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Scope eyepieces (1 Viewer)

leopard

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I was looking at buying a top-end scope, probably the Swar ATS80HD, when I had the opportunity of looking through the 20xw eyepiece of the Leica Apo-Televid 77. What struck me, in comparison with most other scopes, was the lens width of the eyepiece which was very large and made viewing very easy.

Taking this a stage further to digiscoping, is this an advantage that the Leica has over other scopes? I noticed in the March Bird Watching mag. that one of the test panel reviewers of the survey of scopes was Steve Dudley who specifically mentions that he uses the 20x eyepiece on his Leica Apo-Televid 77 for digiscoping?

Is this worth knowing - or is it a relatively useless piece of info!

thanks
 
leopard said:
that one of the test panel reviewers of the survey of scopes was Steve Dudley who specifically mentions that he uses the 20x eyepiece on his Leica Apo-Televid 77 for digiscoping?

Is this worth knowing - or is it a relatively useless piece of info!

thanks

well he helped design it I believe, so I'm not sure just how independent that fact is.
 
That review has been pretty much pulled apart and I would disregard it and await a second attempt by the magazine. It won't be long coming, I'm sure.

All 20 / 30x fixed objectives are wide angle and have large lenses, not just the Leica, so all would impress you from that perspective. I would say the advantage of a 20/30x in digiscoping is not their extra-wide fov (you will have to zoom in anyway to get rid of vignetting / dark edges so will lose the width of the fov) - but their brightenss and low magnification.

The Leica is a bit of a bargain at present if you don't mind a heavier, longish scope - it's true that you won't find a better digiscoping optic on the market. But Nikon, Zeiss and Nikon are all also A1 for your purpose and each have their own individual advantages - the Zeiss has an amazingly wide angle zoom (really - you should see it to believe it. Just look through the Swaro, Leica or Nikon first and then the Zeiss - be prepared for a very pleasant surprise), the Nikon has an incredibly bright and clear 30x and is very compact...
 
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I use a 30x eyepiece on a Swarovski ATS80HD and find it a superb eyepiece for digiscoping,i think the 20x would be a little bit lacking in power,go for the 30 its perfect for digiscoping.
 
My kit is a Leica apo 77 with zoom eyepiece, chosen because the eyepiece suited my eyesight (wear spectacles), as does a 20ww.
Camera is a Nikon 5000, not best suited for digiscoping it needs to be at, or near to, maximum zoom to stop vigneting with zoom eyepice
With a 20ww eyepiece I can use more of the cameras zoom, which is useful for framing when the bird is nearer.
 
leopard said:
I was looking at buying a top-end scope, probably the Swar ATS80HD, when I had the opportunity of looking through the 20xw eyepiece of the Leica Apo-Televid 77. What struck me, in comparison with most other scopes, was the lens width of the eyepiece which was very large and made viewing very easy.

Taking this a stage further to digiscoping, is this an advantage that the Leica has over other scopes? I noticed in the March Bird Watching mag. that one of the test panel reviewers of the survey of scopes was Steve Dudley who specifically mentions that he uses the 20x eyepiece on his Leica Apo-Televid 77 for digiscoping?

Is this worth knowing - or is it a relatively useless piece of info!

thanks

That is a very important piece of info - it could easily be the deciding factor. Sometimes even "biased" reviewers may be right ;) . When you start digiscoping, you may soon notice that you often have too much magnification (or actually a very narrow field of view). For this problem the only solution is a low-power, wide-angle eyepiece, that has enough eye relief (preferably >17mm). I think Leica 20xWA is a very versatile eyepiece for digiscoping, which eg. Zeiss doesn't have (yet), and Swarovski 20x does not have as much eye-relief. 30/32xWA's are great for "normal" birding, but actually they do not give any more field-of-view for digiscoping than 20x of the zoom.

Ilkka
 
Iikka a 30x eyepiece may not give any more field of view but it does give a larger image and if youve only got one eyepiece then IMHO 30x is better than 20x for both birdwatching and digiscoping.
 
I had a 20x for years on my Kowa TS601 and was very satisfied until I looked through your 30x, Graham. My youngest son has that now!
 
scampo said:
All 20 / 30x fixed objectives are wide angle and have large lenses, not just the Leica, so all would impress you from that perspective. I would say the advantage of a 20/30x in digiscoping is not their extra-wide fov (you will have to zoom in anyway to get rid of vignetting / dark edges so will lose the width of the fov) - but their brightenss and low magnification.

If you have sufficient eye relief and an adapter that lets you use it well, you should not have to zoom out to eliminate vignetting. With sufficient eye relief from the eyepiece, your camera's FOV can be as wide as your eyepiece's AFOV. The 30xSW has around a 66 degree AFOV and 20mm of eye relief. At is widest zoom, a CP4500 camera lens has a 58 degree FOV. So the wide angle of the 30xSW should let you use the CP4500 through its entire camera zoom range, yielding an 1100-4500mm equivalence (assuming an adapter that gives close spacing). This is quite a versatile range.

A high quality wide angle eyepiece can be a significant advantage in providing the flexibility to use relatively low magnification. Something that usually leads to better images.

So while a wide AFOV from an eyepiece is certainly not necessary, it can definitely be an advantage if it has sufficient eye relief (20mm on the CP99x/4500/5000 line). I've use the Swarovsk 20xSW and its 3mm less eye relief negates the advantage of its wide AFOV when digiscoping.
 
Ragna said:
Iikka a 30x eyepiece may not give any more field of view but it does give a larger image and if youve only got one eyepiece then IMHO 30x is better than 20x for both birdwatching and digiscoping.

I couldn't agree more! 30x is a great general purpose eyepiece (the best IMHO, but zoom lovers may disagree). A fixed 20x is a little limited for birdwatching, but in digiscoping you always can compensate the low power (to some extent) with camera zoom or by cropping the image.

Ilkka
 
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