. The stabilization mechanism works as follows:
- The reversing prisms (3, 3') of the two telescope elements are attached to a gimbal-mounted, symmetrical double support element (6).
- This double support element is connected via an axis (17) to a fixed, immovable support (9).
- The movable double support element has means for applying a restoring force (10) and a counterweight (11) to adjust the equilibrium.
- This allows the prism systems to remain spatially fixed even if the telescope housing vibrates or moves around the Y or Z axes.
C. The new aspect is the spatial arrangement of the stabilization mechanism:
- Previous telescopes with image stabilization were not suitable for a binocular configuration due to their bulky design.
- This invention allows a binocular telescope with image stabilization to be built, which was not easily achievable before.
- The key innovation is the use of a single gimbal-mounted double support element to stabilize both telescope elements.
D. The invention is useful because:
- It allows a binocular telescope with image stabilization to be built at reasonable cost and size.
- Previous binocular stabilization designs required complex and bulky mechanisms.
- This simpler design with a single gimbal makes the binocular telescope easy to implement.
- The image stabilization helps reduce the effects of vibrations, which is important for high magnification telescopes.
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