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Thank you Leica (1 Viewer)

Den

Well-known member
Leica, and others get a hammering here on Birdforum. I suppose it is general negativity you see on so many forums nowadays. A place for folk to moan about everything.
I would like to thank Leica for producing the Apo82 and especially the new eyepiece. I spend a lot of time looking through a scope as I draw through one nearly every day.
After looking through one a couple of years ago at the Birdfair I was impressed. Bright, sharp and with a wide angle zoom to die for. I eagerly awaited its going on sale whilst using my venerable Apo77 that I've had for over a decade.
I tried the Swaro zoom when it came out but the Leica had the edge as I wear specs all the time and the field of view seemed much better on the Leica.
I've since traded my '77 in for an '82 with the bucket zoom and I am one happy bunny.It doesn't seem long ago that some were saying Leica was over the hill but in the two months I've had the scope I've filled 2 sketchbooks(60 pages each) through it and it makes me smile every time I flip off the excellent magnetic lens covers on the case and put my eye to that luvvvverly huge eyepiece which transports me into the world of the bird I'm looking at.
Sure, everything has its faults but I can honestly say this is one mean mutha.
Thanks again Leica for listening and producing such a great bit of kit.
 
That is a refreshing post to read Dennis. I think Leica, in particular, takes a disproportionate amount of ass whoopin' around here for some reason and it's good to read someone giving them their props.

Leica is clearly the grand poobah of cutting edge with their 4 element fluorite APO objectives and the only real wide angle, long eye relief zoom eyepiece.
Yeah it costs, but WOW. If I had the cash...
 
Leica, and others get a hammering here on Birdforum. I suppose it is general negativity you see on so many forums nowadays. A place for folk to moan about everything.
I would like to thank Leica for producing the Apo82 and especially the new eyepiece. I spend a lot of time looking through a scope as I draw through one nearly every day.
After looking through one a couple of years ago at the Birdfair I was impressed. Bright, sharp and with a wide angle zoom to die for. I eagerly awaited its going on sale whilst using my venerable Apo77 that I've had for over a decade.
I tried the Swaro zoom when it came out but the Leica had the edge as I wear specs all the time and the field of view seemed much better on the Leica.
I've since traded my '77 in for an '82 with the bucket zoom and I am one happy bunny.It doesn't seem long ago that some were saying Leica was over the hill but in the two months I've had the scope I've filled 2 sketchbooks(60 pages each) through it and it makes me smile every time I flip off the excellent magnetic lens covers on the case and put my eye to that luvvvverly huge eyepiece which transports me into the world of the bird I'm looking at.
Sure, everything has its faults but I can honestly say this is one mean mutha.
Thanks again Leica for listening and producing such a great bit of kit.

Great post Den i am really looking forward to getting mine :t:
 
Thanks. I love my Leica binos, and have other Alpha choices at home. I'd love to have a Leica scope! Maybe next year...
 
I'd like to not thank Leica for making the new eyepieces incompatible with the older scopes.If you should be unlucky enough to break your old type eyepiece i'm led to believe replacements are difficult to find.
 
Thanks for making a $3000+ spotter?????? You're kidding, right? Tell me what you can see that I can't see through my Nikon 82ED.
 
Tell me what you can see that I can't see through my Nikon 82ED.

More birds? ;)
The Nikon zoom shows less than half the area that the Leica zoom does at 25x.


israel said:
I'd like to not thank Leica for making the new eyepieces incompatible with the older scopes.
That is how they have been able to make the new zoom better. The new eyepiece mount is larger which means that the old eyepieces can be adapted to the new scopes, but not vice versa. The same has happened recently with Nikon and several times quite smoothly with Kowa (TS1 (thread) -> TSN1 (bayonet) -> TSN820 (larger bayonet) -> TSN7/800 (largest bayonet)).

Best regards,

Ilkka
 
I think you're in the wrong place to try an argument like that JG.

Let's extend your argument and apply it to some other things...

A pair of 30 year old Swift porros will see a bird mostly the same as the latest Swarovision.

A Kia Rio will get you to work as intact as a Lexus.

A $200. Point and Shoot will capture your daughter's image as will a Canon 1DS Mark IV.

If you really don't get it and want a taste of what the hubbub is about then put an MC wide or DS fixed EP on your Fieldscope. Now, imagine that it zooms.
That still won't get you a four element fluorite objective, but...

Please don't segue into a "diminishing return" argument, that's not applicable here either. The Leica is for someone who wants the best scope available, no holds barred.
 
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FWIW JG, I also use an ED82 Fieldscope, along with an ED50, and I'm very pleased. I use the aforementioned fixed EPs and this all works well, for me.

I do get why people want the wide, long eye relief zoom of the Leica however. I also can appreciate the level of correction that fancy objective must deliver as well.

If I had the cash burning a hole in my pocket, I'd probably buy the Leica.
 
So with a 100' FOV you're telling me I can't see a bird, and you can?

The problem for a lot of serious birders is finding the one bird in a large flock (say ducks or gulls or some other distant inaccessible bird) that's the really rare one. Doing that more rapidly is part of the trick. That's why wide sharp to the edge FOVs with good ER are interesting.

If you have a single bird the other side of the lake it's easy to pick up with lots of scopes. Getting the ID from color pattern, etc might narrow that list a bit.

Not a Leica owner but I can see the direction scopes are moving.
 
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