Which scope?? (1 Viewer)

Barry Boswell · Sep 22, 2004

I am trying to gather enough information to make sure I make the right choice before spending a lot of my hard earned cah on a new scope. I was quite impressed with reviews I managed to find on the KOWA TSN 823M - BUT I remain unsure about the quality of the eye pieces compared to Swarovski.

I read Andy Bright's info (on www.digiscoped.com) and clearly he rates the Swarovski 20 - 60x eye piece very highly and the results shown seemed equal to a 30x eyepiece.

My questions are:
1. Is the Swarovski ATS80HD scope + 20 - 60 eye piece that much better than the than the Kowa TSN 823M?

2. Is the Swarovski worth the exta £500 or so?

I do not want to make a wrong choice as I figure I will only buy a scope once even though I may well change cameras over coming years.

Thanks, Barry Boswell.

IanF · Sep 23, 2004

Hi Barry,

I used to own the Kowa 823 and now own the Swarovski ATS80 HD.

The Swarovski is an excellent scope with very bright and clear optics and is more compact than the Kowa but uses a helical focus control. As you say the zoom is very good indeed. If you intend using the scope in dull conditions or towards dusk then the Swarovski is the better scope.

The Kowa 823 is a very nice scope as well and to be honest I still wish I hadn't sold it. The zoom eyepiece is exceptional. The view is very bright and crisp though it does suffer in duller conditions and towards dusk. I much preferred the focus control on the Kowa which is a different design to the Swarovski.

I used both scopes for digiscoping as well and found them to both produce decent enough photos, though I still think the Kowa had the edge. Certainly the focus control was better for digiscoping.

Overall I don't believe there is that much between them optically. The size and style of design are just as important to consider. The new Kowa eyepieces look to be very good ineed.

Best advice to to try them out at a dealer and see which suits you best though I'd strongly suggest also comparing the Leica APO and especially the Zeiss Diascope as well.

Barry Boswell · Sep 23, 2004

IanF said:
Hi Barry,

I used to own the Kowa 823 and now own the Swarovski ATS80 HD.

The Swarovski is an excellent scope with very bright and clear optics and is more compact than the Kowa but uses a helical focus control. As you say the zoom is very good indeed. If you intend using the scope in dull conditions or towards dusk then the Swarovski is the better scope.

The Kowa 823 is a very nice scope as well and to be honest I still wish I hadn't sold it. The zoom eyepiece is exceptional. The view is very bright and crisp though it does suffer in duller conditions and towards dusk. I much preferred the focus control on the Kowa which is a different design to the Swarovski.

I used both scopes for digiscoping as well and found them to both produce decent enough photos, though I still think the Kowa had the edge. Certainly the focus control was better for digiscoping.

Overall I don't believe there is that much between them optically. The size and style of design are just as important to consider. The new Kowa eyepieces look to be very good ineed.

Best advice to to try them out at a dealer and see which suits you best though I'd strongly suggest also comparing the Leica APO and especially the Zeiss Diascope as well.

Hi Ian,

Thank you for your answer. I will certainly gather info on the Leica APO and the Zeiss Diascope.

I am not an out and out "birder" - in fact my interests are probably photography first and bird watching second. I found out about digiscoping about 2 years ago and tried to match a Fujifilm camera with a Celestron scope with fairly dismal results, so if I spend a lot of money I want to get it right.

I am not so much concerned with the overall quality of Kowa versus Swarovski, as with the eye piece comparison. I know Kowa now do a wide 21x and 30x fixed eyepiece, but I saw Andy Bright's results using a Swarovski 20 - 60 zoom eyepiece and I wondered if I might get the same results with the Kowa 20 - 60x using say the Contax SL300RT camera. I understand Kowa have not upgraded their zoom eyepiece and it is narrower than the Swarovski. On the other hand I can obviously I can buy a Kowa 823 and several eyepieces for less than the cost of a top end Swarovski.

I will probably take a trip down to Ace Optics in Bath at some stage to do some physical comparisons, but I figure the more information I can go armed with, the better.

Anyway, thanks again for your help.

Barry Boswell.

Strandman · Sep 23, 2004

Kowa

Barry Boswell said:
I am not so much concerned with the overall quality of Kowa versus Swarovski, as with the eye piece comparison. I know Kowa now do a wide 21x and 30x fixed eyepiece, but I saw Andy Bright's results using a Swarovski 20 - 60 zoom eyepiece and I wondered if I might get the same results with the Kowa 20 - 60x using say the Contax SL300RT camera. I understand Kowa have not upgraded their zoom eyepiece and it is narrower than the Swarovski. On the other hand I can obviously I can buy a Kowa 823 and several eyepieces for less than the cost of a top end Swarovski.

I had the chance to compare my 32X Leica with a Kowa 20-60x while goose watching in E Europe in poor light and longish range this year. I was astonished by how well the Kowa performed at 40-50x. So if you are not a maniacal birder (and perhaps even if you are), the Contax+Kowa combo sounds pretty attractive and you could spend the saving on the digibirder's friend- a nice big heavy tripod.

snowyowl · Sep 23, 2004

This is probably a dumb question bur here goes anyway.
I'm planning to buy digital camera for digiscoping. I have a Leica Televid 77 scope witha 20 - 60 zoom eyepiece. I will probably buy a used Coolpix 990 or possibly a 4500. Then I need an adapter. I believe that the adapter screws into the lens opening of the 990 or 4500? My dumb question is: How does the adapter fasten to the scope eye piece? Or does it? Does it just fit against the scope without being actually fastened?
Some other questions are: Can anyone tell me specifically what adapter I need and where I might get one. How much is an adapter, approx.? I know some one who jurecently got charge $700 for an adapter (which then didn't work). :h?:

IanF · Sep 23, 2004

Personally I think the Kowa TSN 20-60x zoom is an excellent eyepiece. I used it on the scope for most of my digiscoping with that scope.

There are many examples in the Gallery of the results it can produce - a few on this link for that scope though with the CP4500.

Much as I like the CP990, the CP4500 has the edge. The Contax SLR300R*T is on a par with the CP990 if not slightly better for results and is a very easy camera to use.

Kowa 823 photos - some 20-60x and some 32xWA.

Barry Boswell · Sep 23, 2004

white-back said:
I had the chance to compare my 32X Leica with a Kowa 20-60x while goose watching in E Europe in poor light and longish range this year. I was astonished by how well the Kowa performed at 40-50x. So if you are not a maniacal birder (and perhaps even if you are), the Contax+Kowa combo sounds pretty attractive and you could spend the saving on the digibirder's friend- a nice big heavy tripod.

Many thanks for that. It does help steer me more towards the Kowa, which is welcome because it costs less. I already have a good Manfroto tripod which hopefully will be all I ever need.

Cheers, Barry Boswell.

Barry Boswell · Sep 23, 2004

IanF said:
Personally I think the Kowa TSN 20-60x zoom is an excellent eyepiece. I used it on the scope for most of my digiscoping with that scope.

There are many examples in the Gallery of the results it can produce - a few on this link for that scope though with the CP4500.

Much as I like the CP990, the CP4500 has the edge. The Contax SLR300R*T is on a par with the CP990 if not slightly better for results and is a very easy camera to use.

Kowa 823 photos - some 20-60x and some 32xWA.

Thanks for that Ian. I guess it pretty well makes up my mind regarding the Kowa scope. I looked at several of your pictures. You have no idea how much I would like to get some photos like those!!!

Barry Boswell

Barry Boswell · Sep 23, 2004

snowyowl said:
This is probably a dumb question bur here goes anyway.
I'm planning to buy digital camera for digiscoping. I have a Leica Televid 77 scope witha 20 - 60 zoom eyepiece. I will probably buy a used Coolpix 990 or possibly a 4500. Then I need an adapter. I believe that the adapter screws into the lens opening of the 990 or 4500? My dumb question is: How does the adapter fasten to the scope eye piece? Or does it? Does it just fit against the scope without being actually fastened?
Some other questions are: Can anyone tell me specifically what adapter I need and where I might get one. How much is an adapter, approx.? I know some one who jurecently got charge $700 for an adapter (which then didn't work). :h?:

I don't know the answer exactly. But you can get a lot of good info at:

www.digiscoped.com

Barry Boswell

alan_rymer · Sep 23, 2004

snowyowl said:
This is probably a dumb question bur here goes anyway.
I'm planning to buy digital camera for digiscoping. I have a Leica Televid 77 scope witha 20 - 60 zoom eyepiece. I will probably buy a used Coolpix 990 or possibly a 4500. Then I need an adapter. I believe that the adapter screws into the lens opening of the 990 or 4500? My dumb question is: How does the adapter fasten to the scope eye piece? Or does it? Does it just fit against the scope without being actually fastened?
Some other questions are: Can anyone tell me specifically what adapter I need and where I might get one. How much is an adapter, approx.? I know some one who jurecently got charge $700 for an adapter (which then didn't work). :h?:

To get the basics of digiscoping try Laurence Poh's site http://www.digiscoping.com Laurence was one of the guys who started "Digiscoping". Unfortunately he died very recently.
And Andy Brights site http://digiscopingukbirds.homestead.com/

Oh, and from a thread you have already posted on : http://www.lensadapter.com/

Hope that helps!

snowyowl · Sep 24, 2004

Thanks, I'll check out those two sites plus I got a very useful email from Jeff on the subject.

iporali · Sep 27, 2004

Barry Boswell said:
I am not so much concerned with the overall quality of Kowa versus Swarovski, as with the eye piece comparison. I know Kowa now do a wide 21x and 30x fixed eyepiece, but I saw Andy Bright's results using a Swarovski 20 - 60 zoom eyepiece and I wondered if I might get the same results with the Kowa 20 - 60x using say the Contax SL300RT camera. I understand Kowa have not upgraded their zoom eyepiece and it is narrower than the Swarovski. On the other hand I can obviously I can buy a Kowa 823 and several eyepieces for less than the cost of a top end Swarovski.

Barry,
As you probably know, the Swaro zooms are not significantly wider than the Kowa zoom, but its better eye-relief makes it easier to use the whole field-of-view. I warmly recommend you to try that Kowa 21x fixed eyepiece - on paper that is maybe the best eyepiece for digiscoping. And actually the new Kowa 27x long eye relief ep could even work with those "impossible" cameras like Canon G1-6 or the big Fuji.

I had earlier the same setup (Kowa TSN823) as Ian and if I had been aware of the new line of eyepieces, I probably wouldn't have switched to the Swaro AT80HD. Having said that I do prefer the Swaro zoom(s) - and I think the helical focus wheel (at least on the AT body) is OK.

Ilkka

snowyowl · Sep 29, 2004

I finally made a decision on what to buy and yesterday I ordered a Coolpix 4500.
I decided on that model rather than the 990 because I could get a 4500 new with a full manufacturer's warranty. Today I'll be ordering the adapter from Eagleeye.
Both of my old 35 mm are pretty much worn out and my Kodak digital just doesn't cut it compared to newer cameras, besides it was useless for digiscoping.
I'm really excited and looking forward to receiving the new gear. I don't know how long it will take me to gain some sort of skill in diigscoping but I should have lots of fun (and probably a lot of frustration) getting up to speed.
I'm sure that someone will think that I should have ordered something else such as the Cooltrax 3500 but please don't tell me. I bought what I could afford so let me enjoy myself.

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Andy V · Sep 29, 2004

iporali said:
And actually the new Kowa 27x long eye relief ep could even work with those "impossible" cameras like Canon G1-6 or the big Fuji.

ooo now thats got me thinking (I have the s7000 fuji)

I was resigning myself to buying another camera, but I wonder if I could try one of these long eye relief thingies.......

Anyone know somewhere around the midlands (uk) that would have one in stock for me to go put my camera up against?

Which scope?? (1 Viewer)

More options

Barry Boswell

Well-known member

IanF

Moderator

Barry Boswell

Well-known member

Strandman

Well-known member

snowyowl

Well-known member

IanF

Moderator

Attachments

Barry Boswell

Well-known member

Barry Boswell

Well-known member

Barry Boswell

Well-known member

alan_rymer

Well-known member

snowyowl

Well-known member

iporali

Well-known member

snowyowl

Well-known member

Andy V

absolutely quackers

Similar threads

Users who are viewing this thread