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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

New scope from Zeiss... (1 Viewer)

Tried the new Harpia shortly at Falsterbo Bird Show and I wasn't impressed. I was not able to get a sharp or nearly sharp focus at highest magnificaton, no matter how hard I tried. Hope it was a faulty unit.
 
Tried the new Harpia shortly at Falsterbo Bird Show and I wasn't impressed. I was not able to get a sharp or nearly sharp focus at highest magnificaton, no matter how hard I tried. Hope it was a faulty unit.

Hi,

thanks for the info - to put this in perspective, what were the conditions?

Inside or outside? Through a window? Distance? Weather conditions?

At 75x seeing could spoil the view.

TIA,

Joachim
 
The units I tried at Bird Fair were all pin-sharp at max magnification. Since Zeiss is talking about availability next January we can take it that all the units floating around are pre-production prototypes.

Lee
 
As always, we won't know how good these scopes are until they are carefully tested under controlled conditions. Certainly the reduced effective apertures and crazy low focal ratios make them, even more than usual, guilty until proven innocent.

I tried a little experiment to simulate how the 2.5mm exit pupil at 23x might affect image brightness by placing a removable 50mm mask over the my 90mm Takahashi Sky 90 at 20x. Flipping the mask into the light path resulted in an obviously dimmed image in all but the brightest daylight. Anyone would notice it on a cloudy day, provided a 4mm exit pupil image is available for instantaneous comparison; but without a brighter reference image, maybe not. I hope that this design doesn't take its inspiration from binoculars, where "just good enough" is the acceptable standard.
 
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Hi,

thanks for the info - to put this in perspective, what were the conditions?

Inside or outside? Through a window? Distance? Weather conditions?

At 75x seeing could spoil the view.

TIA,

Joachim

It was outside and in good condition, at about 50 meters. Tried Swarovski at the same time and it was pin sharp. So it must have been a bad unit.
 
Magnifying the failure

It doesn't make much sense using a not good unit as a demo in a bird fair. Would it be due to the dual-speed focus that didn't allow you to reach a perfect focus?

No it doesnt..yet it seems to be a trend ,because Kowa also used substandard preproduction units of their Prominar 55 to send around to the reviewers ,that then pointed to them the low quality of their product ,so they can improve final product quality to the highest standards .
 
It doesn't make much sense using a not good unit as a demo in a bird fair. Would it be due to the dual-speed focus that didn't allow you to reach a perfect focus?

Although I didn't spend much time with, others were waiting, I did spend enough time trying to get a perfect focus and no matter what, it just didn't happen. I even tried a Opticron HR at the nearby tent and it was better. That's why I'm sure it must have been a bad unit, even though the Opticron is good, it can't be better than the Harpia.
 
We received consumer pricing on the Harpias this morning. 85mm body is $3299.99, 95mm body is $3749.99, eyepiece is $700. We're in the process of uploading specs and images. The products will be active on our site by Monday, 10/2.
 
I had a brief opportunity to try out the new scope at the American Birding Expo this past weekend. I was extremely impressed with the optical performance. I really did not have much time but there really wasn't anything optically, and at any magnification, that was nothing short of impressive. That consistent apparent field of view is truly another step forward.
 
The Zeiss Victory Harpia 85mm and 95mm scopes are now on our website, available for pre-order. It's interesting that the eyepiece is sold separately, since no other eyepieces are available. I'm looking forward to lining them up with the competitors.
 
I had a brief opportunity to try out the new scope at the American Birding Expo this past weekend. I was extremely impressed with the optical performance. I really did not have much time but there really wasn't anything optically, and at any magnification, that was nothing short of impressive. That consistent apparent field of view is truly another step forward.

How did you feel about the depth of field. I found the Gavia’s DOF to be very shallow and with the smallest movement the subject was out of focus.
 
CaF2 is not Fl Glass

Dear Steve,

The Zeiss Victory Harpia 85mm and 95mm scopes are now on our website, available for pre-order. It's interesting that the eyepiece is sold separately, since no other eyepieces are available. I'm looking forward to lining them up with the competitors.

The CARL ZEISS HARPIA contains lenses from SCHOTT that contain a fairly high amount of fluoride ions. As stated by CARL ZEISS. Fluoride (glass with fluoride ions melted into) is not fluorite (CaF2 crystal).

Your website states in the description of the new HARPIA´s (http://www.optics4birding.com/zeiss-victory-harpia-95-spotting-scopes.html), that the new HARPIA´s contain one or more lenses made from pure Fl- crystal, this is simply not the case.

Please correct that error. Thank you very much.

The only spotting scopes currently made with lenses polished from pure, artificially grown CaF2- crystal (made by CANON, see here: http://www.canon.com/the-eyes-of-eo...echnology/canon-optical-technology/index.html) are those KOWA PROMINAR spotting scopes TSN 880 and 550 series we all know and love.

The difference in chromatic aberration correction ability and the advantages for the overall optical design (correction of image aberrations) is present when working with CaF2. Its only drawback is the much higher production cost of CaF2 crystals and the fact that this crystal material is much more difficult to polish accurately as it is fairly soft.

All the best
Michael
 
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Forgot to add the Link

Dear Steve,



The CARL ZEISS HARPIA contains lenses from SCHOTT that contain a fairly high amount of fluoride ions. As stated by CARL ZEISS. Fluoride (glass with fluoride ions melted into) is not fluorite (CaF2 crystal).

Your website states in the description of the new HARPIA´s (http://www.optics4birding.com/zeiss-victory-harpia-95-spotting-scopes.html), that the new HARPIA´s contain one or more lenses made from pure Fl- crystal, this is simply not the case.

Please correct that error. Thank you very much.

The only spotting scopes currently made with lenses polished from pure, artificially grown CaF2- crystal (made by CANON, see here: http://www.canon.com/the-eyes-of-eo...echnology/canon-optical-technology/index.html) are those KOWA PROMINAR spotting scopes TSN 880 and 550 series we all know and love.

The difference in chromatic aberration correction ability and the advantages for the overall optical design (correction of image aberrations) is present when working with CaF2. Its only drawback is the much higher production cost of CaF2 crystals and the fact that this crystal material is much more difficult to polish accurately as it is fairly soft.

All the best
Michael

Dear All,
I forgot to quote the link from CARL ZEISS:

https://www.zeiss.com/sports-optics/en_de/nature/spotting-scopes/victory-harpia.html

It says: "Elaborate lens system
FL glass and other custom glass ensure an absolutely sharp and colour fidelity image even at maximum magnification."

And this is true.

P.S.: I did not want to offend anybody here with my previous post.

Performance in optics is not what a manufacturer is capable to do but what is possible to be done by an amount of money the end user can afford/ shell out.

Thanks
Michael
 
Dear All,
I forgot to quote the link from CARL ZEISS:

https://www.zeiss.com/sports-optics/en_de/nature/spotting-scopes/victory-harpia.html

It says: "Elaborate lens system
FL glass and other custom glass ensure an absolutely sharp and colour fidelity image even at maximum magnification."

And this is true.

P.S.: I did not want to offend anybody here with my previous post.

Performance in optics is not what a manufacturer is capable to do but what is possible to be done by an amount of money the end user can afford/ shell out.

Thanks
Michael

Thanks for catching that, Michael. I've already made the corrections. I don't know where the kid who wrote that would have seen that incorrect information. I'll have a chat with him next time he comes in.
 
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