New Televid 82 mm (1 Viewer)

I almost wonder if the ridiculous pricing means that Leica is dropping out of the "professional" market like it did with its camera years ago? Probably not, since I wouldn't think scopes would have much appeal to the carriage trade as compared to cameras (or to binoculars, for that matter).

fugl said:

... I wouldn't think scopes would have much appeal to the carriage trade as compared to cameras (or to binoculars, for that matter).

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Could you translate this for non natives, please?

Edit: Oh, I found it, "trade to upperclass customers".

John Traynor said:

The scope is free.
Leica's new warranty, however, will cost you $400(USD) per year...in advance.
Truly, a remarkable deal.
John

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You would think that Leica would offer a lifetime warranty on a $4000 scope--don't they have the confidence in their new optics to go beyond ten years? I'll stick with my 'lifer' Swaro! :eek!:

I'm a huge Leica fan and currently own a straight 77 APO. I was eagerly anticipating the 82 APO and was prepared to pay a premium. Unfortunately, Leica has completely missed the boat with it's pricing as far as I'm concerned. $4000 is extraordinary when there are several other very good scopes available. I find this to be a bit of a shame since I was guessing this scope to be in the $2500-2800 dollar range at the most. They've lost my business.

I would certainly like to see a side by side comparison between the Leica 82mm APO and the Kowa 88mm APO.

At this point I don't see why someone wanting a large APO spotting scope would pick the Leica 82mm.

Rich N said:

I don't see why someone wanting a large APO spotting scope would pick the Leica 82mm.

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My reason should be quite obvious from the above: the 25-50xASPH eyepiece. I don't need marginally better, I want significantly more (=AFOV).

Ilkka

Again, because of the wide angle zoom eyepiece - I know a chap in the trade who looked through the 82HD at a trade fair in Germany a few weeks agao and was very impressed (he has no connection with Leica Camera). Purely based on the HD Ultravid optics and technical spec from Leica, these should be very high performance scopes. Prices of all other makes including Kowa have seen recent increases due to the weakness of the pound versus the Euro/Yen. It is a increase and possibly out of many peoples budget but will attract those Leica enthusiasts.

Bill Schmoker, author of the Brdpics blog, has written about his first impressions of the new 82 mm APO-Televid scope. Some of you may find this of interest:

http://brdpics.blogspot.com/2008/05/black-beauty.html

JSO said:

Bill Schmoker, author of the Brdpics blog, has written about his first impressions of the new 82 mm APO-Televid scope. Some of you may find this of interest:

http://brdpics.blogspot.com/2008/05/black-beauty.html

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Very nice! A beautiful creation. Anyone know the model of the tripod he's using? It looks very compact.

Patriot222 said:

...I find this to be a bit of a shame since I was guessing this scope to be in the $2500-2800 dollar range at the most. They've lost my business.

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Sorry to hear that Patriot.

However, I'd like to clarify one minor point. The last listed market price of the APO Televid 77 with the 20-60x eyepiece when discontinued in July 2007 was $2594 ($1995 body & $599 eyepiece) with suggested retail of $3125. As such, your low estimate of a completely redesigned scope was obviously unrealistic. Considering the continued loss of value of the US dollar compared to the Euro in the year since, I suspect that if this item were still available the "street" price by August '08 (when the new scope is released) would likely be close to $2725. Still I understand that $3995 is a high price to pay, but I think too many people were basing their guesstimates on what they paid for their current APO Televids years ago (when the US dollar held some value) rather than looking at current pricing.

As others have suggested the cost of the revolutionary wide-angle eyepiece is near $1000 or more if it were sold seperately. However, these will only be bundled with scope bodies at first (as others have indicated).

Regarding the scope itself, I just received a prototype of the scope this past week and have just had my 1st opportunities to use it in the field. I was obviously thrilled to have it and while I could offer my opinions I'm certain they would be seen as biased at present. Unfortunately I've had no opportunity to compare and contrast this item with other scopes as of yet as there was no full stocking dealer at the past show, and I didn't see anyone with a current Swarovski, Zeiss, or Kowa scope at the past event.

I just finished a month and a half of bird festivals that would have offered great opportunities to compare and contrast as most of these had a full stocking dealer in attendance. Unfortunately now I will have to wait a while before having another opportunity like this. My next show is the ABA convention in late June in Utah.

I will get some images though this ASAP though, and will offer comparisons between the APO Televid 77 and 82 soon as well.

Thanks all,

Jeff Bouton
Product Specialist - Birder/Naturalist Markets
Leica Sport Optics, USA

Jeff,

May I ask, how the eye-relief of the 25-50x changes during zooming - and how well does it retain focus compared to the older zoom (ie. is it more parfocal)?

Best regards,

Ilkka