Zeiss Diascope vs Razor Gen 2 (1 Viewer)

Hello to all. I've been lurking for a while. Sorry my first post isn't friendly, but needy. Ha.

A fellow close to me has a Zeiss Diascope 65T FL for sale. Its a grey tube, not the black that I see on the current model. Don't know if that means its older or what, but I suspect so.

He has it listed for the same price for which I can get a Gen2 Razor 85mm spotter.

I've had my hands on the Razor, although not outdoors (yet), and its fantastic. But I have virtually no frame of reference to alpha glass, save for a Swaro I looked through last year.

Never looked through a Zeiss.

Two main questions: is a light grey Zeiss tube an indication of an older model and, if so, does that mean last year's/last decade's coatings? Meaning the modern equiv would be superior? I'm asking because I had a 1980s era Swaro telescoping straight tube scope that had fantastic image clarity and utterly atrocious CA.

Second question: how would a 65mm Zeiss of the light grey tube era variety compare to a Gen 2 Razor of the 85mm variety? I would be using the scope for birding, hunting, terrestrial viewing, and astronomy. I would eventually do a non-variable eyepiece for either. Low light performance is important, although not critically so. My state does not allow the taking of game +/- 30 mins before/after legal sunrise/set.

Thanks to all.

I can answer a couple of your questions. The gray Zeiss Diascope is an old model. It was made by Meopta and like many older Meopta products it has coatings that give its image a yellow color bias. In my experience there was a fairly high percentage of lemons, so any Diascope unit should be checked out very carefully. Really, there is so much sample variation in all scopes that I would give the same advice for the Vortex Razor or any other scope.

The list price of the original 65mm Diascope with the 20-60x zoom was only about $1600 (about the same as a new 85mm Vortex?), so a used one should cost much less than that.

A quality 85mm view is always superior to a quality 65mm view. The only virtue of the 65mm is it’s ease of use. Is the convenience of 65mm worth the compromise in view? Only you can know how much difference the size will make to you. A good 85 is inherently better than a good 65 but the best scope of all is the scope you’re actually carrying - not the one you left in the closet.
Best,
Jerry