Swarovski Boosters? Any good? (1 Viewer)

Hello,

Does anyone have any experience of using one of these boosters with their EL or SLC bins?

Any comments good or bad?

Cheers

Dave Griffiths

Dave

Welcome to Bird Forum on behalf of Admin and the Moderators. Great to have someone else on BF from the Light Blues! I'm sure you'll get some responses to your question.

It would be great to hear a little about where you bird. And don't forget, if you take photographs, post some in the Gallery.

Have fun!

Peter

I have one for my EL 10X42s. I think they do offer an ultralight alternative to carrying a scope, but are not without their drawbacks. The optics are, of course, very good, so the image is very sharp, but 42mm is a pretty small objective for 20X, so the image is not especially bright. Fine for daylight viewing but they would be tough to digiscope with. Also, 20X is a lot of magnification to hand-hold, so you might want to consider using it together with the Swaro tripod adapter and a light tripod or monopod. If not, you will at least want to lean against a tree or something to help steady them. The field of view is fairly narrow but you can use the other barrel of your bins like a finder scope to get on the bird. All of these issues would be less of a problem if your bins are 8 or 8.5X. They have very long eye relief, much longer (2X as long?) as the bins by themselves. Finally, it takes several seconds to unscrew the eyecup and screw on the doubler so you cannot get on a bird as quickly as if you were carrying a scope in your hand. You can walk around with the doubler already attached and use just the other barrel until you need the extra reach. All in all, I would say they are not a great substitute for a scope, but they are a lot better than bins alone on those occasions when you don't want to carry a scope. Glen

Hi Kevin,

Yes - I am looking at alternatives to a scope/tripod package on a long walk.

Maybe a lightweight scope and a monopod are a more viable alternative than opting for a booster for my ELs.

Dave

Well done Kevin. Good bit of lateral thinking there.

The original Mighty Midgets are now being sold off quite cheaply now, but I've heard the Might Midget 2 is quite a bit better so perhaps worth the extra. Also I think only the newer model takes the supposedly higher quality HDF eyepieces. These would certainly be better for eyeglass wearers (eye relief and all that) and would probably get the last bit of quality out of the little lens.

Theres an Adobe Acrobat pdf file (in Norwegian!) with a table of scope review results at :

www.kikkertspesialisten.no/index2.htm

Click on Teleskop on the left, then scroll down a bit. Right click on the top "Hent Test" and "Save Target as..." to somewhere convenient. It's a 769kb download, but the table has reviews and piccies of a lot of the major players. The test results in the centre are for sharpness, contrast, brightness, edge sharpness, convenience with specs and robustness. The Might Midget 2 does pretty well (understandably brightness is a bit down on the big boys).



:t:

Not an answer to the question, but it does seem odd to me that there is no image stabilised 20x50 scope. There are 18x50 IS binoculars but they seem a bit heavy and cumbersome to me. An IS scope would be lighter and ideal for a better view than a normal binocular.

Regarding the Mighty Midget, I bought a used 20x50 MM a few years ago. It seemed quite decently built given the price but the optics were not much good. I could see as much detail through my Nikon 8x42 HG binoculars. Of cource it might have been that my sample was out of collimation.

The Kowa 500 series might also be worth a look. They seemed - to my eyes - much better than the original MM series. Haven't tried the MM2 though.

I second the comments about not being able to hand hold a 20x scope.

Kevin, hope it didn't look as though I was suggesting the two scopes are in any way comparable, or that the extra expense of the Swarovski isn't money well spent (your family don't read your post do they? )

From what you're saying the MM 2 gives quite useable views in good conditions at 20x or so magnification. (You shamefully overlooked to mention the fact that it looks dead cute). I was just curious, does your Opticron eyepiece collection include a short fixed focal length eyepiece you've tried with it or are you a complete fan of zooms. I'm guessing that maybe for someone used to good optics, such as Dave, they'd get more satisfaction from the fixed 20x magnification if this does indeed give better quality.

Wonder if anyone bothered downloading the Norwegian review I mentioned? Can't say I blame you. It included a Kowa 5 series Leif mentioned which didn't do quite as well as the new MM 2. Then again, glancing through, I can't help wondering if there is a positive Opticron bias in operation...

Going bavck to the Swaro' bino booster, I tries one out for a while but the image was a bit dark for an enjoyable view of the subject, though it certainly can reveal more info than 8.5x or 10x.... given suitable stability.
I found it more stable to use by holding the binos like videocame, vertical instead of horizontal.
Overall it was a bit too much to pay for the amount of use it would get with me..... as I have an 80mm scope with me at all times (my spine will give up one day!)
Andy

I also have a MM2 which i got to take abroad, when i got it i brought it with a second hand HDF eyepiece, on the MM2 this gives 18x, its far superia to the 20x that is recommended. I paid 175 pounds for both[cash discount] and for this money it's unbeatable value.

Hi Dave,

Can’t help with your question, but I thought I ought to say hello to a new member from my home town.

Paul