Upgrading Kowa zoom lens? (1 Viewer)

This morning I received from eagle optics the new wide angle zoom (25-60) Kowa lens. I immediately stuck it on my 88 scope and took it out for a spin. First impressions are a bit ho-hum. The fov at the lowest power is not IMO noticeably greater than the old zoom at 20x. However, when you crank it up to 60x then you begin to see a noticeable difference. But, when I use my scope I scan for birds (in a flock of geese for instance) at low power and only crank it up when I have found something interesting. So, having the extra fov at the higher mags is not, for me, a strong point. I'd rather that Kowa had produced a zoom with 20x as the low power and a significantly larger fov at that mag.

Make no mistake, this is a fine lens (edge to edge sharp, bright and very clear). But Will I spend the $600 to upgrade from the old zoom? Probably not. I will continue to play around with it for a few days and decide after that.

Hi from Italy. What do you decide? I'ld like to know your decision.Best Regards.

Have to admit I was a little underwhelmed when I first looked through it. Had read lots of good things about the lens but after looking through it there was no way the improvement/cost ratio would justify a purchase. If you have the old 20-60 already and have cash to burn then do it but if you're purse strings aren't as loose then best stick with what you've got. Have to put it out there that the 30x wide lens on the Kowa is hands down THE best lens I've looked through. I sometimes just scan empty fields just enjoying the lens. If Kowa made a 50x wide of the same quality I'd be all over it

I've been thinking about buying one of these to adapt to my astronomical refractor. I'm hoping the XD elements might give better correction of lateral color than is usual in eyepieces. Any opinions on the amount of color fringing near the field edge compared to the standard zoom?

Henry,

When I tested this eyepiece, I compared it directly to a Swarovski ATX 85 because their zoom have identical ranges and the Swaro is also the closest rival to the Kowa in field of view. In terms of lateral color, there was a fair bit more in the ATX, and I remember being somewhat surprised at how little there was in the Kowa. But, I'm afraid I cannot quantify the difference. I had both scopes on the yard, pointed at a sunlit window that had aluminum narrow-slat aluminum venetian blinds, and the horizontal edges of the slats gave a nice set of parallel high-contrast edges. Looking at these, the color fringing was quite visible in the ATX rather close to the center of the image, whereas in the Kowa view the fringing was quite minimal.

Kimmo

Thanks Kimmo. From the OP's post it looks like there will be a slightly used one available from Eagle Optics soon.