Hello from Michigan
I'm new to this forum, and fairly new to birding. I have caught the fever however, and I'd like to start investing in some better equipment.
I'm in the market for a spotting scope. I've narrowed it down to the Kowa 884 (although the Meopta S2 82 HD was a close second). I am however having trouble choosing a Kowa eyepiece.
I feel like I'm on an isolated island with my dilemma, but I'm actually looking for something that gives me less power than Kowa's two current offerings. Maybe I'm being narrow-minded, but I have spent the past year birding with some 7x42mm Nikon EDG binoculars. The huge FOV and large exit pupil make them a joy to use. As such, I'd like to upgrade to more magnification via a spotting scope, but without giving up too much FOV or exit pupil. Maybe that's impossible, but that's why I'm here learning.
I should also mention I'm a hunter and shooter, so I do enjoy bringing my optics in the field for game identification, lower-light glassing, and spotting rifle targets. Sometimes I wonder if a pair of 15x56mm binoculars are really what I need, but again, I hate that tiny exit pupil.
The Kowa 884 would be perfect for me if I could just get a little less power. The 25-60x zoom eyepiece is just a bit too much in my uneducated opinion. I feel like I'd be fighting dark spots and head position with such a tiny exit pupil.
I did run across Kowa's TSN-VA3 eyepiece, and while it isn't actually advertised as an eyepiece, several descriptions of this thing claim if used as an eyepiece it would create a 14x magnification scope with 60mm of eye relief. That might be just what I'm looking for, so I called Kowa in California to ask some questions and they advised me against doing this. No idea why.
I also see that some folks are dabbling with adding astronomical eyepieces to their Kowas, although most of these guys want more magnification, and not less. Does anyone know if I'd be able to get an astronomical eyepiece that would give me 15-20x of magnification with a decent FOV and eye relief?
And last but not least, if I were to decide to go with Kowa's 25-60x eyepiece, how common is it for folks to simply stick their smart phone on the eyepiece and use the screen for viewing birds rather than looking directly into the eyepiece? I'm just thinking out loud, but perhaps that would work for me.
Sorry if I'm all over the place, but this is my dilemma, and any insight would be appreciated
Thank you
I'm new to this forum, and fairly new to birding. I have caught the fever however, and I'd like to start investing in some better equipment.
I'm in the market for a spotting scope. I've narrowed it down to the Kowa 884 (although the Meopta S2 82 HD was a close second). I am however having trouble choosing a Kowa eyepiece.
I feel like I'm on an isolated island with my dilemma, but I'm actually looking for something that gives me less power than Kowa's two current offerings. Maybe I'm being narrow-minded, but I have spent the past year birding with some 7x42mm Nikon EDG binoculars. The huge FOV and large exit pupil make them a joy to use. As such, I'd like to upgrade to more magnification via a spotting scope, but without giving up too much FOV or exit pupil. Maybe that's impossible, but that's why I'm here learning.
I should also mention I'm a hunter and shooter, so I do enjoy bringing my optics in the field for game identification, lower-light glassing, and spotting rifle targets. Sometimes I wonder if a pair of 15x56mm binoculars are really what I need, but again, I hate that tiny exit pupil.
The Kowa 884 would be perfect for me if I could just get a little less power. The 25-60x zoom eyepiece is just a bit too much in my uneducated opinion. I feel like I'd be fighting dark spots and head position with such a tiny exit pupil.
I did run across Kowa's TSN-VA3 eyepiece, and while it isn't actually advertised as an eyepiece, several descriptions of this thing claim if used as an eyepiece it would create a 14x magnification scope with 60mm of eye relief. That might be just what I'm looking for, so I called Kowa in California to ask some questions and they advised me against doing this. No idea why.
I also see that some folks are dabbling with adding astronomical eyepieces to their Kowas, although most of these guys want more magnification, and not less. Does anyone know if I'd be able to get an astronomical eyepiece that would give me 15-20x of magnification with a decent FOV and eye relief?
And last but not least, if I were to decide to go with Kowa's 25-60x eyepiece, how common is it for folks to simply stick their smart phone on the eyepiece and use the screen for viewing birds rather than looking directly into the eyepiece? I'm just thinking out loud, but perhaps that would work for me.
Sorry if I'm all over the place, but this is my dilemma, and any insight would be appreciated
Thank you
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