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ATX 65/85 eyerelief (1 Viewer)

D

dmcharg

Well-known member
Hi,

I am seriously considering picking up a scope to complement my 8x32 field pro binoculars but i am a little concerned about eye relief. I wear glass and i wondering about the eye relief on swarovski scopes ? The specs say 20mm but in the real world do people find this is enough to use an wear glasses throughout the complete range of magnification ?

Any feedback/comments on your experience would be much appreciated as its not easy for me to try out these scopes.

Thanks
David.
 
I wear glasses and use these scopes. I've not had any problems personally. If you're only going to get one of the modules, I would definitely go for the 85. It's not really that much larger and heavier than the 65 but works much better at the higher end of the zoom and in low light.
 
dmcharg said:
Hi,

I am seriously considering picking up a scope to complement my 8x32 field pro binoculars but i am a little concerned about eye relief. I wear glass and i wondering about the eye relief on swarovski scopes ? The specs say 20mm but in the real world do people find this is enough to use an wear glasses throughout the complete range of magnification ?

Any feedback/comments on your experience would be much appreciated as its not easy for me to try out these scopes.

Thanks
David.
Click to expand...

20mm is at the lowest magnification measured from the ocular glass,
but eye relief is not constant over the magnification range.

In practice the eye cup design also will affect the eye relief when wearing glasses.
In reality the effective* ER when using glasses varies between 16-12mm** for the ATX 65/85.

For the ATX scopes there is an optional eye cup*** that is shallower that you could get if the eye relief is not enough. It might give an additional 1-2 mm effective ER with glasses (a bit depending on your glasses). At least for me it was helpful.

My recommendation is to try before buy if possible.

If constant eye relief over the zoom range is very important, the upcoming Zeiss Harpia scope might be
worth taking a look at. But it's quite a different beast with other cons perhaps.

* Measured from the eye cup rim and not the ocular glass.

** Depending on zoom setting:
http://www.tvwg.nl/testrapporten/telescoop/swarovsk_atx_stx65-85-95.shtml

*** More on the optional eye cup here:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=293595
 
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To give you a comparision: Jan Meijerink from tvwg.nl (Vespobuteos first link) measured the effective eyerief of the Swaro SV 8x32 at 17 mm.

George
 
Hi David...

I have the STX/95mm objective. I've used it a lot lately. I wear glasses and the amount of eye relief is the bare minimum. At the higher magnifications it's really kind of a PITA. You WILL have your glasses up against the eyepiece. I bought this scope because I wanted the best/most for lower light conditions. It does that. The eye relief is such that if I'd tried it before I bought it, I probably wound not have bought it. That's a first for a Swarovski product for me.

I CAN without reservation recommend the Meopta Meostar S2. I have the 30-60 WA eyepiece. Works great with eyeglasses! I can't imagine someone not liking this scope...
 

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Hi Chuck many thanks for the feedback. Based on what i have read so far i have decided against a scope for a couple of reasons. Firstly the eye relief seems questionable and before spending this sort of money i think i need to try one of these scopes. Second, i have used various telescopes in that past but increasingly i have found the using binoculars i.e two eyes is just far more enjoyable so for now i will stick with my 8x32. When i get a chance i want to try the Swarovski 15x56 as i think these will give me higher power, two eyed viewing etc.The BTX option is out, just too expensive.
 
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Just to say that I struggled a bit with eye relief on ATX 95 but then realised that it depended which glasses I was wearing. On inspection it turned out that the frame had a rather bulky forward projecting curve that was touching the eyecup. So I moved to glasses with a flatter profiled frame -in particular a narrow straight section over the bridge of the nose- and all is now fine.

So it may be an obvious point to others, but took me while to work out- worth checking your glasses.
 
ed keeble said:
Just to say that I struggled a bit with eye relief on ATX 95 but then realised that it depended which glasses I was wearing. On inspection it turned out that the frame had a rather bulky forward projecting curve that was touching the eyecup. So I moved to glasses with a flatter profiled frame -in particular a narrow straight section over the bridge of the nose- and all is now fine.

So it may be an obvious point to others, but took me while to work out- worth checking your glasses.
Click to expand...

I can understand that BUT....I use the same glasses for all. Out of three big objective scopes I have it was easy to come the conclusion of which has the smallest about of eye relief. The STX Swarovski 95mm was it. Not nearly as user-friendly as the Meopta S2 OR even my Kowa 88.
 
dmcharg said:
Hi Chuck many thanks for the feedback. Based on what i have read so far i have decided against a scope for a couple of reasons. Firstly the eye relief seems questionable and before spending this sort of money i think i need to try one of these scopes. Second, i have used various telescopes in that past but increasingly i have found the using binoculars i.e two eyes is just far more enjoyable so for now i will stick with my 8x32. When i get a chance i want to try the Swarovski 15x56 as i think these will give me higher power, two eyed viewing etc.The BTX option is out, just too expensive.
Click to expand...

What you say for the most part IS true. I have an SV 12X50 and as good as it is...it's just no replacement for a spotting scope for me. I can't count the times "nothing's there" with a 12X binocular turns in to sandpipers. The most user friendly spotting scope I have for eyeglass wearers is a Leopold GR 15-40X60 HD scope. I find it strange I NEVER read about it on BF. I tried it simply based on specs. Turns out..it's a GREAT scope. L.O.N.G eye relief! Very nice optics! VERY lightweight! It's still one of my favorites especially when the walk is long!
 
I absolutely endorse Chuck's comments about Meopta S2 scope. I found this to be very glasses-friendly when I was reviewing it.

Lee
 
I couldn't help but notice last night while watching the men's Olympic Biathlon that Meopta S2 scopes might have outnumbered Swaro when it came to scoring targets. I didn't see anything else. Maybe I missed it.

Just sayin'.

Go team Czechoslovakia!
 
The German team seemed to be using a Zeiss Diascope of the latest black armoured type, straight through 85 mm.

But yes, Meopta is doing pretty well in these circles. The 20-70x zoom would be very good for the purpose.

Kimmo
 
Kammerdiner said:
I couldn't help but notice last night while watching the men's Olympic Biathlon that Meopta S2 scopes might have outnumbered Swaro when it came to scoring targets. I didn't see anything else. Maybe I missed it.

Just sayin'.

Go team Czechoslovakia!
Click to expand...

YAY!!!! :t::t::t:

Lee
 
Swissboy said:
Not sure what this historic designation has got to do here. These days, there is no such team, I think.
Click to expand...

Robert
It can take a long time for news from Europe to cross the Atlantic to the USA and make its way into the heart of that continent. :-O

It would have seemed a bit like being a 'party-pooper' to put down Kammerdiner's enthusiasm for the Czech-made Meopta S2 by pointing out he had got the name of the country wrong.

Lee
 
chill6x6 said:
I can understand that BUT....I use the same glasses for all. Out of three big objective scopes I have it was easy to come the conclusion of which has the smallest about of eye relief. The STX Swarovski 95mm was it. Not nearly as user-friendly as the Meopta S2 OR even my Kowa 88.
Click to expand...

I use my STX95 with glasses without any problems and appreciate the fact that I can use also my Sony @6000 without problems for digiscopy. As Kimmo forgot, I recommend you to purchase the "special" eyecup Swaro has for needed eye-glass users - with it I had to turn out it a bit to maximize the FOV with the camera so I don't have one...;)
 
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