clive ward
Active member
OK I'm going to treat myself to a new scope. What is the best at the moment any make or model and are there any new ones that are in the pipe line, that I should wait to see before I buy.
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What would you buy? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter clive ward
- Start date
pimpelmees
Well-known member
I am in the same position and give my view until now:
- The new zooms of swarovski and leica: leica win here because in many reports swarovski's zoom has blackouts and difficult eye placement !!!
Best resolution is still Kowa 883/884 AFAIK. Best image quality is Leica with new wide angle zoom. Best ergonomics and very close to other two in image quality and resolution is new Swaro with wide angle zoom. At least that is what this informal roundup found: http://www.birdwatching.com/optics/2009scopes_high/ And it's findings are consistent with everything else I've read. Think Zeiss has a new scope on the way but don't know much about it. Also think that all differences are pretty minor (except that Kowa has nice zoom up to 60x, and others have wide angle zoom but it's only to 50x), so I'd pretty much go by price unless you feel strongly about the specs I just mentioned. (Though Leica and Swaro still have 60x zooms also if you want to use them I believe).
Best,
Jim
Last edited:
RogP
Roger Payne
I was in the same situation last year - to mark a significant birthday my wife gave me a new scope to replace my aging Nikon EDII.
So I looked at another Nikon, but the new EDG's are VERY heavy. Looked through some Zeiss scopes (I have Zeiss FL bins) but wasn't impressed. Ditto Leica and they've also had lens coating issues.
So in the end I went for a Swaro 65 HD STM with 25x50 and have been very happy. It's true that you need to be careful with eye placement but, once you get used to that (and it doesn't take long), the blackouts that people whinge about are not a problem. The field of view at 25 seems only slightly narrower than the 24x lens on my EDII, the clarity & sharpness are much better, it's a light combination, and it's great to be able to zoom up to 50x (the Nikon zooms were unusable).
However, scopes and bins can be very personal and you're the best judge of what you'll like. I went to a Kays field day at Sevenoaks Wildlife Centre to be able to check the book specs in practice, and would recommend that you do something similar wherever you are.
Good luck! Roger
So I looked at another Nikon, but the new EDG's are VERY heavy. Looked through some Zeiss scopes (I have Zeiss FL bins) but wasn't impressed. Ditto Leica and they've also had lens coating issues.
So in the end I went for a Swaro 65 HD STM with 25x50 and have been very happy. It's true that you need to be careful with eye placement but, once you get used to that (and it doesn't take long), the blackouts that people whinge about are not a problem. The field of view at 25 seems only slightly narrower than the 24x lens on my EDII, the clarity & sharpness are much better, it's a light combination, and it's great to be able to zoom up to 50x (the Nikon zooms were unusable).
However, scopes and bins can be very personal and you're the best judge of what you'll like. I went to a Kays field day at Sevenoaks Wildlife Centre to be able to check the book specs in practice, and would recommend that you do something similar wherever you are.
Good luck! Roger
pimpelmees
Well-known member
i think that the leica apo 65 is the better deal, i have looked trough a leica 65 from a friend and the zoom eyepiece is mutch better than the one from swaro in terms of eyeplacement and black outs and that is a great point !!!!
