Kowa TSN-663 Eyepiece and Opinions (1 Viewer)

Hello,

I was originally going to get a Kowa 82mm scope w/o the Prominar lens. I decided to switch to the 663 because of the Prominar ED lens. I assumed this would be much clearer as I will be digiscoping a lot.

I have heard the old 20-60x zoom lens were not as good as the newer ones. Can anyone back this info up and give me product code for the newer 20-60x lens.

Thanks,
David

Hello David and a warm welcome to you from those of us on staff here at BirdForum :t:

We've got quite a few Kowa Scope owners here so I am sure you will get some suggestions. Enjoy your time here and thanks for finding your way here

Anyone wanna help me out here?

dtpavlik said:

Anyone wanna help me out here?

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Hi David

I bought the 663 last year to replace my old TSN1, which I used with the old 30W and 20-60X eyepieces. I soon replaced the 30W with the new 30W and also purchased the 20W at the same time and saw am immediate improvement in the image – bright and clear, even in low light. As soon as the new 20-60X was released I replaced my old 20-60X eyepiece, with no regrets. The new 20-60X is brighter and with an improvement on the field of view compared with the old 20-60X. The image stays bright and clear from 20 to 45x with a slight decrease past 45x.

I now use the 20-60X eyepiece as my standard eyepiece and only switch between the other two when I require a greater field of view.

I would recommend the new eyepieces, especially the 20-60X over the old TSN eyepieces any day. They are brighter and I find the twist up eyecup very comfortable and improved eye relief.

Ray

Thanks Ray. Do you know what the code was for the new 20-60x eyepiece? And are you happy with the clearness of the scope? With the prominer ED lens it should be very clear. Also, is it good for digiscoping?

Thanks,
David

Hi David,

I am very pleased with the clearness of this scope; I did compare the 663 with other scopes with similar size objective lens and could not see any real difference that would warrant extra £200-300.

I have not done any Digiscoping so cannot answer that question.

The part number for the 20-60X is 146-207, I have read on the Kowa Japanese web site that they are about to release a 45X WA eyepiece for the 600/660 series.

Regards

Ray

dtpavlik said:

Thanks Ray. Do you know what the code was for the new 20-60x eyepiece? And are you happy with the clearness of the scope? With the prominer ED lens it should be very clear. Also, is it good for digiscoping?

Thanks,
David

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Hi David,

The 663 is very usable for digiscoping and I would strongly recommend an ED scope over a non-ED scope any day. I use a 663 and you can see lots of digiscoping examples in my gallery. I use a 30xW fixed eyepiece and have previously also used a 20xW fixed eyepiece for digiscoping. I prefer a fixed eyepiece for the wider field of view it gives, a fixed eyepiece will give less vignetting for digiscoping but you will probably be fine with a new zoom model as long as you keep the zoom to the lower power end of the scale. This is good general digiscoping advice, "Don't get greedy with the zoom". If it's all still too small, you're too far away for a decent photo. Winding up the zoom on camera or eyepiece will just result in poor definition.

Regards,

Duncan.