Customer Reviews

We're Certainly Not Afraid of Zeiss: Barr and Stroud Binoculars And The Royal Navy

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A fine history of a major optical company.
The author is the man who knows all that there is to be known about the company and its products.

The Barr and Stroud Company supplied the Royal Navy with binoculars , range finders throughout WW1 and WW2 and continued to try and make its way in the post war world against major optical companies who it seems were not afraid of B&S.

Barr and Stroud simply could not compete , their binoculars simply did not sell in the volume required and designs lacked the research and investment required.
The author tells the history of the company it products and problems, the perhaps less than fair reviews of their products in official tests.

Most interestingly there is a complete listing of all that they made in terms of binoculars , this is a hugely informative book and if you collect binoculars or have Barr and Stroud in numbers this is a book you will want to have.

Production wise a high quality stiff card back , very well produced, the font size is perfect diagrams and photos are small but reproduction is excellent.

What comes through is the range and variations of civilian binoculars which the firm made , and to be fair the quality of these sets is greatly under estimated - they remain very good and today cleaned and restored they are still a joy to use.
( I own about 30 of them mostly 7x50 , 7x40 , 10x50 and 12x50 sets).

Sadly the company is now gone , its name lives on in another optical range but it is not the Anniesland Company...... this is a really excellent book , my advice is if you can find a copy at reasonable price buy it and keep it.