NEW Kowa 25x-60x Wide Angle Zoom! (1 Viewer)

RJM · Jan 12, 2013

Kowa Japan has just announced the new PROMINAR TE-11WZ 25x-60x Wide Zoom eyepiece for their 88x/77x series scopes and 500mm f5.6 Photoscope. This eyepiece looks to be a digiscoping dream. Retail discount price currently JPY67,000 available next week Jan 15.

Highlights for 88x/77x users include:

First eyepiece to have the PROMINAR quality designation
Min 60° AFoV at 25x expanding to ~80° at 60x!
Same 2.4° TFoV as the TE-17W 30x Wide
Larger AFoV at 40x-60x than the current 30x wide eyepiece (72°)
Employs two XD lenses
Constant 17mm eyerelief thru the zoom range

Read short field reports with various cameras here.
Close up pic here.

Photoscope users get 28x-66x magnification but a correspondingly small reduction in TFoV.

dipped · Jan 12, 2013

If only Nikon would make something like this for their fieldscope range I'm sure there would be a lot of takers.

Peddler · Jan 12, 2013

RJM said:
Kowa Japan has just announced the new PROMINAR TE-11WZ 25x-60x Wide Zoom eyepiece for their 88x/77x series scopes and 500mm f5.6 Photoscope. This eyepiece looks to be a digiscoping dream. Retail discount price currently JPY67,000 available next week Jan 15.

Highlights for 88x/77x users include:

First eyepiece to have the PROMINAR quality designation
Min 60° AFoV at 25x expanding to ~80° at 60x!
Same 2.4° TFoV as the TE-17W 30x Wide
Larger AFoV at 40x-60x than the current 30x wide eyepiece (72°)
Employs two XD lenses
Constant 17mm eyerelief thru the zoom range

Read short field reports with various cameras here.
Close up pic here.

Photoscope users get 28x-66x magnification but a correspondingly small reduction in TFoV.

I'm told end of March in the U.S. We were told about it in Dec.

Peddler

kabsetz · Jan 13, 2013

RJM,

Thanks for the news. This looks good. Now, can you kindly ask the good people at Kowa to do an upscaled (or downscaled as far as ep focal lengths) version of this that would do 30-72x or 35-84x on the 77x/88x scopes?

- Kimmo

SEOW · Jan 13, 2013

yes, or at least an astro adapter that would give the possibility of higher mags.

RJM · Jan 14, 2013

kabsetz said:
RJM,

Thanks for the news. This looks good. Now, can you kindly ask the good people at Kowa to do an upscaled (or downscaled as far as ep focal lengths) version of this that would do 30-72x or 35-84x on the 77x/88x scopes?

- Kimmo

Kimmo, I had the impression you just bought a Swaro ATX95. Am I mistaken? What about the current Zeiss 85/20x-75x?

Frankly, Kowa's response to the Swaro/Leica 25x-50x Wide Angle was long overdue. But I'm happy to see Kowa may now have surpassed their designs with this new eyepiece.

I know here at least the Kowa 884/774 straight scopes outsell angled models by considerable margin as most folks in Japan seem to be digiscopers while the seemingly few watchers tend towards smaller 60mm class scopes.

So while I feel a new high mag eyepiece is NOT in demand here at all, an adapter to allow astro 1.25" eyepieces would be welcome for those of us wanting to test the optical limits. Of course, Kowa must consider any lost eyepiece sales as a result and did apparently squash an attempt to sell a third party adapter by one of our retail stores a few years back.

Neil · Jan 14, 2013

This sounds very interesting although the fixed ER of 17 mm seems a bit low. Shouldn't bother the Nikon V1/V2 and the Sony RX 100 though.
Neil.

kabsetz · Jan 14, 2013

RJM,

No, I haven't bought an ATX 95 yet. There's a waiting list, and my number is not up for a while.

As far as where the new eyepiece takes Kowa, that remains to be seen when we see the view through it. From the specifications, it looks like it will equal but not exceed the ATX85. The ATX95 has an 8% resolution advantage over the Kowa from aperture alone, and in practice more because of the 20% higher magnification. The magnification gives diminishing returns, but returns nonetheless. In a test I did recently, an optically slightly better sample of the 883 lost out to the ATX95 by about 14% in resolving distance.

So I'm happy that the Kowa is becoming better, but without good eyepieces with higher magnifications, it will not become a serious choice for me or for other birders who place ultimate ID detail detection highest among their priorities.

As for the Zeiss 20-75x zoom on the Diascope 85, I am yet to see a sample that would be not only equal but better in resolution than my current Nikon ED 82 A. The Kowa is, but only with a booster, not with the 20/25-60x zoom.

Kimmo

kwikstaart · Jan 14, 2013

Looks great news! The fact that they use XD-lenses in the oculair should improve the view. Could anybody tell me what the FOV in m/1000m is? I thought that my 30x has a field of view of 42m/1000m.

I'm very curious!

SEOW · Jan 14, 2013

kwikstaart,

At 25x, the new zoom's FOV is 42m at 1000 m, same as Kowa's 30x fixed ep.

binomania · Jan 15, 2013

SEOW said:
kwikstaart,

At 25x, the new zoom's FOV is 42m at 1000 m, same as Kowa's 30x fixed ep.

Hi to All. I will inform you that i will receive an exemplar of this new zoom in the next days. I will send you some photos, i hope to finish my review before the end of January. Best Regards!
Piergiovanni

SEOW · Jan 15, 2013

Awesome, thanks, looking forward to review Piergiovanni- especially how the Kowa w/ new zoom stacks up against the Swaro 85 & 95

DRodrigues · Jan 15, 2013

Nice specs but something is not well: - the 60x FOV at 1000m is equal to the one of the ATX85 at 60X... If the 60x AFOV of the Swaro is 71º the one of Kowa can't be 80º! Anyway, Kowa managed to do in a eyepiece what Swaro accomplished with all ocular system, besides eye-relief. If I preferred the 30-60x zoom of the Meopta to the 25-50x of Swaro and Leica, now would prefer Kowa if it would reach focus in my Optolyth 100...
I should add that I already would have a 20-75x Zeiss zoom if it would reach focus on my scope. Don't understand why scope producers don't produce a 1.25" astro version of their eps since would sell much more eps...

RJM · Jan 15, 2013

David, the AFoV figures are mine. I just used the quick and easy calculation for AFoV.
Kowa TFoV 1.32° x 60 = 79.2° or ~80°
Swaro TFoV 1.3° x 60 = 78°

DRodrigues · Jan 15, 2013

Ok Rick,
I didn't the calculations with the 1.3º since Swaro mentions 71º... I don't understand why!?!?!?

binomania · Jan 17, 2013

Hi to all. The eyepiece has arrived.
This evening I'll test it on the stars (now , unfortunately i am busy)
and tomorrow I will start the test "on the field".
At the moment my first impressions are positive. Flat field to the edge, very bright and contrasted. Excellent apparent field of view! Thanks kowa!
Piergiovanni

DRodrigues · Jan 18, 2013

Baader Zoom

Piergiovanni,
Since you have the astro-adapter it would be also interesting if you could compare the new ep also with the baader zoom on the Kowa if it reaches focus...

binomania · Jan 18, 2013

DRodrigues said:
Piergiovanni,
Since you have the astro-adapter it would be also interesting if you could compare the new ep also with the baader zoom on the Kowa if it reaches focus...

Hi I've also the baader zoom but it does'nt reach the focus with my kowa 883. I am sorry.

wachipilotes · Jan 23, 2013

Hello
This new zoom is valid for all series of TSN?

Birdman7 · Feb 1, 2013

New Zoom

Il have the new eye-piece in my hands in a couple of weeks.

Will be using it in one of my digiscoping workshops soon.

NEW Kowa 25x-60x Wide Angle Zoom! (1 Viewer)

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