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Swarovski scope, eyepiece and tripod - £1375 to spend (1 Viewer)

JRE

JRE

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Hi all.
In October 2006 I was involved in a car crash and was told I would receive some compensation.
13 months later and after a nervous morning in court I have been granted the sum of £1375.
It has long been my dream to own a Swarovski scope (I already have a good pair of bins) and with the money I have, can anyone recommend a Swaro scope + eyepiece and a decent tripod combination within the budget that I have?
Many thanks
J
 
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Jyothi Ray said:
Hi all.
In October 2006 I was involved in a car crash and was told I would receive some compensation.
13 months later and after a nervous morning in court I have been granted the sum of £1375.
It has long been my dream to own a Swarovski scope (I already have a good pair of bins) and with the money I have, can anyone recommend a Swaro scope + eyepiece and a decent tripod combination within the budget that I have?
Many thanks
J
Click to expand...

You might want to check out the new Leica scope before you spend. It looks mint, although i dont know when its out or how much. If not, you should get an ATS 80hd or STS 80 hd retailing at about 1,170 pounds for body only. South West optics are doing a special bundle, Scope, eve piece, stay on case and carbon fibre tripod for £1669. Have a look on the Links page on Cornwall Birding for South West Optics.
 
I reckon for that I'd go for the 65HD (£857) with zoom (£292) with a Manfrotto 055 tripod and a 128 head (£169)... so all in that's £1318. The 80 will give you a bit more but will send you way over budget if you go for the HD version. The HD 65 is better than the standard 80.
 
I agree - the HD65 is not so bulky, either and its light gathering power is excellent. The alternatives of Leica, Kowa and Zeiss should be considered but if your heart is set on the Swaro, then who can argue?
 
I don´t want to confuse the issue, Jyothi Ray, but I remember your post about the car-crash and I sincerely hope you and your Mum are both well and fully recovered, which is the important thing. On the Scope question, how about a Nikon ED82A with a 30xw ep and one of the standard Manfrotto tripods? I had the Swaro HD65, it´s lovely, but I keep on banging on ad nauseaum (sorry folks) that I prefer the ED82A, and you´d have a lot of change out of your compensation money. As a student, that must be a priority!;)
 
Sancho said:
On the Scope question, how about a Nikon ED82A with a 30xw ep and one of the standard Manfrotto tripods? I had the Swaro HD65, it´s lovely, but I keep on banging on ad nauseaum (sorry folks) that I prefer the ED82A, and you´d have a lot of change out of your compensation money. As a student, that must be a priority!;)
Click to expand...

I agree that the ED82 is a good scope and well worth a look, though personally when I compared I preferred the Swaro (which I why I now use one).

The best thing to do really is get to a shop and test the scopes for yourself, as should be apparent from the forum different people will reach different conclusions when testing the same scopes. The really important thing is which is you prefer to use.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions, they're much appreciated. At the moment I'm straying towards the Swarovski ATS 65HD, but tomorrow I'll call the local LCE and see what they have in stock and when their next field day is. Definitely like to try out as much as possible before making a decision.
Cheers
J
 
Thank you Joanne and Sancho, my mum and i were very lucky indeed, we escaped with little injury other than the obvious emotional, and a few cuts and bruises and severe whiplash.

I have almost come to a decision on the Swarovski ATS 65HD, however I have been in a dilemma over eyepieces. My budget will only stretch to include one eyepiece, and I have been weighing up the rival attractions of 20-60, 45x, and 30x.
Any thoughts?
 
You may want to compare the area of field of the Swarovski's zoom with the Zeiss 85/65.

If you're going for the smaller scope, you're probably interested in overall weight: the Manfrotto 700RC2 weighs just over 17 oz., the 128RC just over 37 oz.

The carbon fibre Benro tripods have a more birder-friendly design than the Manfrottos IMO. They're significantly lighter, well-priced, coming in three series covering smaller and larger scopes, with 3 and 4 section legs. The Manfrotto 055CL equivalent is the Benro C-257n6, about 1 1/2 pounds lighter, only lacking the very long centre column of the Manfrotto, occasionally useful for very high views of birds with a straight, larger scope.

Mike
 
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you could get a Nikon ED82 and have a heck of a lot of cash left over. It's an excellent scope, easily as good as anyone could wish for (no, I don't have one). Or a Nikon ED 60 (likewise brilliant optically) or either of those two AND a Nikon ED 50 (excellent) and STILL have a reasonable sum left over for a birding holiday somewhere interesting.

ED60 529
ED82 669
ED50 239

and a wide angle eyepiece to fit all 199.

A lightweight travel / migrant hunting scope AND a large raptor, gull, seawatching scope for 1100

or even better go second hand. And get a second hand tripod. My manfrotto is 16 years old and despite looking battered works as smoothly as the day i bought it.
 
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Definitely look through the Zeiss. I know several birders who prefer this over the Swarovski... very wide field of view and light-gathering on the zoom is fantastic.
 
I use a 30X all of the time on my 65HD and it is excellent. Tim does have good point though, a Nikon ED 60 is an excellent scope that would leave you a lot of change for other goodies, like a digiscoping kit for instance.
 
If you get the HD65 and want just one ep, go for the 30xw, I reckon. It´s superb. Yes, the Swaro zoom is narrow in FOV (not nearly as narrow as the Nikon zoom, though). The more I think about it, the more I reckon Tim Allwood´s advice is the best....wait, don´t rush into anything, you´ll get something secondhand in mint condition and save a fortune. Go to the optics stores, decide what you like, then wait for it to come up on the Classifieds threads here. Which it´s sure to...there are enough idiots like me out there who´ve fallen for the "upgrade" bug (not that it´s made my birding one whit better...;))
 
Or save your money and take you and your mum for a well earned rest to Majorca in May, or Lesvos, etc. The memories you gain will be far better than any new scope or bins.
 
You probably already know that the quality of sports optics varies from sample to sample in ways that make a difference for birding. IMO some retailers are more interested in making sure that you get a decent sample. Eagle Optics' 30 day return period gives you time to conclusively check out a scope.

Mike
 
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Lots of advice here. If you're going with the Swaro, then I'd say that their zoom is the eyepiece of choice as it is so flexible. The Swaro 30x is a very fine eyepiece for sure - so wide and bright, but lacks the flexibility of the zoom.

My own view is that the Zeiss zoom is the best of the crop owing to its uniquely wide field of view but you won't go far wrong with Swaro. As has been suggested, the Nikon EDIII with zoom is also top notch kit and will give you what you need as well as saving money for a decent tripod.
 
scampo said:
My own view is that the Zeiss zoom is the best of the crop owing to its uniquely wide field of view but you won't go far wrong with Swaro. As has been suggested, the Nikon EDIII with zoom is also top notch kit and will give you what you need as well as saving money for a decent tripod.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure the Zeiss is unique anymore, the new Kowa zoom has a similarly wide FOV and from what I've read so will the new Leica.

Back to Swaro eyepeices, if you're only getting one eyepeice then forget the 45x, it's fine as a second one, but a bit much on it's own. Then really it's a choice between the wider angle of the 30x or the versatility of the zoom. Personally I went for the zoom, it is excellent and stays sharp right up to 60x.
 
I'm looking forward to seeing a Kowa 883 with zoom, as well as the Leicas at Point Pelee next May at Pelee Wings.

The field of view of the Kowa zoom at 20x is 115 feet at 1000 yards, while the FOV of the Zeiss zoom is 129 feet at the same magnification and distance.

Thanks to a previous posting by a birder who pointed out that a difference in FOV accounts for a significantly larger gain in what birders are really interested in: the area of field. When you calculate the area of field produced by these diameters, the difference in FOV between the two eyepieces of about 10% accounts for a difference in area of field of just over 20%.

Mike
 
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