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Leica premium scope... with only one zoom eyepiece? (1 Viewer)

Dialyt

Dialyt

The Definitive Binocular
What's the deal with Leica? With the original Televid 77, you had a choice of 20x Wide, 32x Wide, 40x, and a zoom eyepiece. The new 65 and 82 have one zoom eyepiece. I prefer the quality of fixed prime eyepieces. Anyone got any ideas as to why Leica offers only one eyepiece for the new scopes?
 
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It is because modern zoom eyepieces are just as good as were the Wide eyepieces earlier, and offer the flexibility of a zoom. Due to this, new customers have overwhelmingly preferred the zooms over the fixed primes, and not only Leica but also Swaro and Zeiss have pretty much phased out their primes as a consequence. The only premium maker to still offer a wide range of primes is Nikon, and this is due to the regrettable fact that their zooms have not yet caught up.

Now that there is the dedicated extender for the Leica 25-50x zoom, really the only thing you'll miss over the hypothetical alternative of a range of four or five primes is a minimum magnification of 20x.

Pretty much starting from the Swarovski 20-60x zoom (certainly the second generation version), Swaro's primes started selling slowly, and after the 25-50x Wide zooms from Leica & Swaro the primes really became redundant.

The best zooms now have the field of view, eye relief and edge sharpness of the best primes, and give up nothing in centerfield sharpness, brightness and contrast.

Kimmo
 
kabsetz said:
It is because modern zoom eyepieces are just as good as were the Wide eyepieces earlier, and offer the flexibility of a zoom. Due to this, new customers have overwhelmingly preferred the zooms over the fixed primes, and not only Leica but also Swaro and Zeiss have pretty much phased out their primes as a consequence. The only premium maker to still offer a wide range of primes is Nikon, and this is due to the regrettable fact that their zooms have not yet caught up.

Now that there is the dedicated extender for the Leica 25-50x zoom, really the only thing you'll miss over the hypothetical alternative of a range of four or five primes is a minimum magnification of 20x.

Pretty much starting from the Swarovski 20-60x zoom (certainly the second generation version), Swaro's primes started selling slowly, and after the 25-50x Wide zooms from Leica & Swaro the primes really became redundant.

The best zooms now have the field of view, eye relief and edge sharpness of the best primes, and give up nothing in centerfield sharpness, brightness and contrast.

Kimmo
Click to expand...
I have not seen the new Leica zoom eyepeiece. My only experience of Leica scopes was the old APO 77 and I was blown away by the 20x W and 32x W, not so much by the zoom. Still, I like the stability of a fixed eyepiece and I prefer them.
 
Dialyt said:
I have not seen the new Leica zoom eyepeiece. My only experience of Leica scopes was the old APO 77 and I was blown away by the 20x W and 32x W, not so much by the zoom. Still, I like the stability of a fixed eyepiece and I prefer them.
Click to expand...

Hello Dialyt,

I agree, in general terms, although I own a Zeiss 85 mm with the 30x eyepiece. To derive all the possibilities of a zoom, one has to have a tripod that is stable, at the highest magnification, one that is heavier. If an oberver uses his eyes and his binoculars to find targets, he won't miss much with the lower power eyepieces, but he if uses a 'scope to find birds, then he probably wants the flexibility and higher power of the zoom and must bear the burden of the heavier kit.

Happy bird watching,
Arthur Pinewood :hi:
 
kabsetz said:
The only premium maker to still offer a wide range of primes is Nikon, and this is due to the regrettable fact that their zooms have not yet caught up.
Click to expand...

While not quite a premium maker, doesn't Pentax still make pretty good primes?

Arthur, of course I defer to you.

Mike
 
After looking through the Swaro ATM HD with a 25-50x zoom on it at the British BirdFair a few years ago I was convinced that I no longer needed to stick with a prime eyepiece, and consequently sold my Nikon Fieldscope with 30x ep, moving to the Swaro.

Now when using the scope I often forget that I'm using a zoom!

I looked at the zoom on the Leica and top end Nikon scopes at BirdFair last year and was still convinced on the Swaro's superiority.
 
I find changing eyepieces in the field very unpractiable, so nothing better than a wide-angled zoom that eliminates the need for several eypieces.

The Leica eyepiece is excellent I think. I found the Leica scope best compared to Swaro ATM HD 80 and Zeiss DiaScope (I bought the Swaro anyway, because difference is not so big, and because the Swaro was cheaper and lighter)
 
dalat said:
I find changing eyepieces in the field very unpractiable, so nothing better than a wide-angled zoom that eliminates the need for several eypieces.

The Leica eyepiece is excellent I think. I found the Leica scope best compared to Swaro ATM HD 80 and Zeiss DiaScope (I bought the Swaro anyway, because difference is not so big, and because the Swaro was cheaper and lighter)
Click to expand...

But does the Leica new zoom have as wide a field as the old Televid 20x W or 32x W?
 
. Two times zoom eyepieces are easier to design, with good performance, than three times zoom eyepieces.
That is one reason why the performance of the two times eyepiece may equal the performance of a prime eyepiece.
Another reason will be more modern glass types and maybe better design.

However, it seems that the old 20 times eyepiece has a much wider field than 25 times with the zoom.
If you still have the old 20 times or even 32 times eyepieces you could see if they achieve focus on the more modern Leica spotting scope. If so, an adapter might exist or could be made if the performance and wider angle is suitable. The 20 times eyepiece maybe about 22 times with the newer Leica spotting scope if it achieves focus. So the field will not be quite as wide as before when used on the 77 mm spotting scope.

It is similar to photographic lenses where modern zooms are incredibly good, but it is still possible to design better prime lenses than zooms, all things being equal.

With the zoom eyepieces I think that better eye relief can be more easily achieved than with some prime eyepieces. But this is usually at the highest magnifications.
 
having only one zoom in the range is very scarce..,
swaro at least have a 20-60x zoom to choose from,
meopta have a 20-70x and a 30-60x WA,
nikon will have two different zooms for their monarch scopes (if they ever will be released..) + a fixed 30x/38x,

and leica only have the 25-50x, its not a bad zoom but...
it doesn't have enough zoom-range to give an max exit pupil of 4 mm,

zoom eye pieces are also heavier and more expensive, look at the zeiss 20-75x for example..
but at least Zeiss still offers a 30x/40x fixed eye piece,
and its a mystery why swaro skipped their 30x WA fixed,

the leica extender seems interesting, could swaro offer the same solution for the
ATX series? But TC:s always comes with downsides…
 
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Vespobuteo said:
having only one zoom in the range is very scarce..,
swaro at least have a 20-60x zoom to choose from,
nikon will have two variants for their monarch scopes (if they ever will be released..) + a fixed 30x/38x,

and leica only have the 25-50x, its not a bad zoom but...
it doesn't have enough zoom-range to give an max exit pupil of 4 mm,

zoom eye pieces are also heavier and more expensive, look at the zeiss 20-75x for example..
but at least Zeiss still offers a 30x/40x fixed eye piece,

the leica extender seems interesting, could swaro offer the same solution for the
ATX series? But TC:s always comes with downsides…
Click to expand...
TC:s???

I prefer primes. I have a Kowa TSN 603. I bought it with the zoom but it was pretty poor optically and looked silly on the small scope, so I sold it on here! I bought the superb 20x W and then recently bought a brand new 30x W before they went out of stock. Primes imho look smart, they are compact, and well built. Zooms on the contrary, are big, heavy, offering compromised optics (versus the optimisation of primes) and sometimes make the scope look a bit silly. I don't ever plan on upgrading my scope, I just like to keep an eye on developments! Snap below from my phone!
 

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Dialyt said:
TC:s???

I prefer primes. I have a Kowa TSN 603. I bought it with the zoom but it was pretty poor optically and looked silly on the small scope, so I sold it on here! I bought the superb 20x W and then recently bought a brand new 30x W before they went out of stock. Primes imho look smart, they are compact, and well built. Zooms on the contrary, are big, heavy, offering compromised optics (versus the optimisation of primes) and sometimes make the scope look a bit silly. I don't ever plan on upgrading my scope, I just like to keep an eye on developments! Snap below from my phone!
Click to expand...

TC = Tele Converter

the old kowas still deliver,
:t:

I started birding with a kowa TS-1,
the zoom for the TS-1 was a bit dark (slight understatement..)
the 20x Wide EP was very nice though,

most modern zooms are good,
and the Leica 25-50x zoom is very nice,
but a fixed 30xW could have bigger FOV and
give more comfortable viewing,
 
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Vespobuteo said:
TC = Tele Converter

the old kowas still deliver,
:t:

I started birding with a kowa TS-1,
the zoom for the TS-1 was a bit dark (slight understatement..)
the 20x Wide EP was very nice though,

most modern zooms are good,
and the Leica 25-50x zoom is very nice,
but a fixed 30xW could have bigger FOV and
give more comfortable viewing,
Click to expand...

Yes this is it. I got my Kowa brand new in 2008 I think it was. I went for the ED version as I thought I might as well, and I am glad I did. I see no reason to upgrade and I am not tempted really by the big superscopes. The Leica, Zeiss, Swaro scopes are all the price of a small car. I got my Kowa for just over £700. Now you pay a lot more for most optics.

I did check out the 32x W on the old Televid and was very impressed.

I just love the compact build of the primes eyepieces, the wide field of view, the easy viewing as you say. I find that in photography too, my best pictures are taken on a 35mm prime, not the zoom. You can zoom in all you like, doesn't mean it's going to be a good picture!
 
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