Swarovski or Kowa scope for Digiscoping? (1 Viewer)

Hello Everyone,

Brand new to the forum and was looking for some advice as to what people feel is the best spotting scopes available for digiscoping.

Thanks,

Mitch

Hi Mitch,
I can only speak from my own experience, and I don't know what your budget is, but I first started digiscoping with a Celestron Ultima scope and results weren't very impressive at all.
There was no way I could afford a new top of the range scope so I went the second hand route, and bought a Leica APO 77, which I am delighted with.
I use a 32 wide angle eye piece which gives great results even just using a smart phone as the camera.
I'm sure more experienced members of BF will post and give you some more advice.
Sandy

Hi Mitch. The top line scopes of Kowa, Swaro, Leica and Zeiss should all be very good for digiscoping. The differences are more in the handling of accessories for digiscoping that are offered by the scope makers or others. Which one is preferable depends also with what kind of camera you want to digiscope.

Kowa have a lot of digiscoping accessories to choose from.

Kowa 883 + 25-60x, might be the best out there for digiscoping.
Fluorite crystal does the job keeping the photos CA-free.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNGwYGpsW0Y

PS. I have a Swaro scope myself so I'm not terribly biased towards any make.

Hi Mitch,

If those are the only two options you are considering, it is tough to choose one or the other. When choosing a spotting scope for digiscoping, more light is always better, so I always choose a larger objective lens. With that said, the cost of the Kowa is about half of what a Swarovski is, but don't let that fool you. The Kowa 88 (883/884) series is very popular among digiscopers. The Swarovski ATX 95 is also very popular, but double the price. I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Tim