Swarovski or Zeiss spotting scope (1 Viewer)

My wife and I want to buy either a Swarovski or Zeiss (not interested in other brands, sorry) spotting scope for use around the house or in the truck for viewing eagles, swans, big game, and occasionally star-gazing. In my limited online research, we are leaning toward:

Swarovski ATS HD 20-60 x 65 (or 25-50W x 65) or

Zeiss FL Victory Diascope T*FL 15-56 x 65

Thoughts and personal experiences with these 2 scopes appreciated.

Also, how well do power doublers work for star-gazing, and are they available for these 2 scopes?

I cannot comment on the Zeiss spotting scope but have often thought about the newer ones as they look great..

A huge plus that the Swaro has is that it is has a helical focus wheel. Really large,easy to manipulate with gloves on etc. Not a small little wheel to focus as most other scopes have.

Of course the looks of both are great, quality is excellent in both, so when it comes down to it...it really is about ergonomics and which one fits better in your hands.

not sure where you are located at but go into an Audubon store (New Jersey has a few) or a camera/optics store that stocks both and see what you prefer.

Or...order both from "B and H photo" or from Eagle Optics and return the one that doesn't fit your taste.....

From the printed specs, it seems like the biggest difference is the new model Zeiss ones have a much larger field of view than Swarovski.

I used to own a straight 65 mm Diascope with the 23x eyepiece and replaced it with an ATM 65HD (optically the same as the current ATS 65HD) with the 30x W eyepiece.

The Swaro has a more neutral colour balance and much better edge sharpness. For terrestrial use I think 50x magnification is about as much as you would want to use. Beyond that the image in a 65 mm scope is going to get rather dim. The 25-50x Swaro zoom eyepiece is well liked and has a very wide FOV.

For star-gazing, adapters are available for both scopes to use 1 1/4" astronomical eyepieces but here caution is advised as not all eyepieces will allow focussing to infinity.

John

Was your previous Diascope an older model? I have read that the new ones that are the 15-56 zoom (versus the older 15-60 zoom) are much clearer, even to the edge.

With the 20x-60x zoom, some birders find that the Swarovski is more time-consuming to focus at 60x, because of the shallow depth of field at that magnification, and the relatively quick SLR-style focus wheel. Some birders find the two-speed focus wheel of the new Zeiss less fast than other focusing mechanisms. A thorough comparison from your POV would be useful.

The FOV, at lowest magnification, at 1000 yards:
Zeiss 15-45x = 168'
Zeiss 15-56x = 156'
Swarovski 25-50x = 126'
Swarovski 20-60x = 108'


Mike

tberkhouse said:

Was your previous Diascope an older model? I have read that the new ones that are the 15-56 zoom (versus the older 15-60 zoom) are much clearer, even to the edge.

Click to expand...

Yes, my Diascope 65 was the older model but AFAIK there has been no change to the optical design - perhaps just better coatings and, of course, the new focussing mechanism, which still operates anticlockwise to infinity!

All Diascopes have quite pronounced field curvature so that one can only achieve reasonable edge sharpness at the cost of central sharpness. Mine, however, held up very well at 63x with a 6 mm Vixen NLV and other 65 mm Diascopes I have seen were also quite good. Strangely though, I have seen a few 85 mm Diascopes that were getting fuzzy at 60x.

At Photokina last year most of the top scopes were set up outdoors and the new 85 mm Diascope with 20-75x zoom eyepiece did not impress. If offered the choice, I would definitely prefer the Meopte S2 on performance alone.

Most zoom eyepieces will give adequate apparent FOV at the higher magnifications but many, especially those with a wide range of magnification, will tend towards tunnel vision at the lower magnifications, so for comparison purposes I have calculated the AFOVs at the lowest magnifications according to ISO:-

Swarovski 25-50x 55°
Swarovski 20-60x 40°

Zeiss 15-45x/20-60x 46°
Zeiss 15-56x/20-75x 43°

John

You may want to include the Kowa 770 series in your comparison.

It's a little heavier than the 65 Zeiss or Swarovski, but quite compact.

IMO, the separate coarse and fine focus wheels are perfect.

FOV, at lowest magnification:
25-60X = 126'
20-60X = 115'

Mike