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Opticron HR 80 ED angled plus SDLv2 zoom (1 Viewer)

sherlock

sherlock

Well-known member
Well thats what I am thinking of buying - if anyone has one or has looked through one please offer thoughts or judgements whether good middling or bad.

Another option could be the Nikon ED82 with a zoom lens for about the same sort of cost..

I dont wear glasses at present and would struggle to budget much more than £1100 for body and lens.

I am sure I need higher magnification as the tide here goes out a fair old way in the Taw/Torridge estuary. There are no bird hides on the estuary, grass pasture or near the salt marsh so higher magnification will hopefully mean I do not have to get too close to the wildlife.

My current optics are

Opticron LE monocular 8x32

Opticron Mighty Midge2 ED angled 52mm lens with 12x36 zoom

Plus Velbon fluid head tripod & Velbon ball head monopod
 
sherlock said:
Well thats what I am thinking of buying - if anyone has one or has looked through one please offer thoughts or judgements whether good middling or bad.

Another option could be the Nikon ED82 with a zoom lens for about the same sort of cost..

I dont wear glasses at present and would struggle to budget much more than £1100 for body and lens.

I am sure I need higher magnification as the tide here goes out a fair old way in the Taw/Torridge estuary. There are no bird hides on the estuary, grass pasture or near the salt marsh so higher magnification will hopefully mean I do not have to get too close to the wildlife.

My current optics are

Opticron LE monocular 8x32

Opticron Mighty Midge2 ED angled 52mm lens with 12x36 zoom

Plus Velbon fluid head tripod & Velbon ball head monopod
Click to expand...

Hi,

The Nikon will, in general give you a brighter, sharper image with less CA. However, the zoom lens on the Nikon has a significantly narrower depth of field than the Opticron.

I had the same dilemma last summer, compared the two side by side for a morning and went for the Nikon.

I'd recommend you try them bout out before deciding, if you can.

Perry
 
sherlock said:
Well thats what I am thinking of buying - if anyone has one or has looked through one please offer thoughts or judgements whether good middling or bad.

Another option could be the Nikon ED82 with a zoom lens for about the same sort of cost..

I dont wear glasses at present and would struggle to budget much more than £1100 for body and lens.

I am sure I need higher magnification as the tide here goes out a fair old way in the Taw/Torridge estuary. There are no bird hides on the estuary, grass pasture or near the salt marsh so higher magnification will hopefully mean I do not have to get too close to the wildlife.

My current optics are

Opticron LE monocular 8x32

Opticron Mighty Midge2 ED angled 52mm lens with 12x36 zoom

Plus Velbon fluid head tripod & Velbon ball head monopod
Click to expand...

Hi Sherlock,

As Perry rightly says, try both out if you can get them both side.

Concerning the new SDL Zoom v2, as you will probably know that it will give you a 24-72x Zoom on the HR 80ED, but it has also been improved on the old SDL Zoom v1 by having a wider field of view, a better resolution and a more consistent eye relief.

I have found, having used both of the SDL Zooms in the field, the new SDL v2 has a more truer colours than the v1 which had a more slightly yellow cast to the overall image in comparison.

There is also a retail offer with the HR 80ED when bought with the SDL Zoom currently, where you can claim a free Opticron Birdwatchers Pro Tripod with the Manfrotto 701 HDV head.

Details here:

http://www.opticron.co.uk/Pages/promotions.htm

Good luck with your search! :t:
 
Last edited:
Rob Laughton said:
Hi Sherlock,

There is also a retail offer with the HR 80ED when bought with the SDL Zoom currently, where you can claim a free Opticron Birdwatchers Pro Tripod with the Manfrotto 701 HDV head.

Details here:

Rob I have seen the offer for the tripod - can you clarify what colour the tripod is? If it is of shiny aluminium construction that puts me off unless I can sell it (I fear any reflections of sunlight might disturb wildlife)? I thought birding scopes were best in black? Perhaps shiny tripods are best used under water ;) ?

Many thanks for the information Perry Grin and Rob (further observations very welcome)
Click to expand...
 
Sherlock,

The tripod is an aluminium tripod that has a satin finish and so not shiny, and unless you are trying to photograph a bear on it I think you'll have no problems with it scaring any wildlife :--)
 
Thank you for your advice

Conclusion

I went to a field day and had over 4 hours use of 4 tripods and 5 scopes -

Conditions bright but cold, looking North over the estuary.

I cant give any technical evaluations however -

The ES80ED & HR80ED from Opticron. These were great value for money.

Latest 80 Swarovski 20/50 WOW! wide field of view & nice to hold! (just needed another £1200 to spend!!)

Kowa 883 - very very clear and very very nice - however - £1250 more

Nikon ED82 25-75 zoom that we came home with.

While yes it does have a narrow field of view I am very happy with the value for money of this scope.

I notice the stay on case rubs on the focus wheel and I hope to make a modification to prevent this.

Longer term I want to digicope with the 25 x 75 lens hence why I am looking for a small old metal working lathe to turn some plastic to make some adaptors up. I know the results of digiscoping through the 25 - 75 will not be good however I only need something for ID purposes.
 
Hi

Opticron Kit as you mentioned - I found with my eyes very little difference with the £2000 plus models. Therefore Opticron was great value for money.

I think it is more down to the Nikon why I decided against the Opticron. IE slightly shorter body which helps when a weak guy has to put it in and out of a rucksack and slightly lower weight plus a tried and tested design including the eyepeices.

Not much help I know but thats about it.
 
Last edited:
Interesting !!

I already have a opticron ES80 ED and am hoping santa will bring me a zoom EP.

But trying to find people that have used Opticrons range of EP's is difficult.
There is quite a diffrence in price... HDF zoom £170ish, SDLv1 £199ish and SDLv2 £250ish.
If price is the gauge the v2 is the better EP, but that dont always apply in my opinion.
Ive had some people say the prefer the HDF over the SDL's and ive had people say they Prefer v1 over v2... but ive not anyone that as used all three.

So is there anyone here that as used all three? opinons please !
Or even more opinions and findings regarding any 2 of the 3 you have used may help santa decide the one best to buy.

Thanks in advance !
Jon
 
Only way to tell is to try all three! Find an extremely understanding optics retailer and ask them to set up three scopes each with a different zoom and have a play using different zooms at different distances etc....

FWIW, A little while ago I considered upgrading my HDF zoom to the SDL v1 on my ES80ED and found there was little improvement, not enough to convince me to upgrade anyway. (By the way, if there is a branch near you In focus were very patient and let me have the scopes set up for a couple of hours in total).

Perry
 
spuggyhawk said:
Interesting !!

I already have a opticron ES80 ED and am hoping santa will bring me a zoom EP.

But trying to find people that have used Opticrons range of EP's is difficult.
There is quite a diffrence in price... HDF zoom £170ish, SDLv1 £199ish and SDLv2 £250ish.
If price is the gauge the v2 is the better EP, but that dont always apply in my opinion.
Ive had some people say the prefer the HDF over the SDL's and ive had people say they Prefer v1 over v2... but ive not anyone that as used all three.

So is there anyone here that as used all three? opinons please !
Or even more opinions and findings regarding any 2 of the 3 you have used may help santa decide the one best to buy.

Thanks in advance !
Jon
Click to expand...

Hi Jon, i just bought the EA80GA ED and i tried all three eye pieces and to be honest there was only very slight difference to me and this was between the HDF and the SDLv. I found the only difference with the SDLv and SDL V2 was the eye relief which was a bit less, as for between the HDF and the SDLv the view was slightly lighter and crisper with the SDL piece but what did it for me really was the size of the eye glass being larger than the HDF piece and as i bought them as a package it was only £15 more than the HDF, happy days. Hope this is of any help to you.

carlB :)
 
I've used an ES80ED with the SDL V1 for almost four years now and never regretted the choice. Before buying I spent a long time comparing the SDL against the HDF zoom EP and also the ES80ED +SDL against an 80mm ED Swaro scope (I don't remember the exact Swaro model number).

The difference between the ES80 and the Swaro performance appeared to me to be minimal - maybe the Swaro just edged it on resolution at 60x zoom - but I had to keep swapping back and forth between the two several times to see this. In normal use I doubt it would really be noticeable. The price difference was huge so it really was no contest.

The SDL EP was more convenient to use than the HDF since it needed much less refocussing when zooming in. The SDL eye relief is very long - at low mag I need to raise the eyecup quite a lot even with specs on - but that's better than not enough eye relief and if enormous specs come back into fashion it might be very useful. :)

Hope these ramblings help.
 
Thanks Ken !

I think i may have already decided, I was in a hide at Rutland yesterday with a guy who had the SDLv2 on his scope and he was good enough to let me a have a small trial...i liked it.

Mind you i havent used the v1 or HDF EP's so i'm still going to trial all 3 on sat...

Jon
 
Today i went and tried the SDL EP's, there was no HDF in stock to try... however i had heard that the HDF was not waterproof and although we make every attempt to keep them dry there is always the chance it may happen... so i'd decided against it anyway.

I came away with the SDLv2, I liked the field of view and adjusting the ER when zooming was smooth and no trouble.
Having never owned a zoom EP before I found i really liked being able to get that much closer.... yes i'd say the image looses crispness at top zoom (20 to 60x on my scope) but not enough to worry me and am happy with my purchase.

If you are thinking of buying such a EP shop around prices vary on where you buy... i got mine for £34 less than rrp.

Jon
 
Well it is a xmas prezi Sherlock, the other half has let me use it today to trial it but it seems thats it till xmas...sigh !!!!

Jon
 
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