Canon 10x30 IS Sticky Body

[lindaagee]

Camera body is disgusting. These binoculars are not cheap and work well except for this problem which makes them unusable. This is a manufacturer's defect and in my opinion, Canon should compensate the customer.

[shadowsports]

This eventually happens to all rubber/plasticized devices after years of handling.

The only way to fix is to have them recoated or dipped....  which is obviously not practical.   

Those must be old or were not stored properly.  This is what they look like when new.

[lindaagee]

These binoculars are about 10 years old, very lightly used and always stored in the case. I've had lots of binoculars and cameras over the years and never had this problem.  Will probably go with Nikon this time.

[Tintype_18]

Age will deteriorate things...me included. I have two bite alarms for fishing. Same problem as the rubber coating is sticky after nine years. I learned to live with it.

[Jeffbrew]

Bad as these look, this is not a hopeless case.

I had the same problem and fixed them quickly and with very little expense and effort. You can see the details in another post I wrote. The fix is to spray-coat them with several coats of lacquer (from a can - Rustoleum for example). Place them on a board - objective lenses down to protect them - and protect the eyepiece lenses with bottle-caps. Don’t worry. The spray lacquer won’t harm anything else.
Give the binoculars about 4 coats of lacquer  (do it outside!) about 30 minutes apart. A final coat or two after about a week is a good idea.
I did mine about a year ago and they are still fixed. I think they look kind of cool too, but maybe that’s just me.

[lindaagee]

I did that and I can hold them without getting black sticky stuff all over my hands but they're pretty ugly.

[Jeffbrew · Accepted solution]

I hear you. I guess that's a price to pay for valuing function over form. Mine are kinda funky too, but having them back in good working shape is satisfying enough to make it all positive for me.

[jkzt1000]

I used rubbing alcohol and a lot of paper towels to remove the sticky layer on my dad's binoculars.  Even touching them would leave black residue all over my hand.  He had been using duct tape to try to hold them.  Here's a picture after the cleaning:

[AndyRuina]

I had Canon IS II 12 x 36.  They were black and gummy.  I took a clean rag and a bottle of rubbing alcohol.  I put the rag around my finger, squirted on some alcohol and rubbed. When finger was black I did it again on a clean portion. After about 50  times of moving my finger over, taking  about half an hour, I got non-sticky binocs that look like those above.  I folded rag to get into small spots.  Maybe a tooth pick or Q-tip would have helped. But it went fine. 

[creaser]

I have exact same issue, it is nasty and makes them unusable. I would never have bought them if I would have known they are totally worthless after 10 years (shelf life). That is unacceptable.