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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

KOWA vs OPTICRON (1 Viewer)

M

Marcin21

New member
Hello,

I am new in this wonderful forum :D I am going to buy a scope :) (to 600£). My friends recommend me:

KOWA TSN 821 20-60 ZOOM and new OPTICRON ES80 GA ED 20-60 ZOOM

I do not know which choose. Which will be better ? Have You got any experience with these scopes? Please help :)

Best Regards,
 
Marcin21 said:
Hello,

I am new in this wonderful forum :D I am going to buy a scope :) (to 600£). My friends recommend me:

KOWA TSN 821 20-60 ZOOM and new OPTICRON ES80 GA ED 20-60 ZOOM

I do not know which choose. Which will be better ? Have You got any experience with these scopes? Please help :)

Best Regards,
Click to expand...
I once owned the Opticron and have to admit it's a fine scope for the money - and very popular. I know a local leading birder who owns the Kowa you mention and he swears by it. I suppose out of the two, I go for the Kowa, because of the excellent pedigree. Try them both - that's the best way to choose, really.

Only if you don't mind a straight scope, Warehouse Express sell the Zeiss 65 + 30xW for £599-00 - a bargain price for a top brand and wonderful scope.
 
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Marcin21 said:
Hello,

I am new in this wonderful forum :D I am going to buy a scope :) (to 600£). My friends recommend me:

KOWA TSN 821 20-60 ZOOM and new OPTICRON ES80 GA ED 20-60 ZOOM

I do not know which choose. Which will be better ? Have You got any experience with these scopes? Please help :)

Best Regards,
Click to expand...
Welcome to Birdforum, Marcin.. I settled on the ES80 +zoom lens.and the 23mm eyepiece. :t: :t: :t:
 
Hi Marcin, I see this is your first post, so my I extend a warm welcome to Bird Forum, I'm sure you will enjoy it here.

D
 
i can thoroughly recommend the kowa 821,I owned this lovely piece of kit once,though I used it with the 32xw lense.

the only reason why I no longer have it is because i'm a non driver and these day's I mostly trek out on foot from my home,a day sack with food/drink/bins/stuff is quite a burden enough with out thinking about large scope/tripod etc.

the image is great with a nice easy on the eye picture window,also a good field of view.It's also quite light.might not be quite bright enough for digi scoping though.

best of luck which ever you choose

matt
 
Marcin21 said:
Which will be better ?
Click to expand...
I don't know the Opticron scopes very well, but I would perhaps not recommend the non-fluorite-Kowa 821 if you plan to use it for digiscoping. You may not notice "purple fringing" (or "chromatic aberration") by looking through the scope but I would say everyone will see the difference in digiscoped images between a non-ED and ED scope. Many BF members use the Opticron ES80 GA ED (with HDF eyepieces) and it seems to be capable of producing very good image quality.

Best regards,

Ilkka
 
Both very good scopes for the money, but the Opticron has the advantage of being an ED scope, so if you're thinking about digiscoping the Opticron would be the better bet. However if you can stretch to the Kowa 823 (the flourite version of the 821), it's well worth the extra money.

It might be worth holding off for a while as Kowa are about to launch some new scopes (77mm and 88mm objectives), so there might be some bargain 821/823s around soon.
 
iporali said:
I don't know the Opticron scopes very well, but I would perhaps not recommend the non-fluorite-Kowa 821 if you plan to use it for digiscoping. You may not notice "purple fringing" (or "chromatic aberration") by looking through the scope but I would say everyone will see the difference in digiscoped images between a non-ED and ED scope. Many BF members use the Opticron ES80 GA ED (with HDF eyepieces) and it seems to be capable of producing very good image quality.

Best regards,

Ilkka
Click to expand...
I had forgotten the Kowa was non-ED. No - I would go for the ED scope everytime - the HDF eyepiece is vital for the Opticron, though, in my opinion.
 
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I purchased an Opticron not long ago. I hate it with a vengence. My old Mirador Merlin is far superior.

Just my own point of "view", of course.

Regards

Malky
 
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alcedo.atthis said:
I purchased an Opticron not long ago. I hate it with a vengence. My old Mirador Merlin is far superior.
Malky
Click to expand...

You don't say which model you have - and did you take it back and try another?
All the companies can produce the odd lemon.

I had a Kowa 821, with the old zoom and I was not very pleased with it. I tried the ED Opticron and was impressed, although I eventually bit the financial bullet and bought a Zeiss, mainly because of the wide angle of view given by the zoom.

But you really need to try them, side by side.

Pete
 
I was at Slimbridge on Friday and InFocus had an Opticron set up with a zoom lens (I did not notice which one). Out of curiosity, I compared it with my Zeiss 85. Viewing conditions were very good - bright sunlight. The Opticron compared very favourably - the only downsides were that it did not have as a big a field of view, and at full zoom it definitely had a slightly softer image, even in the centre. However it was still very good. Ergonomically, it was a joy-the focus and zoom were both light and silky smooth - much nicer than my Zeiss! At £500 less than the Zeiss, it's good value.

Pete
 
John Cranmer

Not quite what you werre asking about but I have just bought a Kowa 604 which has a smaller objective lens trhan the 821 but does have the new fluorite lenses. I also got the 20 - 60 eyepiece. I like the scope a lot it is very light to carry and I do not find the smaller lens much of a problem except at the 60 times setting when the image gets a bit dull.

I did not think much of this eye piece for digiscoping though. So I got a TSN20 Wide second hand (?) from London Camera exchange for £25 and this seems much better. (By the way the London shop said they had 4 of these when I asked on Monday so there may be some left at that price. Mine looks new and is boxed.)

John
 
I am also new, and have not seen the Oopticron. I do have the Fluorite Kowa 611 as an update from mu earlier scopes. Coastal Texas is for BIG glass and this one is a joy to carry. Either spend the money for the bigger Fluouite or get a smaller Fluorite 'scope. The money will be well spent.
Ed Hunter
Houston, Texas
 
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