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Nikon Monarch Fieldscope - Discontiuned (1 Viewer)

V

Vespobuteo

Well-known member
Rumors from photokina say that the almost famous Nikon Monarch Fieldscope
is discontinued. Actually it was never released (more than as virtual images).
And it will never be released in the current form ever.

Sad if it's true. But perhaps something even better will be replacing it.
The specs were after all quite modest even if the modular concept and photo adapter was very innovative.

Hurray! to that! Long live any future nikon spotting scopes!
B :)
 
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Wow. Aborted before conception. Strange happenings at Nikon Sports Optics (top end). First, disappoint all Ed82 fans by NOT bringing out a wide-angle zoom, at precisely the time when all other manufacturers do. Then, produce the EDG line of ugly, death-star compatible scopes, and ho-hum binoculars (except for the sublime 7x42 and the excellent 8x42). Then, discontinue one of the world's greatest ever porros (if not THE greatest, i.e. the SE), then promise a fab new modular scope, publish photo-fits, and dump that too. Although I hang for the moment onto my ED50, my EDG 8x42 and my SE 8x32, I'd hesitate before buying any more Nikon kit.
 
Vespobuteo said:
Sad if it's true. But perhaps something even better will be replacing it.
The specs were after all quite modest even if the modular concept and photo adapter was very innovative.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't bet on it. And, like Sancho, I think I'll refrain from even thinking about getting another piece of Nikon kit for the time being.

Hermann
 
Nikon Monarch Fieldscope-Discontinued

Nikon used to sell many digital camera's that made them a pile of money.
Now because of cell phone camera's they don't and other manufacturers have the lens market for cell phones.
Nikon has also lost some of its bio-med market and has been having a hard time competing with companies like Vortex and Zen Ray in the medium priced bino market.
Art
 
I found some recent patents (on http://www.uspto.gov) from Swarovski in the area "modular telescopes"
so I wonder if there have been any patent issues,

from the press release:

"Nikon Vision Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Nikon Corporation, has made the difficult decision to cancel the release of the following products, the launch of which had been announced on August 19, 2013.

MONARCH Fieldscope 82/82-A/60/60-A
MONARCH Fieldscope Objective Lens Unit 82/60 (OLU-82/OLU-60)
MONARCH Fieldscope Prism Unit Straight/Angled (SPU/APU)
Fieldscope Eyepieces NEP Series for MONARCH Fieldscopes
(NEP-38W/NEP-20-60/NEP-30-60W)
Digiscoping Attachment FSA-L3
Digiscoping Attachment DSA-N2
We offer our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience that this may cause to customers who had anticipated the release of these products, as well as to distributors, retailers, and any other concerned parties. We assure you that we are diligently working to develop appealing new products in response to market demands, and thank you for your patience and understanding.
We look forward to your continued patronage."
 
I think they should bring the ED82 back and support users with eyepieces. I mean what was wrong with the ED82? It was about perfect - just needed a wide zoom.
 
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Camera and lenses are Nikon's core business. They made a lot of money with DSLRs too, but they are slow (or even resistant) with developing social-media-easy technology into their digital cameras and didnt do well with the mirrorless department too. This is fast catching up with them as consumers move away from the heavy and cumbersome DSLRs into the lighter mirrorless from companies like Sony and Fuji, or giving up digital cameras altogether for cell phones from Apple and Samsung. Nikon's wifi and softwares are awkward and slow to use for their DSLRs. Even photography enthus and professionals are gradually moving into mirrorless and more social media friendly alternatives. The scopes business not as profitable as cameras, if they are not making money from the bread and butter section of the business, they dont have the luxury to spend time and money on developing scopes and binos. The faster Apple and Samsung grows and change the game, the more dangerous the position of traditional camera manufacturers like Canon and Nikon. Sony is a bigger giant with other electronic business to diversity their profits. Fuji had learned (hopefully) the lesson from the (near)death of film, as the surviving one left (versus Kodak which is pretty much gone). So they quickly dumped their DSLR business (Fuji S5pro their last flagship DSLR) to focus on mirrorless when they knew they cannot compete with Canon and Nikon.
 
at least nikon have patents for the Monarch Scopes now, (since June 2015)
found them at usgov patent site,
a bit late though…
RIP Nikon scopes,
 
Nikon Monarch Fieldscope - Discontinued

Cannon has a huge printer business and medical business to support it.
Nikon does not.
Nikon's binocular lines are confusing, numbers with different names duplicated, some sold as bubble pack that look exactly like the more expensive model confusing the first time buyer who isn't into technical specs.
This is confusing for the dealers and staff, a shop I frequent wanted to carry Nikon optics but was told that they would have to drop Swarovski and Zeiss because some models in those lines competed with Nikon models.
Their spotting scope eye pieces may have gotten better but availability can be spotty (pun).
Nikon seems to be run in Japan by engineers who don't know the American market and by marketeers in the US at least who just want to push as much product as possible out the door right now and don't care about the future.
To bad, much of their product is great.
I love my little 50mm Field Scope but am wondering why eyepieces are not available (40x WA) and like my 8x20 LXL or whatever it is now called.
I wish Nikon luck but am not holding my breath.
Art
 
gulf1263 said:
Cannon has a huge printer business and medical business to support it.
Nikon does not.
Nikon's binocular lines are confusing, numbers with different names duplicated, some sold as bubble pack that look exactly like the more expensive model confusing the first time buyer who isn't into technical specs.
This is confusing for the dealers and staff, a shop I frequent wanted to carry Nikon optics but was told that they would have to drop Swarovski and Zeiss because some models in those lines competed with Nikon models.
Their spotting scope eye pieces may have gotten better but availability can be spotty (pun).
Nikon seems to be run in Japan by engineers who don't know the American market and by marketeers in the US at least who just want to push as much product as possible out the door right now and don't care about the future.
To bad, much of their product is great.
I love my little 50mm Field Scope but am wondering why eyepieces are not available (40x WA) and like my 8x20 LXL or whatever it is now called.
I wish Nikon luck but am not holding my breath.
Art
Click to expand...

agree on that,
here in Europe Nikon can't compete with the european manufacturers of alpha bins, by tradition and reputation I guess, and you see very few EDG bins among birders,

my ED50 I sold recently (not much used), had the EDIII for 10 years also, excelent scopes for the price,

did you try eBay.com?
search for "nikon fieldscope"
usually a lot of nikon scope gear to be found.
 
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