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600ED v 660ED (1 Viewer)

aucarius

aucarius

Marcus
United Kingdom
Hello there,

It's time to upgrade my old Kowa TS-601 'scope to a fluorite lens so I was wondering what the difference is between Kowa's 600 range & their 660 range?

As far as I can see the only difference is that the 660 has a 66mm objective lens compared to the 600's 60mm. (They are also the same price on warehouseexpress.)

I presume that the 660 will be a touch heavier & longer as a consequence, but other than that I wondered if I am missing something?

Any info gratefully received.
Thanks.
 
Yeah, they may be called Prominars BUT they are NOT Fluorites. They use XD aka ED/SD/LD glass. Only the flagship 883/4 use Flourite for the objective lens. I have the 663 and the optics are still superb.

cheers,
Rick
 
I have used the 663 scope and it is a very good scope. As Rick has mentioned Kowa 663 scope has florite glass but only the series 88 scopes use pure fluorite glass.
Greg
 
Thanks

Thanks Rick & Greg,

Useful information - I'd love to be able to afford the true fluorite 880 but the 660 still sounds excellent.

I presume the 660, with the 66mm objective lens will be better for digiscoping too?

Cheers,
Marcus
 
I think 6mm will make a surprising amount of difference in terms of light gathering for your digiscoping and the 660 series are slightly heavier as you say. I believe (for god's sakes don't quote me) the 600 series are the newer scopes but I'm unsure what advantages that'd confer, maybe the glass in them is identical given the prices but I don't know for sure.

I can only say for certain try 'em both (I'm assuming you want to stick with the straight ones) before you buy and especially use your camera on both to check things like sharpness and CA.
Alternatively have you thought about looking for any second-hand 823/4's? They might be in the same ballpark in terms of price. Other than that I can't offer any other thoughts.
Adam
 
greg g said:
I have used the 663 scope and it is a very good scope. As Rick has mentioned Kowa 663 scope has florite glass but only the series 88 scopes use pure fluorite glass.
Greg
Click to expand...
_____________

The above sounds contradictory or confusing.

Actually I have the TSN 664 (straight eyepiece) and am very hapy with it. The price is a fraction of the TSN 88 series (for obvious reasons), but nevertheless it is an excellent scope, ligtweight and compact.

The larger the objective lens size the more light is captured, but I don't know how much difference there is between the 66 and the 60 series.
 
One thing I discovered about the Kowas: the 880 series is Kowa's flagship scope and is the only scope in the Kowa line that uses fluorite glass. Other Kowas use less expensive ED glass.
 
I couldn't be happier with my 664. I prefered it to my 824 before I sold it and it is without a doubt the better scope when compared to my friends larger Ziess Diascope (which shows an obvious yellow tint). It is amongst the best I have used. I am of the opinion that when you get to this level of optical performance the differences are so marginal that it often comes down to the individual scope and choice of eyepiece more than the actual brand/model. After cherry-picking a sharp one one would probably be farther ahead by comparing ergonomics, size and price rather than superficial differences in optical performance...but thats just me and I can't tell the diff between the top ones optically.

Russ
 
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greg g said:
I have used the 663 scope and it is a very good scope. As Rick has mentioned Kowa 663 scope has florite glass but only the series 88 scopes use pure fluorite glass.
Greg
Click to expand...

______________

Only the flagship 880 series have pure fluorite glass. The 660 series have ED glass, not fluorite glass.
 
I thought

the 773 had Flourite. Where I shop its 600.00 more than the 663 ED.
So it makes sense to me that for 600.00 you get more than a 10mm increase in size?

Ihave an old non ed 661 and want to upgrade to ed/flourite whatever :) thought maybe I'd go a little bigger maybe, not sure. I am not a digiscoper and 80 is too big for me.
 
No, the 77x series uses same XD glass as 66x series. Still has the very nice dual speed focuser, lightweight magnesium alloy body (vs CF reinforced polycarbonate for 66x) and 5m close focus (vs 6m for the 66x series). And of course you can also use the excellent TE-10Z 20x-60x zoom that is not only waterproof but also FOGPROOF (filled with Nitrogen Gas) unlike the 66x series eyepieces.

Download an English catalog here, http://kowa-prominar.com/index.htm. You may be suprised to see there is not much size difference between the 66x and 77x, with 88x being only about 1" larger.

cheers,
Rick
 
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