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Hawke Panorama ED 'scope - a Swaro-hawke? (1 Viewer)

John Cantelo

John Cantelo

Well-known member
The current edition of 'Birdwatching' magazine has a full page advert for a forthcoming Hawke telescope the Panorama ED (see attached). It looks very similar indeed to Swarovski telescopes; it'd be hard to tell them apart at a glance and I doubt you'd know if it was in an annonymous stay-on case. With the best Hawke bins getting very close in optical quality to alpha binoculars, is this the long awaited Chinese challenge to the dominance of alpha scopes? The £600 Hawke Endurance ED has had good reviews so it's hard to see why they'd spend twice as much unless they were making a serious effort to equal the best. I do hope that their quality control matches the promised excellence of the instrument!

No news yet on their website .....
 

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Hi Frank. I thought you'd be interested. The proof of the pie and all that, but I'd be surprised if this scope doesn't come very close to alpha standards. I've a 62mm Leica that I've never much liked so if I can get a good trade-in, I might be tempted,
 
Hi John,
Was lucky enough to briefly test one of these recently at work.
Experience was brief so can't offer a full review but key points noted below:
The good bits
1. Body felt well constructed and had a good feel to it, didn't feel cheap.
2. Weighty without being overly heavy, some may find it a bit much though.
3. Sharp image with good colour representation when compared to the image being looked at.
4. Focusing is smooth and precise without being overly fine.
5. Case of good quality and fits well
6. Not a huge amount of brightness lost at top end of zoom (Scope tested on fairly bright day so further testing needed)

The bad bits
1. Zoom eyepiece narrow overall compared to other scopes offering same magnifications.
2. Weight may be an issue for some as for its size it does feel weighty
3. Image quality just behind scopes like the Swarovski ATS/M. Small differences

The Endurance ED is a great scope for the price but I think the Panorama at £1299 is a bold move by Hawke. Its an excellent scope but i'm not sure how many birders will go for it at that price.
Certainly worth a look if you get the chance though, may just be enough in it to swing opinion.
66mm Endurance for nearly 1/3 the price would be my choice though.
 
Based on your assessment it sounds like it will fall into the same category as scopes such as the Zen Ray ED2, the Vortex Razor and the Theron Optics Mag82/Avian ED.

That is a bit of a tough sell in general. I think all of those scopes come very close to matching your description of the optical performance of the Hawke. The argument always comes up for why someone should spend that type of money on a relative unknown versus something more established for about the same price (thinking Nikon Fieldscope 82 for example).

Out of what you posted though the only thing that shouts a bit of a "red flag" is the narrow field of view of the zoom. I think that in order to be competitive with the "big guns" then a relatively wide field zoom now needs to be included as part of the package.
 
O.R...
Do you know what kind of mounting the eyepiece has, will eyepieces from some other manufacturer fit?

Cheers,
Anders
 
I have the Hawke Endurance 85mm ED scope, and the eyepieces are screw in type with approx 37mm thread. I have tried astro eyepieces and they do not fit. Some sort of adapter will need to be made but then the astro eyepiece might end up sitting to far out to focus anyway.

Apart from that I love the scope it's light, sharp, and very sexy to look at and touch, the stay on case is fantastic as well.
 
I could be wrong, but I'll be surprised if this scope isn't optically identical to the Zen/Vortex/RSPB/Kite ED scopes. The variation here is probably confined to the substitution of a Swarovski like helical focusing mechanism. The eyepiece looks like the copies of the Swarovski 20-60x zoom used in those scopes, and I'll bet the same Swarovski type bayonet mount is used. In spite of the outward appearance, the use of "dielectric" prism coating is a give way that the erecting prism/focuser system is not a Schmidt prism with a focusing lens like Swarovski, but a moving Porro/semi-pentaprism like the above scopes.
 
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There is no way on earth this would be in my purchase sights. I just spent a week with the Meopta S2 HD, and for the expansive view, razor image and sublime handling ill save up just two hundred quid more than this hawke. The field of view alone justifies it. I own and use daily my hawke ed 85 endurance and love it, but dropping a thousand three hundred on a scope that offers tiny field of view benefits, and touts 'flat field'....well sorry, that's just not in any way shape or form justifying the price tag especially as the 85ed suffers so little curvature its negligable.
 
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