Zeiss Harpia 95 & Swaro ATX 95 (1 Viewer)

Hello. I’ve spent the last 4 days reading and researching hours and hours of info pertaining to these two scopes. I currently have the Swaro ATX 95. I use it for multiple purposes. Bird watching, digiscoping, traveling, hunting, etc. I have an opportunity to purchase the Harpia at a very reasonable price. Putting the scopes physical differences aside (weight, focus adjustment, looks, feel), is there any real point in making the Zeiss purchase....mainly referring to optical quality? Is one (for a lack of better words) better than the other optically? I like the fact the Zeiss has a much larger FOV, but would I be making a lateral move, forward or moving backwards? I have no way to compare or look through one myself. I’ve heard from non experts mind you, that the Zeiss edged out the Swaro in every aspect optically, and visa versa. The price is almost too good to pass up, but having a $3500 spare scope seems overkill if there’s no real advantage of one over the other. So in a nutshell, would the Zeiss Harpia 95 be an improvement or upgrade? Thanks

I personally will comment that it is a wee bit of a luxury to purchase the Zeiss, even though I am a fan of Zeiss optics. The tiny "improvements" that you may notice, and that is a big may, dont justify that outlay. Unless you're unhappy with the Swarovski in any way, then stick with it is my penny's worth.

I don`t own either but have been lucky enough to spend a good while behind each. The Zeiss is not "better" optically IMHO, but does offer a significant increase in fov which could be important to you if you find the ATX lacking in this regard, but be aware that below 40x the Harpia does not use all 95mm of the objective, in fact at 23x its about 57mm.

Don`t forget the ATX allows you to add/stack extenders, use the BTX os STX.

Love the Harpia mostly, but if I owned a ATX already I would`nt bother.

Thanks. I haven’t spent enough time behind other scopes to really appreciate the ATX I guess. It just seemed like with all the talk about the Harpia and mainly the price I could get it at, it would be a no brainer to not pass it up. Other than a huge FOV, if there’s no real difference, then maybe I’ll save the 3k.

Pronghunter said:

Thanks. I haven’t spent enough time behind other scopes to really appreciate the ATX I guess. It just seemed like with all the talk about the Harpia and mainly the price I could get it at, it would be a no brainer to not pass it up. Other than a huge FOV, if there’s no real difference, then maybe I’ll save the 3k.

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If you have an ATX already and love it then by all means stick with it. But there is a little more to Harpia than 'just' the fov. For a start the fov is wide enough at the low end of magnification to watch birds fly across the fov and have time to make difficult identifications, as well as offering enhanced searching ability. To put it another way, a monster field of view like this gives you more for your money every time you look through it. The Harpia 95 offers a range of 23-70x without having to change eyepieces. One down-side is that the maximum EP of 2.5mm is not ideal for observing at dusk but in normal light conditions your iris will stop down to this size anyway.

Lee