The Kingfisher
Well-known member
I compared my Nikon ED82 with the EDG85 at Falsterbo Bird Show the other day..
Compared with my ED82 the EDG85 had clearly better contrast. An impressive contrast indeed! I could also see that the fixed 30x eyepiece had better edge sharpness than my 30xDS. The colors were slightly more neutral..and when it comes to cromatic aberration, I got the feeling that it was less present in the EDG than in the ED82 (but I never looked specifically for this phenomenon). The fov of the EDG zoom was obviously wider than the fov of the zoom which is attached to my ED82. BUT..
..the Nikon EDG85 is no perfect scope. Quite far from being perfect according to me actually. It's big, it's heavy, it's not very good looking, has a fairly stiff zoom and the focus wheel is placed too far away from the birdwatcher. Okay, I could live with these shortcomings if only the scope had performed better with the zoom set at high magnifications..but it did not.
My ED82 was undoubtedly sharper, clearer and more comfortable at 60x magnification than the EDG85 was at the same magnification!
One of the guys in the "Nikon stables" agreed that there was no doubt that my copy of ED82 was better at high magnifications than their EDG85 was. And then, one must remember that it is possible to increase the magnification another 15x (to 75x) on ED82 to see even more details!
We tried to shift the zoom eyepiece to another EDG85 copy, but the result was the same - my ED82 was also clearly better than the second copy of EDG85 at high magnifications (ie up to 60x). The "Nikon man" now tried to put on another copy of the zoom eyepiece. The image/sharpness became slightly better, but still no match for my ED82!
The conclusion for me is that I will not "upgrade" my ED82 to an EDG85.
Incredible contrast and fine optics in many ways, but the scope has (as I see it) to many shortcomings. And when the risk seems relatively high to get hold of a copy that does not perform as well at high magnifications as my copy of the ED82..than it´s not worth to order one!
So now I'll just enjoy the ED82 - a fantastic optical instrument if you ask me! |=)|
Compared with my ED82 the EDG85 had clearly better contrast. An impressive contrast indeed! I could also see that the fixed 30x eyepiece had better edge sharpness than my 30xDS. The colors were slightly more neutral..and when it comes to cromatic aberration, I got the feeling that it was less present in the EDG than in the ED82 (but I never looked specifically for this phenomenon). The fov of the EDG zoom was obviously wider than the fov of the zoom which is attached to my ED82. BUT..
..the Nikon EDG85 is no perfect scope. Quite far from being perfect according to me actually. It's big, it's heavy, it's not very good looking, has a fairly stiff zoom and the focus wheel is placed too far away from the birdwatcher. Okay, I could live with these shortcomings if only the scope had performed better with the zoom set at high magnifications..but it did not.
My ED82 was undoubtedly sharper, clearer and more comfortable at 60x magnification than the EDG85 was at the same magnification!
One of the guys in the "Nikon stables" agreed that there was no doubt that my copy of ED82 was better at high magnifications than their EDG85 was. And then, one must remember that it is possible to increase the magnification another 15x (to 75x) on ED82 to see even more details!
We tried to shift the zoom eyepiece to another EDG85 copy, but the result was the same - my ED82 was also clearly better than the second copy of EDG85 at high magnifications (ie up to 60x). The "Nikon man" now tried to put on another copy of the zoom eyepiece. The image/sharpness became slightly better, but still no match for my ED82!
The conclusion for me is that I will not "upgrade" my ED82 to an EDG85.
Incredible contrast and fine optics in many ways, but the scope has (as I see it) to many shortcomings. And when the risk seems relatively high to get hold of a copy that does not perform as well at high magnifications as my copy of the ED82..than it´s not worth to order one!
So now I'll just enjoy the ED82 - a fantastic optical instrument if you ask me! |=)|
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