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Swaro 1.7 extender in stock anywhere? (1 Viewer)

Viking Optical says "coming soon", but they sent over a few to Minsmere on May 1st so I would ring them for current stock status.
 
The extender is now available in limited quantities in In Focus shops. Please call for availability and pricing.

Thanks, The In Focus Team
 
Does this fit, or do they have a different model for the ATS scopes? I see this specifically states the ATX line up ...It would seem to me that they use the same eyepiece, correct? And if so, this should work..... curious I am, lmans
 
future

Fit it does not, on the ATS. Extender, there is none for the ATS.

Perhaps in time they will come out with one that fits the ATS but , wow....I wonder what the loss of light is on that extender at the high end of an eye piece range...will find out I suppose.
 
Has anyone seen any reviews of the 1.7 extender? Very interested in seeing how it performs on the ATX95, in particular.

And have any ATX users on this forum bought a 1.7 extender yet?
 
I have the 1.7 extender now, and will post about it in more detail later this summer.

The short version is that it performs as it should: it turns the ATX 95 into a 50-120x95 scope without introducing any additional problems of its own. That is, the image quality will be dependent on the quality of the objective module, which is generally very high.

For any owner of an ATX who has hoped that they could zoom up to higher magnifications than what they get with the zoom, I will recommend the extender without hesitation. For those who feel they rarely use the top range of the zoom, it would probably be redundant.

Kimmo
 
Many thanks Kimmo for your input. Sounds good! Will look forward to reading your more detailed review later in the summer!

Nick
 
Just spoke to my local Swarovski dealer (Lamberts of Lancaster). He said that the Swarovski sales rep who provides his stock is not too impressed with the performance of the Extender on the ATX scopes - he says there is significant loss of brightness and he is doubtful you can see more feather detail even though the magnification is increased.

That seems to go against what Kimmo is reporting.

Would be great to hear views of other BF members who have tried the Extender on the ATX95 or ATX85 scope!
 
Theer are now two threads running on the extender, one under the binoviewer heading. Here's the other one:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=340454&highlight=swarovski+btx

Sean

Sorry, hadn't read the other thread as I thought it was purely on the BTX which I have no interest in. I am only interested in the performance of the 1.7 Extender on the ATX scope.

Still very interested in hearing people's impressions of the Extender with the ATX95, in particular!
 
Just spoke to my local Swarovski dealer (Lamberts of Lancaster). He said that the Swarovski sales rep who provides his stock is not too impressed with the performance of the Extender on the ATX scopes - he says there is significant loss of brightness and he is doubtful you can see more feather detail even though the magnification is increased.

That seems to go against what Kimmo is reporting.

Would be great to hear views of other BF members who have tried the Extender on the ATX95 or ATX85 scope!

The brightness loss is 1.5 f-stops in photographic terms. Noticeable? I would say maybe in good light, but definitely in low light. Obviously it will be no point in using the extender at a total mag of 70x or lower (Other than for finding the target..).

Btw. The extender is in stock at my dealer.
 
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There are encouraging opinions of the 1.7 Extender with the ATX95 on the other thread from Sean (dogfish) in Post #126 and from Ed (ed keeble) in Post #127. Together with Kimmo's comments above on this thread, that seems quite a good indication that it is worthwhile to have the Extender for use with an ATX95.

I think the key thing is that you will need good bright light conditions and low atmospheric distortion to obtain the anticipated advantage of the higher magnifications (x70 - x100+). I suspect that in poorer light conditions and/or heat haze the Extender will not yield more detail on the bird - hence the remarks made by the Swaro rep.

Although £279 is not a trivial amount of money, it is a relatively small outlay compared to the price already paid for an ATX95. If the Extender allows a more detailed view of birds on some occasions, it will probably be a worthwhile investment for many.

Think I will take the plunge and order one!
 
Nick,

Light conditions are not quite as critical for the utility of the extender. Heat haze or poor transparency (fog or haze from high atmospheric humidity) is much more critical.

I think a simple way to know wether or not one would find the extender useful is to think about how often you have cranked up the zoom to its maximum and felt that the image is so good that it really should go up to a higher magnification. If there was no improvement in detail retrieval from 60x to 72x (on the ATX 95, 50-60x on the ATX 85) without the extender, there will be no improvement with even higher mags. If there was, and especially if it was marked, there will be improvement with additional magnification, although returns will be diminishing. This kind of a personal evaluation also neatly takes into account sample variation in the quality of the objective unit.

Kimmo
 
A happy consequence of the trend of more manufacturers providing boosters (Leica then Kowa now Swarovski), is that it makes it easier for those of us without access to low powered boosters to see any optical defects.

In quiet moment at my local reserve I was able to check out a Kowa 883 and see with the extender on an artificial star that it was a fine example.

It would be nice to think that the increasing use and availability of extenders will drive up the optical quality of individual scopes.
 
I've got the Kowa 883 and extender. Generally speaking I don't use the extender unless I'm doing phonescoping. In my opinion x60 is more than enough power 99% of the time for birding, but for phonescoping I think the extra power is really useful.
 
why extender

I've got the Kowa 883 and extender. Generally speaking I don't use the extender unless I'm doing phonescoping. In my opinion x60 is more than enough power 99% of the time for birding, but for phonescoping I think the extra power is really useful.

I don't have the right scope to use an extender but just asking, why not just use w/o the extender and zoom in using the phone features with your fingers? I doubt either way will lend you super images but zooming in using the phone would save you a step of having to attach the extender etc.... ?
 
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