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

New Nikon travel scope (1 Viewer)

Andrew Whitehouse said:
The scope works very well indeed at 27x and the image was not far off the view through my ED82 at 30x. As you'd expect, it's not quite as bright but this is only really noticeable in dull conditions. Even then it's still very usable and the sharpness and contrast is very impressive. <snip>
The scope seems well made to me. It feels a bit plastic but 'good quality' plastic, if that makes sense. The whole feel is sturdy but very lightweight.

Thanks a lot. That's the kind of information I was looking for. Interesting that it was Nikon to come out with a small quality scope and not one of the European manufacturers. At a bit less than half the weight even of the EDIII it's going to be a really nice piece of kit for travelling, especially when you intend to spend a lot of time walking. I reckon I'll get myself one of those.

BTW, I'll be using the scope at low magnification most of the time, but with a high quality scope you can always use a doubler to push up the magnification if necessary. I've done that before with my EDIII and the Zeiss 3x12 - with the 24x wideangle that results in 72x magnification, well over the limits of the scope and certainly no joy to use, but in some tricky situations you can often see more detail.

Hermann
 
Hermann said:
.... Interesting that it was Nikon to come out with a small quality scope and not one of the European manufacturers. ..Hermann/QUOTE]

Nikon was also first with the EDIII! In fact, after having used it extensively in 2000, I suggested to Leica, to come up with such a compact scope. The answer I got was along the line that they did not think there was a market for it! Meanwhile all three major European manufactuers are in that market, but Leica came in last.
 
Andrew Whitehouse said:
Yes - I use a Cullman. I've only been using it for about a year.

Thanks, Andrew, I have now just found your previous reply as well. So I was right that I had asked you before. Again, sorry for that, but there is so much information here that it is often difficult to keep track.

And thanks to you, Tim, as well!
 
Swissboy said:
Nikon was also first with the EDIII! In fact, after having used it extensively in 2000, I suggested to Leica, to come up with such a compact scope. The answer I got was along the line that they did not think there was a market for it!

Been there, done that. I made the same suggestion both to Leica and to Zeiss years ago. They wouldn't listen.

By the way, the Nikon has been around for ages. The original fieldscope ED is (despite its lack of a proper multicoating) still quite a nice scope. I know a couple of guys who still use them, and they perform quite well despite their age. One of these scopes really looks as though its been run over by a tank ... No paint left on the body that is dented all over the place, but optically it's still quite decent, even by today's crazy standards.

Hermannn
 
Checked out the Nikon ED50 Angled and was fairly impressed. I much prefered the fixed WD eyepieces over the zoom. IMO it was limited in low light conditions at 27x; maybe too limiting for some people for use as a 'stand alone' scope whilst travelling. Using the 20x fixed WD lens in low light conditions is another possibility, however I don't like to continually change eyepieces due to the potential dust build up therefore cleaning etc...in the cavity.

Would have liked to have compared it with the kowa 603 (with the 30xwa eyepiece) in low light. The Kowa is 50% heavier than the ED50 but is the difference worth it?

I can't find a single review of the kowa 603

Mike

Henry Link raised some possible design drawbacks of the Nikon; hopefully he and others will review the Kowa 603. I'll write something (hopefully useful) once I've been able to use one.
 
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cassowary said:
Checked out the Nikon ED50 Angled and was fairly impressed. I much prefered the fixed WD eyepieces over the zoom. IMO it was limited in low light conditions at 27x; maybe too limiting for some people for use as a 'stand alone' scope whilst travelling. Using the 20x fixed WD lens in low light conditions is another possibility, however I don't like to continually change eyepieces due to the potential dust build up therefore cleaning etc...in the cavity.

Would have liked to have compared it with the kowa 603 (with the 30xwa eyepiece) in low light. The Kowa is 50% heavier than the ED50 but is the difference worth it?

I can't find a single review of the kowa 603

Mike

Henry Link raised some possible design drawbacks of the Nikon; hopefully he and others will review the Kowa 603. I'll write something (hopefully useful) once I've been able to use one.

Any small scope is going to be a compromise between size and image quality and there will always be bigger scopes that will offer a better image than the ED50 under the most testing conditions. I think the occasions when this will actually make a difference to whether a bird can be IDed are so infrequent that it would still work as a stand alone scope at 27x very well. I've certainly found this to be the case over the past few weeks.

In fact, the ease with which the ED50 can be used at 27x with a shoulder pod means that many birds (flying overhead, high in tree tops) can be much more readily identified with the ED50 than they would with a larger scope on a tripod. A very small scope that works well on both tripod and shoulder pod at 27x in almost all light conditions strikes me as being about as versatile as a scope can be and for travelling that's ideal.

At the moment, I can only see one problem with the ED50 - no stay-on-case. I hope one comes out soon.
 
I believe that IN FOCUS are doing a stay on case for this little beauty at around £40. Has anyone got it and what is it like? Thanks
 
PYRTLE said:
I believe that IN FOCUS are doing a stay on case for this little beauty at around £40. Has anyone got it and what is it like? Thanks

I saw one at the Birdfair yesterday, and to be honest, I decided not to buy it.

The Nikon stand had a prototype SOC of their own, which ! was told will be on sale around October. Its a little like the cases for the Kowa 501/502, which can be seen here.

They didn't give me a price, but I'd rather wait.
 
trealawboy said:
I saw one at the Birdfair yesterday, and to be honest, I decided not to buy it.

The Nikon stand had a prototype SOC of their own, which ! was told will be on sale around October. Its a little like the cases for the Kowa 501/502, which can be seen here.

They didn't give me a price, but I'd rather wait.


Ditto! I also saw the case on Infocus stand and wasn't overly impressed, and also saw Nikon's prototype which looks much better quality, I will also wait!
 
nikon 50 mm fieldscope

I will be in the UK from sept 7 to oct 6 Because of the airline restrictions i may have to leave my gear at home & purchase scope etc in the UK.& leave it there for future visits .Iwill be in ilford [london] ,whitby [yorks] & the lake district .Could anyone let me know a decent store where i could purchase the nikon 50 mm scope please in these areas.
appreciate any help i can get .
Brian.














7
 
medinabrit said:
I will be in the UK from sept 7 to oct 6 Because of the airline restrictions i may have to leave my gear at home & purchase scope etc in the UK.& leave it there for future visits .Iwill be in ilford [london] ,whitby [yorks] & the lake district .Could anyone let me know a decent store where i could purchase the nikon 50 mm scope please in these areas.

Do you mean that the future has only two options for us, either no more flying to birding spots, or buying gear locally and then either depositing for a possible future visit or reselling it? I can't quite imagine doing any of this. I hope the hysteria is going to subside and reasonable checks (including looking through any lens) will be installed instead.
 
Swissboy said:
Do you mean that the future has only two options for us, either no more flying to birding spots, or buying gear locally and then either depositing for a possible future visit or reselling it? I can't quite imagine doing any of this. I hope the hysteria is going to subside and reasonable checks (including looking through any lens) will be installed instead.

Im sure that eventually the hysteria will go away ,but not by next week when i will be flying to UK.I just cant trust about $3000 of stuff in my bag in the planes hold. I usually carry my gear on the plane but at the present i believe they will only allow a small transparent bag in the cabin.
Hope this soon changes.
Brian.
 
medinabrit said:
Im sure that eventually the hysteria will go away ,but not by next week when i will be flying to UK.I just cant trust about $3000 of stuff in my bag in the planes hold. I usually carry my gear on the plane but at the present i believe they will only allow a small transparent bag in the cabin.
Hope this soon changes.
Brian.

It already has. You are now allowed a laptop size case. Try here

http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_about/documents/page/dft_about_612280.hcsp

for details

Gary
 
Stay-on-cases

Why do some people want a stay-on-case? In 20 years I've never used a case for any scope, waterproof or not, and never had any problems. In any case, the ED50 is waterproof, so what advatage does a stay-on-case offer. Seems to me it just adds extra bulk.

Just my 2 cents.
 
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