Which Eye piece

[neil e]

Hi I am look for help with which eye piece to go for zoom or fixed 32x. Dose anyone have any advise on this.
Many Thanks Neil

[robinm]

I think overall a zoom eyepiece gives you more flexibility when digiscoping. However, I prefer my 32ww (I have a Leica APO77) for general birdwatching so I take a lot of my photos with that and get good results. I am sure you will get several different answers to this question.

[Reader]

I have both with my Kowa 824 and I find them both invaluable in different circumstances. The 32x WA gives me better chances of good photos and is invaluable for sea watching or anywhere where there is a wide vista. the zoom obviously doulbles the magnitude and helps find you distant birds.

It also depends on which scope you have. Not all zoom eyepieces are as good as others as some get quite dark at the high magnitudes.

If you were to go for one eyepiece only then, in my opinion, I would go for the zoom and wait a bit longer until you can afford the 32x. They both have their place in your scope attachments.

BTW may I say, on behalf of the entire forum Moderators make I take this opportunity to give you a warm welcome to this friendly forum. If there are any other questions you feel like asking, then please ask away as there are plenty of people in this forum only too willing to share their knowledge.

We have enough knowledge in this forum to cover virtually any subject on birding / photography plus many other subjects.

Take a good look at the gallery (if you haven't done so already) and you will be amazed at the quality of most of the images contained in there.

Finally, I speak for everyone I would think, we are looking forward to the many birding day out reports you can put into the forum and also any photos you can put into the gallery.

I hope you enjoy being a member of the fastest growing bird forum in the world.

[Dave Smith]

I have both eyepieces with a Swarovski 80mm. I use the 32WA most of the time. The wide view seems more natural and gives a wider field than the 20x of the zoom. When I only had the zoom I used it mostly in the 20 - 30x range. Even so, if I could only choose one eyepiece it would be the zoom as it covers all circumstances.
I have used both eyepieces for digiscoping but prefer the smaller WA as there is less weight with the camera to unbalance the scope.
Nice to see another Essex birder joining the Forum. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

[mak]

Neil.

Generally you will find that the fixed magnification eyepieces give a wider field of view than the variable magnification eyepieces.

There are in my opinion 4 variable magnification eyepieces that are suitable, a lot of them give such poor images at high magnification and the exit pupil is too small. Kowa, Leica Swarovski & Zeiss.

With variable magnification eyepieces you will find that a wide angled field of view is obtainable only at the top end of the maginification range. A 20x fixed eyepiece with wide angled field of view, will have a wider field of view than 20x magnification on a variable eyepiece.