BruceH
Avatar: Harris Hawk
The third annual American Birding Expo will be starting soon and it is one of the few events in the U.S. with a good representation of the optics manufacturers.
Dates: Friday, September 29th through Sunday, October 1st, 2017
Location: Greater Philadelphia Expo Center outside of Philadelphia, PA USA
Entry: $10
https://www.americanbirdingexpo.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUcgIZkYd0E
This expo is hosted by Bird Watcher's Digest with the intent to eventually grow into something similar to Birdfair in the UK. The first two events were held in Ohio. Most vendor exhibits in the U.S. are part of a birding festival where the primary objective of this event is to highlight birding related products and services. It does however offer free morning bird walks, workshops and special presentations.
Birdforum has a good number of members from PA so hopefully some will be able to attend and report back on what they experienced.
Optics Related Companies Attending:
- Zeiss
- Celestron
- Fujifilm
- Opticron
- Leica
- Kowa
- Swarovski
- Tamron
- Spectrum Birding
https://www.americanbirdingexpo.com/about-the-expo/vendors/?service_id=24
It is disappointing not to see Nikon or Canon listed. This is especially true for Nikon since there are a lot of birders using Monarchs and Nikon has recently introduced the Monarch HG 8X42, a great birding binocular. Tract Opics also looks to be among the missing. That is a shame since they are not that far away and could have shown some support to the birding community by being an exhibitor.
Optics to look for ......
Zeiss: Hopefully Zeiss sent over the new Harpia Victory line scope prototypes from Birdfair. They may also have the new compacts but they were in short supply last month and not available for the Tucson show.
Leica: Maybe the new retro Trinovid. They should have the new Trinovid 32mm and the still somewhat new Noctivid.
Swarovski: Check out the recently released Binoviewer for the scopes. It really works.
Opticron: They have had several new products this last year. Two that caught my interest are the 32 mm Traveller binocular and the 42 mm iMagic BGA VHD. I bought a 10X42 iMagic recently as part of the Eagle closeout and it is very impressive and will give the Zeiss Conquest a good challenge. Opticron has been great about attending bird festivals around the U.S.
Kowa: A couple of new small scopes, the 500 and 550 series.
Celeston: Not sure, so maybe someone can comment on what they may have of special interest.
It is common for the manufacturers to offer some sort of show specials such as a price discount or free accessories at the shows.
It should be a good time for those who can attend. Please let us know how it goes.
Dates: Friday, September 29th through Sunday, October 1st, 2017
Location: Greater Philadelphia Expo Center outside of Philadelphia, PA USA
Entry: $10
https://www.americanbirdingexpo.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUcgIZkYd0E
This expo is hosted by Bird Watcher's Digest with the intent to eventually grow into something similar to Birdfair in the UK. The first two events were held in Ohio. Most vendor exhibits in the U.S. are part of a birding festival where the primary objective of this event is to highlight birding related products and services. It does however offer free morning bird walks, workshops and special presentations.
Birdforum has a good number of members from PA so hopefully some will be able to attend and report back on what they experienced.
Optics Related Companies Attending:
- Zeiss
- Celestron
- Fujifilm
- Opticron
- Leica
- Kowa
- Swarovski
- Tamron
- Spectrum Birding
https://www.americanbirdingexpo.com/about-the-expo/vendors/?service_id=24
It is disappointing not to see Nikon or Canon listed. This is especially true for Nikon since there are a lot of birders using Monarchs and Nikon has recently introduced the Monarch HG 8X42, a great birding binocular. Tract Opics also looks to be among the missing. That is a shame since they are not that far away and could have shown some support to the birding community by being an exhibitor.
Optics to look for ......
Zeiss: Hopefully Zeiss sent over the new Harpia Victory line scope prototypes from Birdfair. They may also have the new compacts but they were in short supply last month and not available for the Tucson show.
Leica: Maybe the new retro Trinovid. They should have the new Trinovid 32mm and the still somewhat new Noctivid.
Swarovski: Check out the recently released Binoviewer for the scopes. It really works.
Opticron: They have had several new products this last year. Two that caught my interest are the 32 mm Traveller binocular and the 42 mm iMagic BGA VHD. I bought a 10X42 iMagic recently as part of the Eagle closeout and it is very impressive and will give the Zeiss Conquest a good challenge. Opticron has been great about attending bird festivals around the U.S.
Kowa: A couple of new small scopes, the 500 and 550 series.
Celeston: Not sure, so maybe someone can comment on what they may have of special interest.
It is common for the manufacturers to offer some sort of show specials such as a price discount or free accessories at the shows.
It should be a good time for those who can attend. Please let us know how it goes.
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