wide 50x ds lens (1 Viewer)

I have had a ed82a for a year now i have the 25-75 zoom and the 30x ds.

I love the 30x ds setup and use it most of the time, but i find the zoom lacking when zooming higher up the magnification. whereas the 30x ds more than holds its own against swaros etc the zoom i think is way off.

Its such a shame nikon couldnt improve on this zoom for this older scope. Oh well.

I was wondering if anyone knows how much improvement the 50x ds fixed lens has over the zoom at this magnification if any. Perhaps you have both eye pieces. Before i spend out the £240 i wanted to see if the benifits are worth the cash!

Thanks for your help.

Hi Mark, I used to have an ED82A with 30x and zoom, and also a 50x which I used on the ED50 (as 27x). I eventually sold the ED82A precisely for the reasons you mention - the narrow FOV of the zoom, especially at high mag. I tried the 50x on it a few times, but found the loss of brightness and FOV made it "neither fish nor fowl" - neither zoom nor pleasantly wide like the 30x. I´ve since changed a few times, and now use a Swaro HD80 with the 25-50x, which for me is the best of both worlds - wide at 25x as "default" mag, and a zoom to double this when required. On rare occasions, though, I miss the top 75x mag of the Nikon zoom, so as always it´s a question of which swings and roundabouts you´re willing to sacrifice.

Sancho, It is hard to keep up with your spotting scope selection, last time I heard you were using a Zeiss with an aftermarket eyepiece. :t:

mooreorless said:

Sancho, It is hard to keep up with your spotting scope selection, last time I heard you were using a Zeiss with an aftermarket eyepiece. :t:

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Hiya Steve, yes the Zeiss with the Baader zoom was a big improvement on the Nikon ED82A & zoom, if you´re a zoom fan. Disadvantages for the OP are the Zeiss doesn´t have helical focussing (if that´s what he prefers), and although the Baader zooms up to about 63x and is very wide, the eyepiece isn´t waterproof, and the Zeiss scope gives a yellowish cast that I became dissatisfied with. (Very fickle and choosy, me.) Again, swings and roundabouts, and it´s a luxury to be able to change one´s mind. There´s generally a pretty good market for 2nd-hand scopes if one wants to change (i.e. both to sell and buy), and if the OP hangs about, something will come up (I got the Swaro from SWoptics in the UK at a good price). I realise that he didn´t ask about replacing his Nikon ED82A, which is a very fine "alpha"-class scope, so maybe he should accept the narrower zoom and stay off the path to perdition.

Slightly off topic ...

Sancho said:

Baader zooms up to about 63x and is very wide, the eyepiece isn´t waterproof

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You're not keeping up Sancho

Baader now have a version three of the zoom that's "waterproof" (i.e. more realistically rain proof but I suspect not immersion waterproof) by adding seals at the ocular end amongst other mechanical changes.

It's a useful improvement for birders. Shows Baader is paying attention to terrestrial users.

And it's rather less expensive than the Zeiss zooms (though I suspect you can dunk them without a problem). But as you say the road to perdition is paved with improved wide AFOV zooms.

To go back to the OPs original problem.

Any fixed EP AFOV will beat any zoom's AFOV except at the highest magnifications when both will be dimmer from the increased magnification. The 50x may be a little wider than the zoom. Perhaps a fraction brighter (fewer surfaces to loose light in the less complicated EP) but not by much.