[swamp_rattler]

hello...I just bought the Kowa TSN824 scope with 20-60x zoom lens off of ebay. I've heard that this zoom is excellent and a must have. What other eypieces are highly recommended? I'm thinking about the 32x WA.
Thanks

[IanF]

Congratulations on the purchase of a very good scope

I used to own the 823 and wish I still did. I had the 20-60x zoom and the 32xWA. Both are high quality eyepieces. To be honest though, the quality of the 20-60x was so good that I used that most of the time, even for taking digiscoped photos. My one gripe would be that it's a bit narrower than the 32xWA which has a good field of view especially in dull conditions.

Kowa now produce several shorter length zooms more aimed at digiscoping so they may be more useful if you want to go down that track. I never used them myself though as I'd sold my scope before they were launched.

With the zoom being so good and a zoom being so much more versatile for viewing with and for framing photos, I'd be inclined to stick with using that. For photos the 20-30x range is the most useful for sharp clear photos. Going much below 20x means getting closer to a bird to fill the frame, so these new eyepeices may be more suitable for videoscoping where the cameras have longer optical zooms.