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Nikon ED82 eyepiece quandry .. (1 Viewer)

S

Simmo1111

Well-known member
Hi chaps...

I have a Nikon ED82 scope with 30x and a 50x eyepieces ...

I am just wondering if there would be any sense in buying a zoom eyepiece for it or am I just as well sticking with what I have ?

Obviously I am currently able to just unscrew to 30x (my day to day choice) and screw in the 50x to get a better, but obviously smaller and darker, view of my subject ..

I was concerned mostly about the field of view and brightness of a zoom eyepiece compared to the options I currently have ..

Any thoughts ?

Thanks very much ..
 
Hi Dave,
I know that it is not really comparable, but I have the ED111 with a 30x and the 20-60 Zoom.
I now keep the Zoom on all the time. I find the bottom(20x) on mine to be great for general panning and viewing(Nice and bright) and then Zoom to what ever lever when I see something.

I do not really notoce the darkess problem until I am near the top, then then it does not bother me. I guess with the 82mm for the convienience of one e.p. it will be worth it.

On the other hand 30 and 50 seem fine. It probably boils down to how much time you spend changing over, or rather how often, and do you miss things in the change?

Geoff
 
Dave,

I used to have a 30x with my ed82, but after I bought the zoom I rarely used it so ending up selling it. I agree that the view through the 30x is fabulous & slightly wider at equivalent mag but surely the point of owning a big scope like the Nikon is it's ability to use high mags up to 75x which it can very well. Like the previous poster I use the zoom to scan at low mag & then crank it up when I want a better look at something. Have no worries you won't be giving anything up with the zoom which is optically excellent & won't have the hassle of changing eyepieces. Only caveat is if you wear glasses the eye relief is poorer with the zoom, best to go to a dealer & try one out.

ATB,

John.
 
I used to use the 30x and 50x combo, and I much prefer it to the zoom for the much wider field of view and much better eye-relief. I do 95+% of scoping at 30x, for which I'd never accept the limitations of the zoom. I bought the 25-75 MCII eyepiece when they were selling for $70 a few years ago, and it now serves as my high-powered eyepiece for the big scope. I still like the 50x much better for extended higher power use, but since those occasions are rare, I'm lazy and leave it attached to my 50ED where it gets regular use as a 27x.

--AP
 
Simmo1111 said:
(...) I have a Nikon ED82 scope with 30x and a 50x eyepieces ...
Click to expand...
Mee, too!

Simmo1111 said:
I am just wondering if there would be any sense in buying a zoom eyepiece for it or am I just as well sticking with what I have ? (...)I was concerned mostly about the field of view and brightness of a zoom eyepiece compared to the options I currently have .. (...)
Click to expand...
The 25-75 MC II is my third eyepiece and absolutely useful, in my view:
  • Excellent optical quality, in real world terms on par with the eyepieces you own (a friend of mine does even digiscoping with his ED82A/25-75 combo),
  • the high magnifications above 50x are really helpful in some cases,
  • you don't have to change eyepieces on rainy days to change the magnification,
  • its narrow field of view and the small eye relief are noticable but overemphasized in my opinion,
  • it always comes handy at those lazy days when I don't want to fiddle more than necessary,
  • given its quality it is not pricey even if you don't find a special offer,
  • and maybe most important: You pick up the pace!
Hence my recommendation: Just order one - I'm pretty sure you won't send it back... |:D|
 
After I sold my ED82, I used the 25-75x MC II zoom on my ED50 for 13-40x and used it a lot in the rainforest. On 40x, for my eyes, it is still sharp !
 
forent said:
Mee, too![*]Excellent optical quality, in real world terms on par with the eyepieces you own (a friend of mine does even digiscoping with his ED82A/25-75 combo),
|:D|
Click to expand...

Can you let me know what camera your friend uses forent - many thanks

I love the zoom on my ED82 too
 
Hi,

I have the zoom and the MC30 lenses, I rarely use the zoom these days. I did try it some time back for a couple of weeks to 'give it a second chance' but missed the wide view of the fixed lens. Also over the period I used zoom 'atmospheric conditions' meant that I didn't get any real benefit going above 30x in terms of bird ID. That said, it is a fantastic lens and I have no intention of selling it just in case I ever feel the need! Certainly worth having and there do seem to be the odd bargain out there if you look around though they do seem to be getting rarer.

Perry
 
ED82 and the 30x is a great combo. Wide and very bright. Sounds to me your set up is just about right as with the zoom you are always tweeking. Fix your eyepiece and just enjoy the birds.:t::t:
 
It´s a very personal thing. I had the ED82A with 30x, 50x and zoom. The 50x I found too dark, used it on ED50 instead. The 30x was superb. The zoom was crisp and bright almost to the max, but the downside for me was the keyhole FOV. I embarked on an odyssey in search of a wide zoom, and ended up with Swarovski 80mm and 25-50x zoom. Only very occasionally do I miss the extra reach of the Nikon zoom.
 
I have used the zoom eye piece on my old 60mm Nikon scope. Up graded to the 82ED with the 30x eyepiece and purchased a 50x soon after. The 30x is on the scope 99% of the time. I use the DS version for digiscoping.
 
Dave,

I use the 25-75 zoom on my 82ED. Tried the 30x hoping for a wider field of view, but did not perceive much difference at comparable magnification. Stuck with zoom, though still less than happy with field of view. Good luck.

rw
 
Before Nikon came out with the new larger (and very much more expensive) 85mm there were strong rumours from dealer types that there would be a 'new zoom' for the 50 & 82 with wider field etc. It never happened, so first of all apologies for spreading that one, lesson learned.

In the end I bought the MCII and if you are in to ID etc it's very useful mainly because it can quickly get you up to as much as 75X which the 82 handles well. Although being darker and 'narrow' it remains tack sharp. I saw the Slaty-backed Gull at Rainham yesterday at a few hundred meters and at 75x you could see pretty much everything including colours. It's also useful for reading colour rings etc.

I have the 38xW as well which is great for general birding but would not be without the zoom for those times when bigger really is better.
 
Last edited:
Simmo1111 said:
Hi chaps...

I have a Nikon ED82 scope with 30x and a 50x eyepieces ...

I am just wondering if there would be any sense in buying a zoom eyepiece for it or am I just as well sticking with what I have ?

Obviously I am currently able to just unscrew to 30x (my day to day choice) and screw in the 50x to get a better, but obviously smaller and darker, view of my subject ..

I was concerned mostly about the field of view and brightness of a zoom eyepiece compared to the options I currently have ..

Any thoughts ?

Thanks very much ..
Click to expand...



Dave and Co.

Great discussion! I definitely use a fixed magnification eyepiece more than the zoom, but the Nikon zoom provides excellent quality. My take is that all zoom eyepieces on the market will lose a substantial amount of light at 50-60x and above. Usually, I only need to go up that high when I am viewing gulls or waterfowl at a distance.

My main priority is to use the lower magnifications, because heat distortion at high magnification can distort a view from any brand of scope. I will say this again though, Nikon's wide angle/fixed eyepieces are an absolute dream to look through and the zoom is an excellent compliment for birds out of reach. It is really nice to have the option of both fixed and zoom in my opinion.

Take care everyone!

Best,
Mike Freiberg
Nikon Birding Market Specialist
 
mikefreiberg said:
Nikon's wide angle/fixed eyepieces are an absolute dream to look through and the zoom is an excellent compliment for birds out of reach. It is really nice to have the option of both fixed and zoom in my opinion....

Mike Freiberg
Nikon Birding Market Specialist
Click to expand...

True, but having owned the Nikon ED82A plus 30xw, 38xw, 50xw and MCII 25-75 zoom eyepieces, it´s a major hassle changing eyepieces in the field. What Nikon really could have done, if they´d wanted loyal ED82 owners to stay loyal, is produce a wide-angle zoom. They didn´t, so I now have instead a Swarovski ATS80HD with 25-50 zoom. At 25x, it´s as wide as any 30xw fixed ep out there, including Nikons. It´s really simple - scanning at lowish mag, zooming to high-ish. That covers 99.99999% of requirements, without having to change eyepieces. I was sorely disappointed that Nikon didn´t heed our clamour here for a wide-angle zoom, because I really liked that scope. Ah well, if everything were perfect, I´d be dead already...;)
 
My take is that all zoom eyepieces on the market will lose a substantial amount of light at 50-60x and above. Usually, I only need to go up that high when I am viewing gulls or waterfowl at a distance.
Click to expand...

All EPs at 50x are dimmer. Buts when you need the higher magnification you really need it otherwise those birds stay unidentified.

Nikon (and Zeiss) should be looking at a 2x wide angle zoom that gives 25x to 50x on 80mm class scopes (and 20x to 40x on 65mm scopes) with big AFOV and good ER. This really seems to be a worthwhile trend: wide field with a usable range of magnifications.
 
Kevin Purcell said:
Nikon (and Zeiss) should be looking at a 2x wide angle zoom that gives 25x to 50x on 80mm class scopes (and 20x to 40x on 65mm scopes) with big AFOV and good ER. This really seems to be a worthwhile trend: wide field with a usable range of magnifications.
Click to expand...

Possibly. But I'm not all that happy about the Leica and Swarovski 25-50x zooms, simply because they don't offer high magnifications. Sure, there aren't many situations when you can use 75x in the field, but there are some, and the difference between 50x and 75x can make the difference between being able to identify a small shorebird or not being able to identify it.

Hermann
 
Hermann said:
Possibly. But I'm not all that happy about the Leica and Swarovski 25-50x zooms, simply because they don't offer high magnifications. Sure, there aren't many situations when you can use 75x in the field, but there are some, and the difference between 50x and 75x can make the difference between being able to identify a small shorebird or not being able to identify it.

Hermann
Click to expand...

Agree, this is the very point I made above. I let some folks look through my scope at 75x on Thursday and took the opportunity to peek through several of the scopes they left unattended. In those with fixed EP's at 20 & 30 times the Slaty-backed Gull (which was probably half a mile away) was a bit of a dot - not so with the 75x. The only other scopes where I could really see the bird well were two original Swarovski AT80's one angled the other straight at 60X (I still think they are top scopes although obviously not so 'sculptured' as the newer versions).
 
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