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Spend £800 on a spotting scope incl. eyepiece - suggestions please? (1 Viewer)

J

JoachimB

Member
Hi!
I'm about to purchase my first spotting scope and I find myself in a bit of a dilemma.
I've browsed several interesting models on various websites, for example warehouseexpress.com, which seem to have resonable prices and good customer support.
My dilemma is - go big or go ED/APO/HD?

The main usage will be trekking in the mountains - hence weight should be considered in the buy, therefore a smaller piece would suit me fine.
However, living in the middle parts of Sweden, where light can be quite dim, perhaps I should consider a lens with larger front?

How much, considering dim light or low light conditions, is gained by using an ED lens vs. regular ones?

I've set my eyes on a few different Kowa scopes, the smaller TSN-601, which is set low in price, however, doesn't have the ED-lens treatment, the TSN-603ED, which is ED-coated, and the larger ones, TSN-661 and TSN-663ED.

With a standard eyepiece, x27, which I think will be suitable for most types of occasions, these will cost:

£443 TSN-601
£569 TSN-661
£693 TSN-603ED
£773 TSN-663ED

EDIT:
£539 TSN-821M (This scope is set quite low in price, even lower than the regular 661 - what are your views on this one)


This will be my first scope, I'm not into digiscoping, and the price range between cheapest-most expensive is quite large, what would be your "best buy"? Is there a significant difference in light advantage between 60mm and 66mm, and how much will the ED-coating affect light - does this only influence sharpness and colours, not light?

Regards, Joachim Sweden
 
Last edited:
If you are interested in a light scope with excellent optics you cannot do better than a Leica apo-televid 62. The lens' are apo ie they have special coatings to reduce colour fringing and ensure the best optical performance. If you are interested them pm me. I was just about to post it under "For Sale" when I came across your post.
 
Opticron is running a promotion on its GS 665 GA ED models where you get a free lightweight carbon fibre tripod when buying the scope plus an HDF or SDL eyepiece.

A 25x HDF eyepiece and the body would be priced at £648 (with tax, without shipping) and the free tripod is priced at £178.

http://www.opticron.co.uk/Pages/promotions.htm

The downside is that its heavier than the Kowa models you mention at 1kg vs 0.7kg.

Specs are here:

http://www.opticron.co.uk/Pages/gs_scope.htm
Warehouse Express offers the body at £20 below retail.
 
ED50 with Zoom ! Mulepac ! Very light for the mountains, you wont even know you have it on your back...:smoke:
All for about £600 !
And you will have change !:t:

Or what the above say ! Leica APO 62 ! very nice scope ! but you wont have any change !:eek!:
 
Last edited:
JoachimB said:
Hi!
I'm about to purchase my first spotting scope and I find myself in a bit of a dilemma.
I've browsed several interesting models on various websites, for example warehouseexpress.com, which seem to have resonable prices and good customer support.
My dilemma is - go big or go ED/APO/HD?

The main usage will be trekking in the mountains - hence weight should be considered in the buy, therefore a smaller piece would suit me fine.
However, living in the middle parts of Sweden, where light can be quite dim, perhaps I should consider a lens with larger front?

How much, considering dim light or low light conditions, is gained by using an ED lens vs. regular ones?

I've set my eyes on a few different Kowa scopes, the smaller TSN-601, which is set low in price, however, doesn't have the ED-lens treatment, the TSN-603ED, which is ED-coated, and the larger ones, TSN-661 and TSN-663ED.

With a standard eyepiece, x27, which I think will be suitable for most types of occasions, these will cost:

£443 TSN-601
£569 TSN-661
£693 TSN-603ED
£773 TSN-663ED

EDIT:
£539 TSN-821M (This scope is set quite low in price, even lower than the regular 661 - what are your views on this one)


This will be my first scope, I'm not into digiscoping, and the price range between cheapest-most expensive is quite large, what would be your "best buy"? Is there a significant difference in light advantage between 60mm and 66mm, and how much will the ED-coating affect light - does this only influence sharpness and colours, not light?

Regards, Joachim Sweden
Click to expand...

As you will have gathered many people have strong opinions on scopes. Personally I think there is very little to choose between the 'top' scopes and would never consider a scope with bigger than a 65mm objective because however good it was it'd stay in the boot of my car. I love my 15 - 45x 65mm Zeiss diascope for its huge field of view, in my opinion more important than negligable and often spurious differences in quality but combined with an appropriate tripod even a 65mm scope can be a pain. So if you are using it to hike with I'd recommend my other scope the Nikon 50mm ED - as recommended above- which is just amazing for it's size, and combine it with a lightweight tripod. I have a 20x eyepeice but if I had to choose again would go for the 27X, although if low light is often a problem when you are then the 20x may be better.
 
Hello fellow swede! I had your dilemma a year ago, was considering if I should buy a medium price scope or one from the big five and what size to chose. I really recommend the 65 mm, I sometimes compare with the guys who got 80 and 85 and it´s not many times the extra lens size gives noticeably brighter image. I also had to chose between HD or non HD. BUt since i opted for 65 mm instead of 80-85 the HD was not much more expensive then then regular 80 mm. I bought a second hand, but in mint condition, ats 65 hd swarovski with 20-60mm zoom eyepiece. I am SO happy I went with a premium scope with HD glass, I cant count the times I have been next to lake, lots of reflections but still a really nice crisp and nice image in my tube. With lower glass quality it´s not that fun experience in those conditions. I payed 10.500 swedish kronor for it from cleyspy. Feel free to pm if you got questions.
Good luck!
 
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