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Nikon ED82 eyepiece quandry .. (1 Viewer)

I agree with Hermann. I have the same eyepiece and the ED50, sharp up to 40x. I do have the 16DS and the 27DS eyepieces as well.
 
When I owned the 13-30x zoom, I found that I only used the outer ends of the magnification range. The advent of the 27x Wide MC was a great relief (i.e. eye relief ;)) when I started using it.
Keep in mind that I use spectacles, and a ballhead/monopod combo with the ED50A. Not needing to bother with zooming in and out makes using it a lot faster and easier.
The MCII zoom has a very thin zoom ring which is nearly impossible to grab with gloves.
In that respect, the old zoom is better.
 
Cheers guys,

Already have the MCii zoom and want a travel scope for family holidays - ED50 looks the biz but I don't want to have to shell out £600+ on cope and lens. So if the zoom works well then I could stretch to the ed50.

Perry
 
Got the ED50 and had a play with it today using the 13-40x zoom. Very nice it is too! Zoom perfectly usable up to about 30x but then it gets a bit dim. I mainly want it for travelling abroad with the family so I expect better light than a UK winter and full zoom may be more usable there.

Thanks for advice

Perry
 
A follow up to my original post.

Just to resurrect my original query but for a slightly different reason ...

Today I did a seawatching session at Flamborough, I was using a 30x DS eyepiece which is obviously great for the field of view but not so great for 'small dots' on the horizon. I was wondering if a 25-75 zoom would be better suited for seawatching or is the 75x magnification likely to be too dark to be any use (fitted to a Nikon ED82 Fieldscope)

Thanks very much.

Best wishes,

Dave.
 
Today I did a seawatching session at Flamborough, I was using a 30x DS eyepiece which is obviously great for the field of view but not so great for 'small dots' on the horizon. I was wondering if a 25-75 zoom would be better suited for seawatching or is the 75x magnification likely to be too dark to be any use (fitted to a Nikon ED82 Fieldscope)

I find magnfications between 60x and 75x perfectly useable to clinch an ID with the ED82. For seawatching the field of view is of course quite a bit smaller than that of the 30x DS, but I still prefer the zoom by a wide margin. I normally scan the horizon at something like 40x-50x and turn up the magnification whenever I need to.

Hermann
 
I really enjoy my Nikon ED82 and have the 30x DC, 50x DC and a 75x MC as well as the 25-75x MCII.

The 75x MC is bright and very sharp with wider FOV than the 25-75x MCII. I like it for longer distances in clear air and extended time viewing.

Many state the 25-75 MCII has a rather small FOV however, I quickly adapt and do not have a problem using the EP,,, very sharp with great optics. Great for scanning and then magnify the object for closer view.

Regards,
FK
 
I second Hermann's and FK's experience. I used the 25-75x zoom exclusively on my ED 82 A, and whenever there was a need to ID something small and distant, the zoom would be set to high magnifications. Of course, it would depend on seeing conditions where the usable limit would be, but over the sea and especially in the mornings and evenings, air is quite often stable enough that even the full 75x could be the optimum. Very rarely would the optimum magnification for an ID be as low as 30x. Granted, the field of view is not very wide, but since the entire field is usable it did not matter that much. It was more an aesthetic handicap than a practical one.

I now have a Swaro ATX 95, which has much wider fields of view for comparable magnifications, but the maximum true field it gives at its minimum of 30x is "only" 20% wider than the Nikon zoom at 25x. It is really nice to have these wider fields in a zoom now, but I doubt it would be that hard for me to go back to the Nikon if needed.

For the Nikon, I also had an 38x wide eyepiece, but really did not use it at all because I tend to use magnifications between 50-75x so much.

Kimmo
 
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