Boris Flaccus
Active member
Hot off the press:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdGaMxxsejU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdGaMxxsejU
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MM4 77mm (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Boris Flaccus
- Start date
pete_gamby
Birds? What Birds?!
Specifications and images now available on our website:
https://www.opticron.co.uk/our-products/fieldscopes/mm4-fieldscopes
Stock should be with UK dealers late next week or early the following week. The following stockists have pre-ordered stock and will be the first in the UK to receive delivery:
Bass & Bligh, Harrogate
Cley Spy, Glandford
Focalpoint Optics, Northwich
In Focus - all shops (London Colney, WWT London, WWT Slimbridge, WWT Martin Mere, Rutland, Titchwell, Denby Dale)
Lamberts Ltd, Stavely
London Camera Exchange, Winchester
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Potteric Carr NR
Stock is shipping to our US headquarters this week so should be with dealers in the next two weeks.
In Sweden, the following dealers will receive stock next week:
Naturbokhandeln, Öland
Gunnar Olsson Foto, Stockholm
Mattssons Foto & Video, Lund
In Finland our distributor Foto Fennica will also get stock next week.
In Switzerland, Optique Perret in Geneva (opticron.ch) should have stock next week.
Naturemonitoring in Bulgaria will also have stock soon - http://opticron.bg
In The Netherlands, Vogelinformatiecentrum in Texel and Foto Sipkes in Groningen should have stock this week.
Happy shopping!
Cheers, Pete
https://www.opticron.co.uk/our-products/fieldscopes/mm4-fieldscopes
Stock should be with UK dealers late next week or early the following week. The following stockists have pre-ordered stock and will be the first in the UK to receive delivery:
Bass & Bligh, Harrogate
Cley Spy, Glandford
Focalpoint Optics, Northwich
In Focus - all shops (London Colney, WWT London, WWT Slimbridge, WWT Martin Mere, Rutland, Titchwell, Denby Dale)
Lamberts Ltd, Stavely
London Camera Exchange, Winchester
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Potteric Carr NR
Stock is shipping to our US headquarters this week so should be with dealers in the next two weeks.
In Sweden, the following dealers will receive stock next week:
Naturbokhandeln, Öland
Gunnar Olsson Foto, Stockholm
Mattssons Foto & Video, Lund
In Finland our distributor Foto Fennica will also get stock next week.
In Switzerland, Optique Perret in Geneva (opticron.ch) should have stock next week.
Naturemonitoring in Bulgaria will also have stock soon - http://opticron.bg
In The Netherlands, Vogelinformatiecentrum in Texel and Foto Sipkes in Groningen should have stock this week.
Happy shopping!
Cheers, Pete
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Seems like a very interesting scope. Specs are very similar to the Kowa 773 but it's almost £1000 cheaper. Would be interesting to know how they compare.
pete_gamby
Birds? What Birds?!
The 2x UTA (https://www.opticron.co.uk/our-products/accessories/universal-tele-adapter) will work with the SDL zoom eyepiece which is what we expect will be the typical option bundled with this scope.
As you can see from the link, there are various adaptors for the UTA which may be compatible with older eyepieces (although folding eyecups would need to be removed).
The MM4 will be compatible with most (all?) of our eyepieces with a metric thread.
Unfortunately, in order to maintain that compatibility, we have to keep the internal thread on the scope body which only has a diameter of 29.5mm so not large enough for 31.7mm astro eyepieces. I know one can remove the nosepiece on some astro eyepieces so I suppose an adaptor could be made for those but how many variations of the eyepiece body thread there are, I have no idea!
HTH
Cheers, Pete
As you can see from the link, there are various adaptors for the UTA which may be compatible with older eyepieces (although folding eyecups would need to be removed).
The MM4 will be compatible with most (all?) of our eyepieces with a metric thread.
Unfortunately, in order to maintain that compatibility, we have to keep the internal thread on the scope body which only has a diameter of 29.5mm so not large enough for 31.7mm astro eyepieces. I know one can remove the nosepiece on some astro eyepieces so I suppose an adaptor could be made for those but how many variations of the eyepiece body thread there are, I have no idea!
HTH
Cheers, Pete
It should work with older 24.5mm, 0.965 inch eyepieces.
Some of these were very good, but some Swift 4mm orthos and Japanese 6mm orthos may have thorium glass.
The eyepieces that came with my Pentax 100mm f/12 were very highly regarded and 24.5mm fit.
The Zeiss Jena and possibly some West German Zeiss eyepieces may be good. Possibly 24.5mm fit?
Also some old Russian eyepieces?
I can't remember the size of the Questar eyepieces. They are good.
It should also work with the English, Essex, E59 15.5mm eyepiece, but Opticron similar eyepieces are probably better. At least better coatings.
I would probably use older Opticron eyepieces around 5mm focal length?
Some of these were very good, but some Swift 4mm orthos and Japanese 6mm orthos may have thorium glass.
The eyepieces that came with my Pentax 100mm f/12 were very highly regarded and 24.5mm fit.
The Zeiss Jena and possibly some West German Zeiss eyepieces may be good. Possibly 24.5mm fit?
Also some old Russian eyepieces?
I can't remember the size of the Questar eyepieces. They are good.
It should also work with the English, Essex, E59 15.5mm eyepiece, but Opticron similar eyepieces are probably better. At least better coatings.
I would probably use older Opticron eyepieces around 5mm focal length?
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Rob Laughton
Bird, bird, bird...
Chris Galvin
Well-known member
Focus Optics of Corley near Coventry will also have stock next week
FrankD
Well-known member
I did tinker with it a bit on Saturday but haven't formed any conclusions at this point....at least in terms of optics. I will say that it is notably shorter than my 82 mm scope and certainly feels lighter. Despite the lighter feel it still feels very solid considering its compact size. Will post more as time permits.
I did start phonescoping with it the other day at the lake. Just to give a taste of optical quality...pic below. This was taken with the 28x wide angle eyepiece attached. I had to downsize it to fit into the forum requirements. The original can be found on my flickr account here:
https://flic.kr/p/TjXmRS
Keep in mind I didn't adjust the picture at all...either during the shot or afterwards so the exposure is a little overblown. Plus, the purpose of the pic wasn't specifically for picture quality but rather as a doc pic of the gulls.
I did start phonescoping with it the other day at the lake. Just to give a taste of optical quality...pic below. This was taken with the 28x wide angle eyepiece attached. I had to downsize it to fit into the forum requirements. The original can be found on my flickr account here:
https://flic.kr/p/TjXmRS
Keep in mind I didn't adjust the picture at all...either during the shot or afterwards so the exposure is a little overblown. Plus, the purpose of the pic wasn't specifically for picture quality but rather as a doc pic of the gulls.
Attachments
Interested in hearing your review, I've been watching (lurking) for details since I noticed this body coming out (have a few opticron bodies and eyepieces).
Do you have any experience behind the older Lieca Televide APO 77? Curious how this might stack up as that design ages, obviously brand new offerings are a different price class.
Do you have any experience behind the older Lieca Televide APO 77? Curious how this might stack up as that design ages, obviously brand new offerings are a different price class.
Chris Galvin
Well-known member
YOur nearest stockist is Attenborough Nature Reserve which has it in stock
FrankD
Well-known member
I had a great deal more time to play with it yesterday at the Cape May Bird Observatory’s optics sale and did compare it side by side with the Zeiss Conquest, for example. I am hoping to do some phone oping pic comparisons today as well.
Here is a link to a video I took with it on my YouTube channel yesterday.
https://youtu.be/Bg7eBQmzkWQ
Here is a link to a video I took with it on my YouTube channel yesterday.
https://youtu.be/Bg7eBQmzkWQ
FrankD
Well-known member
As promised, here are some pics from the three scopes mentioned previously. I used the magnification settings on the eyepieces of each scope so my apologies if the image magnifications are not exact. I also used the 28x wide angle eyepiece with the Opticron as that is what I typically use for phonescoping...plus I think it gives better overall image quality in comparison to the zoom choices.
